Inaugural Fay Weldon lecture
News
Internationally renowned novelist Kate Mosse to deliver first Fay Weldon lecture in new annual series
Thursday, 19 October, 2023On 7 November 2023, Bath Spa University is set to host an inaugural lecture by internationally renowned novelist, Kate Mosse OBE, celebrating the life and work of the late Fay Weldon, Professor of Creative Writing at the University from 2012 to 2021.
Founder of the Women’s Prize, Kate was named by The Bookseller as one of the 150 most influential people in publishing and awarded an OBE for her services to literature and women in 2013 and Woman of the Year for her service to the arts in the Everywoman Awards.
After her debut in 2005 with her award-winning Labyrinth trilogy, Kate’s work includes six further novels, four plays and her memoir. She also sits on the Executive Committee of Women of the World.
Speaking on this inaugural lecture, novelist, biographer and Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, Dr Celia Brayfield said:
"As a champion of women's creativity and an award-winning novelist, playwright and broadcaster, Kate Mosse is ideally qualified to build on the legacy of our wonderful colleague, Fay Weldon, a writer who inspired and empowered so many women and so many writers."
The lecture is the first of an annual series, established by Bath Spa, and will explore insights into some of the issues Fay explored alongside fellow colleagues, students and graduates throughout her career. Fay Weldon arrived at Bath Spa University in 2012, taking up the post of Professor of Creative Writing. She spent the next nine years teaching aspiring writers and empowering people to question social norms through her work.
Her reflections on women in marriage, motherhood and domestic life have immortalised her as one of the most influential authors of her time. With over four decades of experience, she was a writer of immense social influence and her work as a novelist, dramatist and critic is renowned and deeply admired by many.
Her literary influence extended through lives over thirty novels and many other cultural strands including the pilot episode of the TV series Upstairs Downstairs, and the first TV adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Dr Celia Brayfield said:
“Fay Weldon was the most important novelist of second wave of feminism in Britain, not only because of her huge popular success – she must be the only novelist to have been serialized in a teenage magazine one year and shortlisted for the Booker Prize the next - but also because of her fearless engagement with the biological reality of women’s lives, from pregnancy to cosmetic surgery, in novels such as Puffball, Praxis and The Life and Loves of a She Devil.”
Throughout her career at the University, Fay was awarded an Honorary Degree and Emeritus status. She is remembered by those who knew her as a friend and colleague of great generosity and wisdom. Earlier this year the University unveiled her portrait by another former colleague, Professor Emeritus Gavin Cologne-Brookes.
The Fay Weldon lecture is open to the public and will take place at Bath Spa University’s Newton Park campus from 6:30 – 7:30pm on 7 November 2023.
The event will also be live-streamed. Profits from the lecture will be shared with the mental health charity Mind, which Fay Weldon supported throughout her life.
Tickets can be purchased on the Ticketsource website.