Molly Keane

Lived: 20 July 1904 - 22 April 1996
Connect: Visit Molly Keane's Molly Keane House Molly Keane House

Molly Keane was an Irish novelist and playwright. Her most famous work is Good Behaviour, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 1981

Hailed as the Irish Nancy Mitford in her day; as well as writing books she was the leading playwright of the 1930s, with her work directed by John Gielgud. Between 1928 and 1956, she wrote 11 novels, and some of her earlier plays, under the pseudonym M.J. Farrell. In 1981, aged 70, she published Good Behaviour under her own name. The manuscript, which had languished in a drawer for many years, was lent to a visitor, the actress Peggy Ashcroft, who encouraged Keane to publish it.

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Molly Keane at the Booker Prize ceremony 1981

Molly Keane's 1981 Diary

In the run up to the 1981 Booker Prize, shortlisted author Molly Keane was asked to keep a diary by the Irish magazine, Image. In it, she documented the parties, companions, food, drink and outfits that were part of her experience as a shortlistee in the weeks before the winner ceremony.