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Meera Syal

{{short description|British writer and actress}}

{{Use British English|date=October 2016}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Meera Syal

| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CBE|FRSL}}

| image = Meera Syal 2017.png

| caption = Syal at the 7th Asian Awards in 2017

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1961|6|27|df=y}}

| birth_name = Feroza Syal

| birth_place = Wolverhampton, England

| education = Queen Mary's High School

| alma_mater = University of Manchester

| occupation = Comedian, writer, playwright, singer, journalist, actress

| years_active = 1983–present

| spouse = {{Ubl

| {{marriage|Shekhar Bhatia|1989|2002|end=divorced}}

| {{marriage|Sanjeev Bhaskar|21 January 2005}}

}}

| children = 2

| module = {{Listen| embed=yes |filename = Meera syal bbc radio4 front row 30 04 2013.flac |title = Meera Syal's voice |type = speech |description = from the BBC programme Front Row, 30 April 2013.{{Cite episode |title=Meera Syal |series=Front Row |series-link=Front Row (radio programme) |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01s4g7s |access-date=18 January 2014 |station=BBC Radio 4 |date=30 April 2013 |archive-date=19 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191019103230/https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01s4g7s |url-status=live }} }}

}}

Meera Syal {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CBE}} FRSL (born Feroza Syal; 27 June 1961) is an English comedian, writer, playwright, singer, journalist and actress. She rose to prominence as one of the team that created Goodness Gracious Me and by portraying Sanjeev's grandmother, Ummi, in The Kumars at No. 42. She has become one of the UK's best-known Asian personalities.

She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1997 New Year Honours and in 2003 was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy.{{cite web |url=http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/Honorary-Degrees/2008/Meera-Syal-MBE/ |title=University of Roehampton – Honorary Degrees |publisher=Roehampton.ac.uk |access-date=23 August 2013 |archive-date=28 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130628051838/http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/Honorary-Degrees/2008/Meera-Syal-MBE/ |url-status=dead }}{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2003/dec/07/comedy.thebestofbritishcomedy |title=The 50 funniest people in Britain (part two) | Stage | The Observer |publisher=Theguardian.com |date=7 December 2003 |access-date=23 August 2013 |newspaper=The Guardian |archive-date=2 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190502113323/https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2003/dec/07/comedy.thebestofbritishcomedy |url-status=live }} She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to drama and literature.{{London Gazette|issue=61092 |supp=y|page=N10|date=31 December 2014}}[https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/391413/New_Year_Honours_List_2015.pdf 2015 New Year Honours List] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150102104907/https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/391413/New_Year_Honours_List_2015.pdf |date=2 January 2015 }}

In 2023, she was awarded the BAFTA Fellowship.

Early life

Syal was born on 27 June 1961 in Wolverhampton and grew up in Essington, Staffordshire, a mining village a few miles to the north. Her Indian Punjabi parents, Surinder Syal (father) and Surinder Kaur (mother), came to the United Kingdom from New Delhi.[https://www.bbc.co.uk/whodoyouthinkyouare/past-stories/meera-syal.shtml Meera Syal] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200203090612/http://www.bbc.co.uk/whodoyouthinkyouare/past-stories/meera-syal.shtml |date=3 February 2020 }}, Who Do You Think You Are?, BBC When she was young, the family moved to Bloxwich, north of Walsall.

This landscape, and the family's status as the only Asian family in the small Midlands mining village of Essington, were later to form the backdrop to her novel (later filmed) Anita and Me, which Syal described in a 2003 BBC interview as semi-autobiographical.{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2002/10/23/meera_syal_anita_and_me_interview.shtml |title=Films – interview – Meera Syal |publisher=BBC |access-date=23 August 2013 |archive-date=25 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925051052/http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2002/10/23/meera_syal_anita_and_me_interview.shtml |url-status=live }} She attended Queen Mary's High School in nearby Walsall and then studied English and Drama at Manchester University, graduating with a Double First.{{cite news |author=Roz Laws |url=http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/walsall-comedian-meera-syal-opens-222642 |title=Walsall comedian Meera Syal opens up her teenage diaries |newspaper=Birmingham Mail |date=10 January 2011 |access-date=23 August 2013 |archive-date=17 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131217225711/http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/walsall-comedian-meera-syal-opens-222642 |url-status=live }}{{cite news |author=Jonathan Owen |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/meera-syal-i-didnt-want-to-reach-50-and-be-full-of-regrets-7717628.html |title=Meera Syal: 'I didn't want to reach 50 and be full of regrets' – Profiles – People |newspaper=The Independent |date=6 May 2012 |access-date=23 August 2013 |archive-date=9 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140109215441/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/meera-syal-i-didnt-want-to-reach-50-and-be-full-of-regrets-7717628.html |url-status=live }}

