12 Facts About Penelope Mortimer

Penelope Ruth Mortimer was a Welsh-born English journalist, biographer, and novelist.

Penelope Mortimer's father had lost his faith and used the parish magazine to celebrate Soviet persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Penelope Mortimer was educated at Croydon High School, the New School, Streatham, Blencathra, Rhyl Garden School, Lane End, St Elphin's School for Daughters of the Clergy, and the Central Educational Bureau for Women.

Penelope Mortimer had two daughters through extra-marital relationships with Kenneth Harrison and Randall Swingler.

Penelope Mortimer met the barrister and writer John Mortimer while pregnant with the last child and married him on 27 August 1949, the day that her divorce from Dimont became absolute.

Penelope Mortimer is said to have been happy with the decision, but during her convalescence, she discovered her husband's affair with Wendy Craig, with whom he had a son.

Penelope Mortimer wrote more than a dozen novels during her career, most of them focusing on upper middle-class life in British society.

Penelope Mortimer wrote one novel, Johanna, under the name Penelope Dimont.

Penelope Mortimer's stories appeared regularly in The New Yorker and The Sunday Times.

Penelope Mortimer served as an agony aunt for the Daily Mail under the pseudonym Ann Temple.

Penelope Mortimer had approached her subject as somebody in the public eye, whose career might as well be recorded as if she were a normal human being.

Penelope Mortimer died of cancer in Kensington, London, at the age of 81.