FAY WELDON (on Fay Weldon)

Fay Weldon is one of those writers whose diverse yet intense careers delight me. I first saw her name on one of the Upstairs, Downstairs episodes of the 1970s; she wrote the pilot episode and a number of others, all miniature marvels of characterization and story. Since then she has written a score of novels, several collections of short stories, some teleplays, stage plays, and more. Much of her work focuses on women and women's relationships, which she addresses in a rich variety of stances and stories.


Here is her author statement as printed on the British Council's Contemporary Writers web site. Artist statements of any kind, including author statements, are very difficult to write well, but this is a gem. I love the intense and humorous voice, the rich language, the rapid pace...actually, I love pretty much everything about it, I guess:

"Well, there's no time to waste. Life's short, the world's history is long and its societies diverse. If I am a prolific writer and turn my hand, with what seems to some as indecent haste, from novels to screenplays to stage and radio plays, it is because there is so much to be said, so few of us to say it, and time runs out. Readers crave explanations of their lives: the writers of fiction provide it, enlarging experience, giving meaning and significance where none was before. I see myself as someone who drops tiny crumbs of nourishment, in the form of comment and conversation, into the black enormous maw of the world's discontent. I will never fill it up or shut it up; but it seems my duty, not to mention my pleasure, to attempt to do so, however ineptly. See me as Sisyphus, but having a good time."

"See me as Sisyphus, but having a good time." Isn't that every writer who loves his or her craft: pushing that giant boulder uphill, pushing, pushing, knowing we can't ever quite get it to the top, but enjoying every laborious moment?