Maureen Duffy

From Philosopedia

Duffy, Maureen Patricia (1933 - )

Born in Worthing, Sussex, England, Duffy studied at King's College London, earning her degree in English and teaching from 1956 to 1961.

A writer, editor, playwright, and novelist, she edited three editions of a poetry magazine, the sixties. The Microcosm was her first openly gay novel, and she has been described as being the first lesbian to "come out" in public in Britain. Her 1977 The Ballad of the Blasphemy Trial described the trial of the Gay News newspaper that was charged with "blasphemous libel."

She has written a non-fiction handbook about animal rights, a work about the 17th century Baroque composer Henry Purcell, and a biography of the 17th century Restoration dramatist Aphra Behn.

She is best known for her novels: That’s How It Was (1962); The Paradox Players (1967); Wounds (1969); Capital (1975); and Londoners (1983), the latter a sardonic view of the writer’s lot.

Homosexuality appears in many of her works, including Restitution (1999), which is about three individuals in London and Berlin who are searching for something in their past.

Duffy is President of the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA) (34 Spring Lane, Kenilworth, Warwickshire CV8 2HB, England).

Works

Novels

That’s How It Was (1962)

The Single Eye (1964)

The Microcosm (1966)

The Paradox Players (1967)

Wounds (1969)

Love Child (1971)

I Want to Go to Moscow (1973)

All Heaven in a Rage (1973)

Capital (1975)

Housespy (1978)

Inherit the Earth (1980)

Gor Saga (1981)

Londoners (1983)

Change (1987)

Illuminations (1991)

Occam’s Razor (1993)

Restitution (1998)

England: The Making of the Myth from Stonehenge to Albert (2001)

Alchemy (2004)

Poetry

Lyrics for the Dog Hour (poems) (1968)

New Short Plays: No. 2 (1969)

Venus Touch (poems) (1971)

Evesong (poems) (1975)

Memorials of the Quick and the Dead (poems) (1979)

Collected Poems, 1949-84 (poems) (1985)

Pool: New Fiction from Liverpool John Moores University (2001)

Non-Fiction

The Erotic World of Faery (1972)

The Passionate Shepherdess: Aphra Behn, 1640-89 (1977)

Men And Beasts: Animal Rights Handbook (1984)

A Thousand Capricious Chances: History of the Methuen List, 1889-1989 (1989)

Henry Purcell, (1659-95) (1994)

{Gay and Lesbian Humanist, Summer 1999; OCE}