Name Margot Bennett | ||
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Margot Bennett (1 January 1912 – 6 December 1980) was a Scottish screenwriter and author of crime and thriller novels.
Biography
Born Margot Mitchell (some sources say Margot Miller), Bennett was born in Lenzie, Dunbartonshire, Scotland. She was educated in Scotland and Australia. Before publishing fiction, she worked as an advertising copywriter in Sydney and London.
During the Spanish Civil War, she worked as a nurse for the Spanish Medical Aid. During the war, she first met Richard Bennett (1912-1999), an English journalist and writer who had served in the Spanish Republican Army since 1936. During the conflict, he had written broadcasts for Radio Catalan. They were married in 1938, the ceremony being conducted by a Republican soldier. Bennett was a regular writer for Lilliput magazine between 1943 and 1950. She is best remembered for her crime fiction from the 1940s and 50s, though she also wrote contemporary literature, thrillers and a science guide, as well as two science fiction novels, one of which was The Long Way Back, about African colonization of Britain following a nuclear holocaust.
After her marriage, Bennett had three sons and a daughter. One of her sons died from muscular dystrophy.
Bennett also wrote scripts for television, including contributions to Maigret, Emergency-Ward 10, Market in Honey Lane and Quick Before They Catch Us. She also wrote the screenplays for her books which were adapted for the screen.
Bennett was strongly left-wing. She was a supporter of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
Bennett lived latterly in London. She died in 1980, aged 68.