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| Joyce Marlow obituary | Joyce Marlow obituary |
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| My sister, Joyce Marlow, who has died aged 87, was an actor, author and social historian. | My sister, Joyce Marlow, who has died aged 87, was an actor, author and social historian. |
| Daughter of Mary (nee Smethurst) and William Lees, she was born in Manchester of radical, Unitarian stock. Her father had a decorating business. Joyce’s aim from an early age was to be a famous actor or writer, and her passion at school was history. She walked out of the sixth form, however, deciding that she was unlikely to get to Oxford University from Whalley Range high school, and a year later gained a place at the newly established Bradford Civic Theatre School. | Daughter of Mary (nee Smethurst) and William Lees, she was born in Manchester of radical, Unitarian stock. Her father had a decorating business. Joyce’s aim from an early age was to be a famous actor or writer, and her passion at school was history. She walked out of the sixth form, however, deciding that she was unlikely to get to Oxford University from Whalley Range high school, and a year later gained a place at the newly established Bradford Civic Theatre School. |
| Weekly and twice-weekly rep followed, Joyce crisscrossing the country by train on Sundays, after which she established herself on television, taking the name Joyce Marlow. She had parts in series of the 1950s and 60s including Dixon of Dock Green and Z Cars, and the comedy series A Little Big Business, with David Kossoff and Francis Matthews. When “resting”, she worked as press officer to Bill Haley and Burl Ives during their mid-50s UK tours. | Weekly and twice-weekly rep followed, Joyce crisscrossing the country by train on Sundays, after which she established herself on television, taking the name Joyce Marlow. She had parts in series of the 1950s and 60s including Dixon of Dock Green and Z Cars, and the comedy series A Little Big Business, with David Kossoff and Francis Matthews. When “resting”, she worked as press officer to Bill Haley and Burl Ives during their mid-50s UK tours. |
| A Little Big Business (1963-65) marked the end of Joyce’s acting career: her aim was always to be at the top of whatever tree she was climbing and she felt that she had probably reached her optimum rung in that field. She moved on to her other love, writing. Two children’s books, The Man With the Glove (1964)and The House on the Cliffs (1968), and an adult novel, A Time to Die (1966), followed, as well as illustrated history books and a romantic novel, but her most satisfying work came in writing well-researched social history books for non-academic readers. | A Little Big Business (1963-65) marked the end of Joyce’s acting career: her aim was always to be at the top of whatever tree she was climbing and she felt that she had probably reached her optimum rung in that field. She moved on to her other love, writing. Two children’s books, The Man With the Glove (1964)and The House on the Cliffs (1968), and an adult novel, A Time to Die (1966), followed, as well as illustrated history books and a romantic novel, but her most satisfying work came in writing well-researched social history books for non-academic readers. |
| The Peterloo Massacre (1969), The Tolpuddle Martyrs (1972) and Mr and Mrs Gladstone (1977) were popular and well received, and there followed a trilogy of novels about the first world war and the suffragettes. In 1986 she won the Elizabeth Goudge Trophy for Kessie, the first of the series. In later years she compiled and edited The Virago Book of Women and the Great War (1998) and Votes For Women: The Virago Book of Suffragettes (2000), which was reissued in 2015 as Suffragettes to coincide with the feature film starring Meryl Streep. | The Peterloo Massacre (1969), The Tolpuddle Martyrs (1972) and Mr and Mrs Gladstone (1977) were popular and well received, and there followed a trilogy of novels about the first world war and the suffragettes. In 1986 she won the Elizabeth Goudge Trophy for Kessie, the first of the series. In later years she compiled and edited The Virago Book of Women and the Great War (1998) and Votes For Women: The Virago Book of Suffragettes (2000), which was reissued in 2015 as Suffragettes to coincide with the feature film starring Meryl Streep. |
| In the 1970s she worked alongside Maureen Duffy and Brigid Brophy to fight for a public lending right for writers – payment for authors when their works were borrowed from public libraries. She was a founder, in 1977, of the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society. She served on industrial tribunals as a member of the Writers’ Guild from the mid-80s until the 2000s. | In the 1970s she worked alongside Maureen Duffy and Brigid Brophy to fight for a public lending right for writers – payment for authors when their works were borrowed from public libraries. She was a founder, in 1977, of the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society. She served on industrial tribunals as a member of the Writers’ Guild from the mid-80s until the 2000s. |
| Joyce became a governor of a special school in Buxton, Derbyshire, to where she had moved in the late 1980s. | |
| Just before she died she had the satisfaction of learning from the film director Mike Leigh, who was contacted by her niece, that her book The Peterloo Massacre was one of the sources that had inspired him to make his forthcoming feature film on the subject. | Just before she died she had the satisfaction of learning from the film director Mike Leigh, who was contacted by her niece, that her book The Peterloo Massacre was one of the sources that had inspired him to make his forthcoming feature film on the subject. |
| Her husband, the actor Patrick Connor, whom she married in 1956, died in 2008. She is survived by their two sons, Nicholas and Julian, and two grandchildren. | Her husband, the actor Patrick Connor, whom she married in 1956, died in 2008. She is survived by their two sons, Nicholas and Julian, and two grandchildren. |