Acting and writing career

In 2023, she was awarded the BAFTA Fellowship, its highest accolade, for her career on screen. During her studies in Manchester, Syal joined the Stephen Joseph Studio, acting and later writing stage plays. On graduation, she had secured a place to study for an MA in drama and psychotherapy at the University of Leeds, and then to study for a PGCE to teach. However, she had also co-written the one-woman play One of Us with Jackie Shapiro, in which Syal performed all fifteen parts, about a West Midlands-born ethnic Indian girl who ran away from home to become an actress. First performed at the Stephen Joseph Studio, she then performed it at the National Student Drama Festival where it won a prize to perform at the Edinburgh International Festival, where it also won a prize. As a result, a director from the Royal Court Theatre contacted Syal, and asked her to perform in a play at the Royal Court on a three-year contract.Interview with Meera Syal, The Two Shot Podcast, 28 May 2018

Syal wrote the screenplay for the 1993 film Bhaji on the Beach, directed by Gurinder Chadha, of Bend It Like Beckham fame. In 1996 she played Miss Chauhan, a high school football coach in the film Beautiful Thing. She was on the team that wrote and performed in the BBC comedy sketch show Goodness Gracious Me (1996–2001), originally on radio and then on television. She was a scriptwriter on A.R. Rahman and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Bombay Dreams{{cite magazine |last=Inverne |first=James |url=http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2056088,00.html |title=Welcome to Bollywood |magazine=TIME |date=17 June 2002 |access-date=23 August 2013 |archive-date=24 August 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130824141334/http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2056088,00.html |url-status=dead }} and she played the grandmother Sushila in the International Emmy-award-winning series The Kumars at No. 42, which ran for seven series,{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00x95hr |title=BBC Radio 4 My Teenage Diary, 11 January 2011 |publisher=Bbc.co.uk |date=29 April 2012 |access-date=23 August 2013 |archive-date=12 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120712112706/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00x95hr |url-status=live }} reviving the character in 2021 for BBC Radio 4's Gossip and Goddesses with Granny Kumar.

In October 2008, she starred in the BBC Two sitcom Beautiful People. This role, as Aunty Hayley, continued in 2009.{{cite web |last=Rushton |first=Katherine |url=http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/new-bbc-sitcom-for-meera-syal/1324505.article |title=New BBC sitcom for Meera Syal | News | Broadcast |publisher=Broadcastnow.co.uk |date=6 May 2008 |access-date=23 August 2013 |archive-date=30 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131230235035/http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/new-bbc-sitcom-for-meera-syal/1324505.article |url-status=live }} Syal starred in the eleventh series of Holby City as consultant Tara Sodi.{{cite web |url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/meera-syal-to-join-holby-city-382141 |title=Meera Syal to join Holby City as a moody doc – 3am & Mirror Online |publisher=Mirror.co.uk |date=13 March 2009 |access-date=23 August 2013 |archive-date=9 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140509120408/http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/meera-syal-to-join-holby-city-382141 |url-status=live }} In 2009, she guest starred in Minder and starred in the film Mad, Sad & Bad.{{cite web |author=jno |url=http://www.minder.org/episodeguide/episodeguide_S11_index.htm |title=Series 11 |publisher=Minder.org |access-date=23 August 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131230234509/http://www.minder.org/episodeguide/episodeguide_S11_index.htm |archive-date=30 December 2013 }}{{cite news |author=Philip French |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/aug/02/mad-sad-and-bad-review |title=Mad, Sad & Bad | Film review |work=The Observer |publisher=theguardian.com |date=August 2009 |access-date=23 August 2013 |archive-date=10 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150210112215/http://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/aug/02/mad-sad-and-bad-review |url-status=live }} In 2010, she played Shirley Valentine in a one-woman show at the Menier Chocolate Factory, later transferring to Trafalgar Studios.{{cite news |author=Kate Kellaway |url=https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2010/jul/11/meera-syal-shirley-valentine-menier |title=Meera Syal: Interview |work=The Observer |publisher=theguardian.com |date=10 July 2010 |access-date=23 August 2013 |archive-date=30 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131230234648/http://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2010/jul/11/meera-syal-shirley-valentine-menier |url-status=live }} In the same year she played Nasreen Chaudhry in two episodes of Doctor Who alongside Matt Smith.{{cite web |url=http://www.sfx.co.uk/2010/05/17/hungry-earth-interview/ |title=Doctor Who The Hungry Earth Interview Meera Syal |publisher=Sfx.co.uk |date=17 May 2010 |access-date=23 August 2013 |archive-date=21 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100521043539/http://www.sfx.co.uk/2010/05/17/hungry-earth-interview/ |url-status=live }}

