Auto da Fay. Fay Weldon. 2002.

Fay Weldon, one of the preeminent writers of our time, has crammed more than most into her years. From the 1930s to the 2000s, Weldon has seen and lived it all. As a child in New Zealand, as young and poor in London, as unmarried mother, as wife, lover, playwright, novelist, feminist, anti-feminist, slag-bol-cook, winner-and-diner, there are few waterfronts that she hasn’t covered, few battles she hasn’t fought.

Brought up by women - her intrepid mother, grandmother and sister - men were a mystery until 1960s London introduced her to the louche, the hopeless, and the golden-footed. A central figure among the Bohemian writers, artists, thinkers and poets of the sixties, she has maintained this unique position through four turbulent decades. An icon to many, a thorn-in-the-flesh to others, she has never failed to excite, madden or interest. Her life and times cover love, sex, babies, blokes, poverty, work, politics and not a few Very Famous Names.