25 Facts About Maureen Duffy

Maureen Patricia Duffy was born on 21 October 1933 and is an English poet, playwright, novelist and non-fiction author.

Maureen Duffy has received the Benson Medal for her lifelong writings.

Maureen Patricia Duffy was born on 21 October 1933 in Worthing, Sussex.

Maureen Duffy then moved to Stratford in East London, where she had family living.

Maureen Duffy gained a degree in English at King's College London in 1956, then taught in Naples till 1958 and in secondary schools in the London area till 1961.

Maureen Duffy won her first such prize at the age of 17 with a poem printed in Adam magazine, soon followed by publication in The Listener and elsewhere.

Maureen Duffy later edited a poetry magazine called the sixties.

In 1968, Maureen Duffy was one of five women novelists commissioned by Joan Plowright to write a play for the National Theatre with an all-female cast.

Maureen Duffy's Rites was selected for a second run at the Old Vic, then the home of the National Theatre, and has often been performed since.

In 1971, Maureen Duffy was commissioned to write the second episode of the ITV series Upstairs Downstairs.

Maureen Duffy has edited Behn's plays and her novel Love Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister, and written introductions to other works of hers.

Maureen Duffy's work is often framed by Freudian ideas and Greek mythology.

Maureen Duffy's writing is distinctive for using contrasting voices or streams of consciousness, often including the perspectives of outsiders.

Maureen Duffy's novels have been linked to a European literary tradition of exploring reality through the use of language and questioning, rather than traditional linear narrative.

Maureen Duffy's early plays often depict working-class life with humour and evocative language.

Maureen Duffy joined the Royal Court writers' group at a time when the social realist school of such playwrights as John Osborne and Arnold Wesker was transforming British drama.

Maureen Duffy "came out publicly in her work in the early 1960s" and made public comments before male homosexual acts were decriminalised in 1967.

Maureen Duffy has been a patron of the British Humanist Association since GALHA became part of it in 2012.

Maureen Duffy is often invited by LGBT groups to read her work.

Maureen Duffy was included on the Independent on Sunday' Pink List in 2005.

Maureen Duffy became Vice President of Beauty Without Cruelty in 1975.

Maureen Duffy joined a delegation to meet Prime Minister James Callaghan in 1977.

Maureen Duffy remains an authority on copyright, intellectual property law and secondary author rights.

Maureen Duffy held senior positions for many years in the Writers Guild of Great Britain, the British Copyright Council, the European Writers' Congress and the Royal Society of Literature.

Maureen Duffy represents the International Authors Forum at the World Intellectual Property Organization.