Auto Da Fay

Description

From the 1930s to the 1990s, Fay Weldon has seen and lived our times. As a child in New Zealand, as young and poor in London, as unmarried mother, as wife, lover, playwright, novelist, feminist, anti-feminist, spag-bol-cook, winer-and-diner, there are few waterfronts that she hasn't covered, few battles she hasn't fought. An icon to many, a thorn-in-the-flesh to others, she has never failed to excite, madden, or interest. Her life and times cover love, sex, babies, blokes, poverty, work, politics, and Very Famous Names. Moving from New Zealand to London to Scotland, from the UK to points east and west, Weldon has sipped, gulped, and sometimes spat out the things that make us what we are today. This is her autobiography.

Fay Weldon was born in England and raised in New Zealand. She took degrees in Economics at the University of St Andrews in Scotland and after a decade of odd jobs and hard times began writing fiction. She is now well known as novelist, screenwriter and cultural journalist.

'Wonderfully fluent and entertaining...studded with her trademark gems of crisp observations...you can't put this terrific book down. You can always trust Fay to be provocative - and this time she excels herself.' Daily Mail 'Engrossing and entertaining. This is the sort of book stuffed full of things that you hope are made up but fear are true.' Observer 'One of the most prolific, entertaining and provocative of contemporary women writers has sought to make retrospective sense of the muddle and unexpectedness of life. Like her novels, the surface sparkles along merrily enough but there are darker currents beneath.' Sunday Telegraph 'It is an astonishing story lightly and deftly told. It will delight Weldon's many fans. Gripping.' Daily Telegraph 'The rich, fruity haphazardness of her experience will startle and amaze...as they say, you couldn't make it up.' Sunday Times 'Hilarious...entertaining...compelling...AUTO DA FAY is just like its author: big, blousy and sometimes hard to believe. In the end, though, they both demand our respect.' Independent on Sunday 'Fay Weldon's voice is as unmistakeable as her acerbic wit.' Financial Times 'Fay Weldon writes as if she were Virginia Woolf and Roseanne Arnold joined at the hip. She is literary, well-read, totally in control, sharp as a needle and off the wall...' Mirabella 'Weldon, like Dickens, can have her readers perched on the edge of their chairs with excitement by the end of the first page and hold them there in a state of riveted curiosity until the last words.' The Standard 'Weldon is a gifted tease of a writer.' Sunday Times 'Prolific and provocative, Fay Weldon shines brightest in the league table of British women novelists.' Time Out