Syal's memoir is due to be published in 2025.{{Cite web |title=W&N pre-empts writer and actress Syal's memoir |url=https://www.thebookseller.com/rights/wn-pre-empts-writer-and-actress-syals-memoir |access-date=2023-06-11 |website=The Bookseller |language=En}}

Other notable appearances

Syal is an occasional singer, having achieved a number one record with Gareth Gates and her co-stars from The Kumars at No. 42 with "Spirit in the Sky", the Comic Relief single.{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2006/10_october/06/amazing_syal_biog.shtml |title=Press Office – The Amazing Mrs Pritchard Meera Syal |publisher=BBC |access-date=23 August 2013 |archive-date=16 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181016221158/http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2006/10_october/06/amazing_syal_biog.shtml |url-status=live }} She earlier (1988) provided vocals for a bhangra version of "Then He Kissed Me", composed by Biddu and with the Pakistani pop star Nazia Hassan, as part of the short-lived girl band Saffron. In June 2003 she appeared as a guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs programme with a selection of music by Nitin Sawhney, Madan Bala Sindhu, Joni Mitchell, Pizzicato Five, Sukhwinder Singh, Louis Armstrong and others. The luxury she chose to ease her life as a castaway was a piano.{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/desertislanddiscs_20030601.shtml |title=Desert Island Discs – Castaway : Meera Syal |publisher=BBC |date=1 June 2003 |access-date=23 August 2013 |archive-date=17 May 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090517124958/http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/desertislanddiscs_20030601.shtml |url-status=live }}

Having studied English at university and penned two novels and a variety of scripts and screenplays, Syal was chosen as one of the guests on "The Cultural Exchange" slot of Front Row on 30 April 2013, when she nominated To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee as a piece of art work which she loved.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p016p5mb/profiles/meera-syal |title=BBC Radio 4 – Front Row's Cultural Exchange – Meera Syal |publisher=Bbc.co.uk |access-date=23 August 2013}}

As a journalist, she writes occasionally for The Guardian.

Awards and recognition

Syal won the National Student Drama Award for performing in One of Us which was written by Jacqueline Shapiro while at university.{{cite news |author=Chris Jones |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/uk/2000/newsmakers/2847873.stm |title=In Depth | Newsmakers | Meera, Meera off the wall |work=BBC News |date=14 March 2003 |access-date=23 August 2013 |archive-date=7 March 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060307040147/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/uk/2000/newsmakers/2847873.stm |url-status=live }} She won the Betty Trask Award for her first book Anita and Me and the Media Personality of the Year award at the Commission for Racial Equality's annual Race in the Media awards in 2000.{{cite web |author=British Council |url=http://literature.britishcouncil.org/meera-syal |title=Meera Syal | British Council Literature |publisher=Literature.britishcouncil.org |access-date=23 August 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150708223741/http://literature.britishcouncil.org/meera-syal |archive-date=8 July 2015 |url-status=dead }} She was given the Nazia Hassan Foundation award in 2003.{{cite web |url=http://www.asiansinmedia.org/news/article.php/events/177 |title=Asians in Media magazine | Meera Syal and others awarded at Nazia Hassan foundation launch |publisher=Asiansinmedia.org |date=16 October 2003 |access-date=23 August 2013 |archive-date=30 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131230232746/http://www.asiansinmedia.org/news/article.php/events/177 |url-status=usurped }}

