Inaugural Fay Weldon lecture

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Bestselling author Kate Mosse OBE delivers inaugural Fay Weldon Lecture at Bath Spa University

Wednesday, 8 November, 2023

Bath Spa University was pleased to welcome bestselling writer and broadcaster Kate Mosse OBE, who delivered the inaugural Fay Weldon Lecture at the University’s Michael Tippett Centre on 7 November.  

Fay Weldon CBE was Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University from 2012 to 2023, and passed away in January this year. Her work includes over thirty novels, seven collections of short stories, several children's books, non-fiction books, magazine articles and a number of plays written for television, radio and the stage. The University has instituted the annual Fay Weldon Lecture in her memory. 

Kate Mosse is the author of ten novels and short story collections, including the bestselling The Joubert Family Chronicles. She is also Founder Director of the Women's Prizes – the largest annual celebration of women's writing in the world – and is the Founder of the global campaign #WomanInHistory launched in January 2021 to honour, celebrate and promote women’s achievements throughout history. 

In her lecture, Kate noted Fay’s prolific, 50-year career and praised her as a mentor for many women writers, saying that feminist activists of her generation never imagined that there would be a continuing struggle to gain recognition for books by women. She recalled founding the Women's Prize for Fiction in 1996 after an all-male shortlist for the Booker Prize and added that this year the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction has been launched after the Sunday Times published an all-male list of required reading for Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss when they competed for the Conservative Party leadership.   

Kate said: "There is still this idea that men are experts and women only write about the domestic sphere. Only twenty-five percent of the non-fiction books reviewed are by women." Talking about the research for her own historical novels, most recently The Ghost Ship, about a 17th century woman pirate, she spoke of the "silence of the archives" due to women's work not having been acknowledged by male historians.  

Summing up Fay and her legacy, Kate said: 

“Fay was so extraordinarily ahead of her time. I don’t think that you can imagine a writing landscape for women without Fay Weldon in it. I think she deserves to be seen as one of the queens of the 20th century. She inspired and had an influence on so many other writers and was generous to other writers. She was an example of women supporting other women. Down among the women is where the fun is and where the support is – and where her legacy is.” 

Kate advised the writing students in the audience to "Be more Fay. Have the courage to stick to your guns, do what you want to do, write what you want to write and stand up to criticism – books have to be written from the inside out." 

Richard Kerridge, Coordinator of Graduate Studies and Research Management and Course Director for MA Creative Writing at Bath Spa, said: 

“This was a moving and joyous celebration of Fay's life, with many happy reminiscences. Kate Mosse spoke eloquently about Fay's contribution to the literary scene and to women's writing in particular; as the founder of The Women's Prize for Fiction, and now The Women's Prize for Non-Fiction, Kate was the perfect speaker for this occasion. Her speech was followed by questions from the audience, including many from students exploring the practicalities of creative writing. Fay's words resounded throughout. We also want to give thanks to Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing, Celia Brayfield, who made this all happen.” 

The audience included The Mayor of Bath, Counsellor Dine Romero, Fay’s three surviving sons Nick, Dan and Sam Weldon, Bath Spa University staff, alumni and many of Fay's former students, some now successful novelists themselves. At the end of her talk, Kate was presented with flowers on behalf of the University by Annabelle Marx, who graduated from Bath Spa’s MA in Creative Writing course in 2023 and whose first novel, The Herbalist's Secret, has just been published.  

The event was also live-streamed around the world and joined remotely by writers including Elizabeth Buchan, Christy Lefteri and Maggie Butt, as well as the Managing Director of the Society of Authors, Nicola Solomon, and Professor Gina Barecca of the University of Connecticut in the United States.    

Profits from the lecture will be shared with the mental health charity Mind, which Fay Weldon supported throughout her life.