Simon Gray was born in 1936. He began his writing career with
Colmain (1963), the first of five novels, all published by Faber. He is the author of many plays for TV and radio, also films, including the 1987 adaptation of J L Carr's
A Month in the Country, and TV films including
Running Late,
After Pilkington (winner of the Prix Italia) and Emmy Award-winning
Unnatural Pursuits. He wrote more than thirty stage plays amongst them
Butley and
Otherwise Engaged (which both received
Evening Standard Awards for Best Play),
Close of
Play,
The Rear Column,
Quartermaine's Terms,
The Common Pursuit,
Hidden Laughter,
The Late Middle Classes (winner of the Barclay's Best Play Award),
Japes,
The Old Masters (his ninth play to be directed by Harold Pinter) and
Little Nell, which premiered at the Theatre Royal Bath in 2007, directed by Peter Hall.
Little Nell was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2006, and
Missing Dates in 2008. In 1991 he was made BAFTA Writer of the Year. His acclaimed works of non-fiction are:
An Unnatural Pursuit, How's That for Telling 'Em, Fat Lady?, Fat Chance, Enter a Fox,
The Smoking Diaries,
The Year of the Jouncer, The Last Cigarette and
Coda. He was appointed CBE in the 2005 New Year's Honours for his services to Drama and Literature. Simon Gray died in August 2008.