In 2011–12, Syal was appointed visiting professor of contemporary theatre at St Catherine's College, Oxford. She has an honorary degree from SOAS, University of London and from the University of Roehampton.{{cite web |url=http://www.soas.ac.uk/about/fellows/meera-syal-mbe/ |title=Ms Meera Syal MBE – Honorary Doctorate of SOAS, University of London |publisher=Soas.ac.uk |access-date=23 August 2013 |archive-date=14 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130914085410/http://www.soas.ac.uk/about/fellows/meera-syal-mbe/ |url-status=live }}

She received her CBE insignia from the Prince of Wales on 6 May 2015 at Buckingham Palace.{{cite web |url=https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/12933590.meera-syal-says-cbe-is-a-huge-honour/ |title=Meera Syal says CBE is a 'huge honour' |work=The Northern Echo |date=6 May 2015 |access-date=31 December 2018 |archive-date=1 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190101100349/https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/12933590.meera-syal-says-cbe-is-a-huge-honour/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web|url=https://www.itv.com/news/2015-05-06/meera-syal-to-be-made-a-cbe-at-buckingham-palace-today/|publisher=ITV|title=Meera Syal to be made a CBE at Buckingham Palace today|date=6 May 2015|access-date=31 December 2015|archive-date=20 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150720212200/http://www.itv.com/news/2015-05-06/meera-syal-to-be-made-a-cbe-at-buckingham-palace-today/|url-status=live}}

In 2017, Syal was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.Natasha Onwuemezi, [http://www.thebookseller.com/news/syal-and-mcdermid-named-new-rsl-fellows-564396 "Rankin, McDermid and Levy named new RSL fellows"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190326175209/https://www.thebookseller.com/news/syal-and-mcdermid-named-new-rsl-fellows-564396 |date=26 March 2019 }}, The Bookseller, 7 June 2017.{{cite web |url=https://rsliterature.org/fellows/current-fellows/ |title=Current RSL Fellows |publisher=Royal Society of Literature |access-date=11 June 2017 |archive-date=6 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190206015823/https://rsliterature.org/fellows/current-fellows/ |url-status=live }}

In May 2023, she received the BAFTA Fellowship, regarded as the highest accolade of the British Academy Television Awards.{{Cite news |last=Hall |first=Rachel |date=14 May 2023 |title=Meera Syal calls for more diversity in TV industry as she wins Bafta award |url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/may/14/meera-syal-calls-for-more-diversity-in-tv-industry-as-she-wins-bafta-award |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231015045042/https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/may/14/meera-syal-calls-for-more-diversity-in-tv-industry-as-she-wins-bafta-award |archive-date=15 October 2023 |access-date=15 May 2023 |work=The Guardian}}

Personal life

Syal married journalist Shekhar Bhatia in 1989; they divorced in 2002. Their daughter, Milli Bhatia, is associate director of the Royal Court Theatre.{{cite news |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/theatre/director-milli-bhatia-south-asian-stories-young-vic-chasing-hares-b1013286.html |title=Milli Bhatia on how raving and activism influence her work and directing Chasing Hares at the Young Vic |work=The Evening Standard |date=20 July 2022 |access-date=3 April 2023}} In January 2005, Syal married her frequent collaborator, Sanjeev Bhaskar, who plays her grandson in The Kumars at No. 42; the marriage ceremony took place in Lichfield register office, Staffordshire.{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4205873.stm |title=Entertainment | Family wedding for Kumars stars |work=BBC News |date=25 January 2005 |access-date=23 August 2013 |archive-date=9 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200609121219/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4205873.stm |url-status=live }} They have a son, born in 2005.

In 2004, Syal took part in one episode of the BBC series Who Do You Think You Are?, which investigated her family history.{{cite episode|title=Who Do You Think You Are? with Meera Syal|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/familyhistory/get_started/wdytya_s1_celeb_gallery_09.shtml|series=Who Do You Think You Are?|series-link=Who Do You Think You Are? (British TV series)|network=BBC|station=BBC Two|airdate=7 December 2004|access-date=23 December 2019|archive-date=18 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200818130842/https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/familyhistory/get_started/wdytya_s1_celeb_gallery_09.shtml|url-status=live}} Syal discovered that both her grandfathers were supporters of the Indian independence movement: one as a communist journalist, the other as a Punjab protester who was briefly imprisoned in the Golden Temple.

