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Margot Bennett (writer)

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Margot Bennett
BornMargot Mitchell
(1912-01-19)19 January 1912
Lenzie, Dunbartonshire, Scotland
Died6 December 1980(1980-12-06) (aged 68)
Camden, London
Occupationauthor
LanguageEnglish
NationalityScottish
Period1943-1968
Genrescrime, thriller, science fiction
Notable awardsGold Dagger Award
SpouseRichard Bennett (1937-1980; her death)
Children4

Margot Bennett (19 January 1912 – 6 December 1980), born Margot Mitchell, was a Scottish-born screenwriter and author of crime and thriller novels.

Early life

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Margot Mitchell (sometimes called Margot Miller) was born in Lenzie, Dunbartonshire, Scotland.[1] She was educated in Scotland and in Australia.[2]

Career

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Before publishing fiction, Bennett worked as an advertising copywriter in Sydney and London. During the Spanish Civil War, she worked as a nurse, translator, and broadcaster for the Spanish Medical Aid. During her war nursing work, she broke her arm when a truck overturned, and she was shot in both legs.[3][4][5]

Bennett was a regular writer for Lilliput magazine between 1943 and 1950.[6] She is best remembered for her crime fiction from the 1940s and 1950s,[7] though she also wrote contemporary literature, thrillers and a science guide, The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Atomic Radiation (1964).[8] She wrote two science fiction novels, one of which was The Long Way Back, about African colonization of Britain following a nuclear holocaust.[9][10] Her novel The Man Who Didn't Fly was nominated for a Gold Dagger Award.[2] In a 1962 review essay in The New York Times, Anthony Boucher counted Bennett among "the best Englishwomen in the suspense field," alongside Charity Blackstock, Nina Bawden, and Joan Fleming.[11]

Bennett wrote scripts for television, including contributions to Maigret, Emergency-Ward 10, Market in Honey Lane and Quick Before They Catch Us. In early 1964, she was the second female writer to be associated with Doctor Who, though the historical story she was scheduled to contribute never went ahead.[12] Bennett also wrote the screenplays for her books which were adapted for the screen.[7]

Personal life

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During the Spanish Civil War, Margot Miller met Richard Lawrence Bennett (1912–1999), an English journalist and writer who had served in the Spanish Republican Army since 1936. During the conflict, he had written broadcasts for Radio Catalan. They were married in 1937 in Barcelona,[13] the ceremony being conducted by a Republican soldier.[3] They had three sons and a daughter.[7] One of her sons, Rob, died from muscular dystrophy.[3]

Bennett was a supporter of left-wing politics, including the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Bennett lived in London in her later life. She died there in 1980, aged 68 years.[1]

Bibliography

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Novels

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Title Date Genre Publisher ISBN Notes
Time to Change Hats 1945 Crime Nicholson Features John Davies
Away Went the Little Fish 1946 Crime Nicholson Features John Davies
The Golden Pebble 1948 Thriller Nicholson Not published in the USA
The Widow of Bath 1952 Crime Eyre & Spottiswoode 0754085929 Adapted into a TV serial in 1959
2021 British Library Publishing 0712353747 Reissued.
Farewell Crown and Goodbye King 1952 Thriller Eyre & Spottiswoode
The Long Way Back 1955 Science Fiction The Bodley Head
The Man Who Didn't Fly 1955 Thriller Eyre & Spottiswoode 0745186246 Shortlisted for Gold Dagger Award. Adapted into a TV episode by Kraft Theatre in 1958.
2020 British Library Publishing 0712353410 Reissued.
Someone from the Past 1958 Crime Eyre & Spottiswoode 0754086046 Won Gold Dagger Award
That Summer's Earthquake 1964 Literary Fiction Eyre & Spottiswoode 085456733X Not published in the USA
The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Atomic Radiation 1964 Science Penguin
The Furious Masters 1968 Science Fiction Eyre & Spottiswoode 0413443000 Published in Dutch in 1970

Short stories

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Title Date Genre Published Notes
An Old Fashioned Poker for my Uncle's Head 1946 Science Fiction Lilliput, issue #110 Reprinted 1954 in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, issue #36)[1]
No Bath for the Browns 1945 Thriller Lilliput, issue #101 Reprinted 1965 in Alfred Hitchcock Presents Stories Not for the Nervous

Television Projects Contributed To

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Series No. of Episodes Broadcast Date(s) Notes
London Playhouse 1 (anthology) 1956 Episode: The Sun Divorce. Believed to be lost
The Man who Didn't Fly 1 (anthology) 1958 Episode of Kraft Theatre. Based on her own novel
Emergency-Ward 10 15 1958-1959
The Widow of Bath 6 1959 Based on her own novel. All episodes lost
The Third Man 2 1959
They Met in a City 1 (anthology) 1961 Episode: The Spanish Waiter
Suspense 1 (anthology) 1962 Episode: Killer in the Band
Maigret 7 1960-1962
The Flying Swan 1 1965
The Big Spender 5 1966 All episodes lost
Quick Before They Catch Us 4 1966 Serial: The Tungsten Ring. All episodes lost
Market in Honey Lane 7 1968

Screenplays

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Clute, John (11 August 2018). "Margot Bennett". SFE: The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.
  2. ^ a b "Margot Bennett". Saltire Society. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
  3. ^ a b c "Richard & Margot Bennett". Catriona Gray. Retrieved 9 March 2017.
  4. ^ Fisher, John (30 January 1937). "UNDER FIRE IN SPAIN". Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954). p. 12. Retrieved 28 July 2020 – via Trove.
  5. ^ "AUSTRALIAN GIRLS IN SPAIN". Newcastle Sun (NSW : 1918 - 1954). 4 March 1937. p. 11. Retrieved 28 July 2020 – via Trove.
  6. ^ "General Fiction Magazine Index". Archived from the original on 7 March 2019. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  7. ^ a b c Barnes, Melvyn (1980). Twentieth Century Crime and Fiction Writers. London: Macmillan. pp. 97–98. ISBN 9781349813681.
  8. ^ Jordanova, L. J. (1993). Sexual Visions: Images of Gender in Science and Medicine Between the Eighteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Univ of Wisconsin Press. p. 160. ISBN 978-0-299-12294-2.
  9. ^ "Brave New World After". The New York Times. 20 March 1955.
  10. ^ Kravsow, Irving (24 April 1955). "New World Problems". Hartford Courant. p. 117. Retrieved 28 July 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ Boucher, Anthony (18 February 1962). "Criminals at Large". The New York Times. p. BR17 – via ProQuest.
  12. ^ "A Brief History of Time (Travel)". Retrieved 8 October 2020.
  13. ^ "ROMANCE IN WAR-TORN SPAIN". Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). 18 March 1937. p. 11. Retrieved 28 July 2020 – via Trove.
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