Peggy Ramsay#Legacy

Peggy Ramsay was born to English parents in Molong, New South Wales, Australia.Colin Chambers, Peggy: The Life of Margaret Ramsay, Play Agent, London: Nick Hern Books, 1997, p. 7. Her father's name was originally Vilenski, but her mother believed this Jewish name was a social drawback so had it changed to Venniker.Simon Callow, Love is Where it Falls, 1999, p. 92 Her family had settled in South Africa by the end of the Great War, in which her father served in the South African Medical Corps.Chambers (1997), p. 8. During a brief and unhappy marriage, she came to England in 1929; her husband Norman Ramsay was under investigation in South Africa. After touring with an opera company, and a spell as an actress, she began reading scripts for theatrical managers including Peter Daubeny,John Lahr, Prick Up Your Ears: The Life of Joe Orton, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002 [1978, 2000], p. 144. who was later known for organising annual World Theatre Seasons.

As she was gaining no financial return from scripts she was finding, in 1953 her friends and acquaintances persuaded her to open her own agency, in which they invested. For her entire career her business was based in Goodwin's Court, an alley off St Martin's Lane, London. She was able to buy out her partners in 1963, after the success of her first "discovery'", Robert Bolt. Sometimes she could be wrong in her opinions. Of A Man for All Seasons (1966), Bolt's own screen adaptation of his play, she was dismissive: "We don’t expect it to succeed as it’s not very dramatic and has no sex at all".{{cite news|last=Brooks|first=Richard|url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/enter-stage-left-hare-the-secret-critic-plv20qff30h|title=Enter stage left, Hare the secret critic|work=The Times|date=8 August 2010|access-date=23 July 2018}} {{subscription required}}

She represented many of the leading dramatists to emerge from the 1950s onwards, including Alan Ayckbourn, Eugène Ionesco, J. B. Priestley, Stephen Poliakoff and David Hare. After discovering Joe Orton, then living on National Assistance,Chambers (1997), p. 157. she persuaded producer Michael Codron to stage Orton's Entertaining Mr Sloane. Ramsay represented the dramatist, and then his estate, for the rest of her life. The 1978 biography of Orton by John Lahr, initiated by Ramsay in 1970, led to friction between the author and the playwright's former agent.Chambers (1997), pp. 179-86. For about ten years, she consulted her client, David Hare, about the quality of the work of other writers represented by her agency.

Ramsay's last years were affected by the onset of Alzheimer's disease. Her long term companion, the actor William Roderick, died in April 1991. She died on 4{{nbsp}}September 1991 in London from the effects of a heart condition and circulation problems.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/07/obituaries/peggy-ramsay-83-an-agent-in-britain-of-top-playwrights.html|title=Peggy Ramsay, 83, An Agent in Britain Of Top Playwrights|work=The New York Times|date=7 September 1991}}

The Peggy Ramsay Foundation has been established by her estate and makes grants and awards to help writers and writing for the stage.{{Cite web|url=https://peggyramsayfoundation.org/|title=Welcome to the Peggy Ramsay Foundation|website=peggyramsayfoundation.org}} Her archive has been donated to the British Library.Zoe Wilcox, [http://www.writersguild.org.uk/news-a-features/theatre/44-the-peggy-ramsay-archive.html "The Peggy Ramsay archive"], The Writers Guild, 15 September 2010. In 2009, a blue plaque was unveiled at Ramsay's former home in Kensington Place, Brighton by her friend and biographer Simon Callow.{{cite web |last1=Gurner |first1=Richard |title=Actor Simon Callow unveils blue plaque in Brighton |url=http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/4464498.Actor_Simon_Callow_unveils_blue_plaque_in_Brighton/ |website=The Argus |date=30 June 2009 |publisher=Newsquest |access-date=12 August 2018}}File:Margaret Ramsay - Blue Plaque.jpg

In Prick Up Your Ears (1987), the Orton film biopic based on the Lahr book, Ramsay is portrayed by Vanessa Redgrave, while in Peggy For You (1999), a play by Alan PlaterMichael Billington, [https://www.theguardian.com/stage/1999/nov/24/theatre.artsfeatures2 "Peggy For You" (review)], The Guardian, 24 November 1999. set in the late 1960s, Ramsay is placed centre stage. Two books have been written about Ramsay; Peggy: The Life of Margaret Ramsay, Play Agent (1997) by Colin Chambers a biography, and Simon Callow's memoir Love Is Where It Falls: The Story of a Passionate Friendship (1999),an account of their friendship.Laurence Watts, [http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2011/12/29/interview-simon-callow-on-dickens-peggy-ramsay-and-being-gay/ "Interview: Simon Callow on Dickens, Peggy Ramsay and being gay"], Pink News, 29 December 2011. Peggy to her Playwrights: The Letters of Margaret Ramsay, Play Agent, a collection of her letters edited by Colin Chambers, was published in 2018.{{cite news|last=Seymour|first=Miranda|url=https://www.ft.com/content/99a7d186-86af-11e8-9199-c2a4754b5a0e|title=The ferocious Peggy Ramsay, grande dame of British theatre|work=Financial Times|date=27 July 2018|access-date=20 February 2020}}

From December 2021 to January 2022 Tamsin Greig played Ramsay in a revival of Plater's Peggy For You, directed by Richard Wilson at the Hampstead Theatre.{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/what-to-see/tamsin-greig-interviewi-probably-shouldnt-have-friday-night/|title=Tamsin Greig interview: 'I probably shouldn't have been in Friday Night Dinner'|first=Claire|last=Allfree|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=7 December 2021|via=www.telegraph.co.uk}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.hampsteadtheatre.com/news/2021/november/peggy-for-you-and-tamsin-greig-on-the-andrew-marr-show/|title = Peggy for You and Tamsin Greig on the Andrew Marr Show}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/tamsin-greig-peggy-for-you-in-rehearsal-hampstead_55425.html|title=Tamsin Greig and the cast of Peggy for You first look rehearsal images released | WhatsOnStage|website=www.whatsonstage.com|date=26 November 2021 }}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [https://peggyramsayfoundation.org/ The Peggy Ramsay Foundation]
• [http://searcharchives.bl.uk/IAMS_VU2:IAMS032-000003375 Archive of Margaret Ramsay Ltd] at the British Library

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Category:1908 births

Category:1991 deaths

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Category:Australian emigrants to South Africa

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Category:Australian people of English descent

Category:People from New South Wales

Category:People with Alzheimer's disease