Penelope Mortimer (Author of The Pumpkin Eater)
Penelope Mortimer

Penelope Mortimer’s Followers (57)

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Penelope Mortimer


Born
in Rhyl, The United Kingdom
September 19, 1918

Died
October 19, 1999


Early life

She was born in Rhyl, Flintshire, Wales, the younger child of an Anglican clergyman, who had lost his faith and used the parish magazine to celebrate the Soviet persecution of the Russian church. He also sexually abused her. Her father frequently changed his parish, so, consequently, she attended numerous schools. She left University College, London, after only one year.

Adulthood

She married Charles Dimont, a journalist, in 1937, and they had two daughters, including the actress Caroline Mortimer, and two daughters through extra-marital relationships with Kenneth Harrison and Randall Swingler.
She met barrister and writer John Mortimer while pregnant with the last child and married him in 1949. Together they had a daughter and a son
...more

Average rating: 3.74 · 3,966 ratings · 534 reviews · 23 distinct worksSimilar authors
The Pumpkin Eater

3.66 avg rating — 2,550 ratings — published 1962 — 39 editions
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Daddy's Gone A-Hunting

3.92 avg rating — 669 ratings — published 1958 — 14 editions
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Saturday Lunch With The Bro...

4.19 avg rating — 126 ratings — published 1960 — 5 editions
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The Home

3.65 avg rating — 94 ratings — published 1971 — 9 editions
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My Friend Says It's Bullet-...

3.64 avg rating — 75 ratings — published 1967 — 8 editions
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The Handyman

3.53 avg rating — 34 ratings — published 1984 — 5 editions
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Queen Mother

3.65 avg rating — 26 ratings12 editions
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About Time

3.14 avg rating — 29 ratings — published 1979 — 8 editions
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Long Distance

liked it 3.00 avg rating — 19 ratings — published 1974 — 6 editions
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A villa in summer

3.50 avg rating — 10 ratings3 editions
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More books by Penelope Mortimer…
Quotes by Penelope Mortimer  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“I began drinking because the thought that I was drinking gave me a kind of identity: each time I poured myself a brandy in the deserted afternoon I could say to myself 'I am a woman who drinks.”
Penelope Mortimer, The Pumpkin Eater

“I don't know who I am, I don't know what I'm like, how can I know what I want? I only know that whether I'm good or bad, whether I'm a bitch or not, whether I'm strong or weak or contemptible or a bloody martyr - I mean whether I'm fat or thin, tall or short, because I don't know - I want to be happy.”
Penelope Mortimer, The Pumpkin Eater

“I want to fly from a window and pour through the air like a wind of love to raise his hair and slide into the palms of his hands.”
Penelope Mortimer, The Pumpkin Eater

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