Syal's brother is investigative journalist Rajeev Syal, who covers Whitehall, writing stories for The Guardian.{{cite news |author=Nick McGrath |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/oct/09/meera-syal-my-family-values |title=Meera Syal: My family values | Life and style |newspaper=The Guardian |date=8 October 2010 |access-date=23 August 2013 |archive-date=30 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131230235209/http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/oct/09/meera-syal-my-family-values |url-status=live }}

In February 2009, Syal was one of a number of British entertainers who signed an open letter printed in The Times protesting against the persecution of Baháʼís in Iran.{{cite web|url=http://news.bahai.org/human-rights/iran/yaran-special-report/voices-of-support|title=Voices of support|publisher=Bahá'í World News Service|access-date=23 August 2013|archive-date=7 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131207111039/http://news.bahai.org/human-rights/iran/yaran-special-report/voices-of-support|url-status=live}}

In January 2011, Syal took part in the BBC Radio 4 programme My Teenage Diary, discussing growing up as the only British Asian girl in a small English town, feeling overweight and unattractive.

Writing credits

{{Div col}}

= Screenplays =

= Stage =

  • One of Us (1983)
  • The Oppressed Minorities Big Fun Show (1992)
  • Goodness Gracious Me (1999)
  • Bombay Dreams (2002)

= Television =

= Radio =

= Novels =

  • Anita and Me (1996)
  • Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee (1999), published in German under the title Sari, Jeans und Chilischoten in 2003
  • The House of Hidden Mothers (2015)

{{div col end}}

Acting credits

{{Div col}}

= Stage =

= Radio =

  • True Believers (1990)
  • The World As We Know It (1999)
  • Double Income, No Kids Yet (2001)
  • A Small Town Murder (2008–2020)
  • Bindi Business (2017)
  • Gossip and Goddesses with Granny Kumar (2021)
  • "Mrs Sidhu Investigates"

= Film and TV =

{{div col end}}

Academic reception

Her book Anita and Me has found its way onto school and university English syllabuses both in Britain and abroad. Scholarly literature on it includes:

  • Rocío G. Davis, "India in Britain: Myths of Childhood in Meera Syal's Anita and Me", in Fernando Galván & Mercedes Bengoechea (ed.), On Writing (and) Race in Contemporary Britain, Universidad de Alcalá 1999, 139–46.
  • Ana Maria Sanchez-Arce "Invisible Cities: Being and Creativity in Meera Syal's Anita and Me and Ben Okri's Astonishing the Gods", in Philip Laplace and Éric Tabuteau (eds), Cities on the Margin/ On the Margin of Cities: Representations of Urban Space in Contemporary British and Irish Fiction, Besançon: Presses Universitaires Franc-Comtoises, 2003: 113–30.
  • Graeme Dunphy, "Meena's Mockingbird: From Harper Lee to Meera Syal", in Neophilologus 88, 2004, 637–59.

References

{{reflist}}

External links

  • {{IMDb name|0842935}}
  • [https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/meera-syal British Council: Meera Syal]
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20080803224411/http://www.bafta.org/learning/webcasts/meera-syal-in-conversation,374,BA.html In Conversation with Meera Syal], BAFTA webcast, March 2008

{{BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Syal, Meera}}

Category:Living people

Category:1961 births

Category:20th-century English actresses

Category:20th-century English comedians

Category:20th-century English novelists

Category:20th-century English women writers

Category:21st-century English actresses

Category:21st-century English comedians

Category:Actresses from Wolverhampton

Category:Alumni of the University of Manchester

Category:British Asian writers

Category:British television producers

Category:British women screenwriters

Category:British women television producers

Category:British women television writers

Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire

Category:English film actresses

Category:English film producers

Category:English Hindus

Category:English musical theatre actresses

Category:English people of Indian descent

Category:English people of Punjabi descent

Category:English screenwriters

Category:English television actresses

Category:English television producers

Category:English television writers

Category:English voice actresses

Category:English women comedians

Category:English women dramatists and playwrights

Category:English women novelists

Category:The Guardian journalists

Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature

Category:Fellows of St Catherine's College, Oxford

Category:BAFTA fellows

Category:Writers from Wolverhampton

Category:People from South Staffordshire District

Category:British television show creators