- Born
- Died
- Birth nameJosephine Edna O'Brien
- Edna O'Brien was born on December 15, 1930 in Tuamgraney, County Clare, Ireland. She was a writer and actress, known for Time Lost and Time Remembered (1966), Girl with Green Eyes (1964) and The Hard Way (1980). She was married to Ernest Gebler. She died on July 27, 2024 in London, England, UK.
- SpouseErnest Gebler(1954 - 1964) (divorced, 2 children)
- ChildrenSasha Gébler
- ParentsMichael O'BrienLena Cleary
- She was an Irish novelist, memoirist, playwright, poet and short-story writer.
- Alongside Teddy Taylor (Conservative), Michael Foot (Labour) and Derek Worlock (Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool), O'Brien was a panel member for the first edition of the BBC's Question Time in 1979, and was awarded the first answer in the programme's history ("Edna O'Brien, you were born there", referring to Ireland). Taylor's death in 2017 left her as the sole surviving member.
- Expatriated to London.
- In 1980, she wrote a play, Virginia, about Virginia Woolf, and it was staged originally in June 1980 at the Stratford Festival, Ontario, Canada, and subsequently in the West End of London at the Theatre Royal Haymarket with Maggie Smith and directed by Robin Phillips. It was staged at The Public Theater in New York in 1985.
- Her novel, A Pagan Place (1970), was about her repressive childhood. Her parents were vehemently against all things related to literature; her mother strongly disapproved of her daughter's career as a writer.
- On ambition: In dreams begins responsibility.
- On childhood: What we forget as children is that our parents children, also. The child in them has not been satisfied, met or loved, often. Not always, but very often. Oftener, actually, than is admitted.
- On growth: I am shedding the past. It comes off me like scales.
- On reading: Poetry always goes straight to the marrow.
- On writing: Always, both when I started and now, to me writing is a covert act.
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