Occupation Author, novelist Name Rachel Billington | Role Author | |
Full Name Rachel Mary Pakenham Born 11 May 1942 (age 81) ( 1942-05-11 ) Oxford, England, UK Website www.rachelbillington.com Spouse Kevin Billington (m. 1967) Parents Elizabeth Pakenham, Countess of Longford, Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford Siblings Antonia Fraser, Thomas Pakenham Children Caspar Leo Billington, Catherine Rose Billington, Nathaniel Kevin Billington, Chloe Margaret Billington Books Emma & Knightley, Poppy's Hero, Perfect happiness, A Woman's Life, There's More to Life Similar People Frank Pakenham - 7th Earl o, Elizabeth Pakenham - Countess, Antonia Fraser, Thomas Pakenham, Judith Kazantzis | ||
Beige - Try My Best (ft. Rachel Billington)
Rachel Mary Billington OBE (née Pakenham, born 11 May 1942) is a British author, the third daughter of the Earl and Countess of Longford, both writers, as was her aunt, Christine Longford.
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Career
Billington worked in television in London and New York before taking up full-time writing in 1968. She has published twenty-one novels for adults, including the bestsellers A Woman's Age and Bodily Harm. Her most recent novel is Glory (2015), which describes the First World War Gallipoli campaign through the eyes of the participants and their wives and girlfriends at home. She has also written six children's novels, six religious books for children and three non-fiction books, including The Great Umbilical, about mothers and daughters.
She has written plays for BBC Television's Plays for Today series (Don't Be Silly and Life After Death), and several radio plays, and has contributed to film scripts including The Light at the Edge of the World and Interlude. Billington has also written and continues to write journalism for newspapers in both the UK and the US, including a three-year stint as columnist for the Sunday Telegraph.
Volunteer work
Billington was President of English PEN, the writers' organisation, from 1998 to 2001 and is now Honorary Vice-President. During her time as President Billington initiated PEN's Readers & Writers programme which sends books and writers to meet readers in schools, prisons and other institutions which lack resources.
She is a Trustee of the Longford Trust which was set up in memory of her father, Lord Longford. In 1991 she became a member of the editorial team of Inside Time, the not-for-profit national newspaper for prisoners. She now writes a monthly column. In addition she is a Trustee of the Catholic weekly, The Tablet, and of the Siobhan Dowd Trust, set up to encourage reading among disadvantaged children.
Awards
Billington was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2012 New Year Honours for her services to literature.
Personal life
Billington is married to the film, theatre and television director Kevin Billington. They have four children and five grandchildren, and live in London and in the oldest continuously inhabited house in Dorset.