Shelagh Delaney - Wonderful Woman No. 140

Shelagh Delaney - 1938-2011
British Playwright and Screen Writer

Added to the album by Esme, A Wonderful Woman

She wrote 'A Taste Of Honey' when she was only 18... amazing play, amazing woman.
Esme

When I was still in high school, I was among a group of avid theatre-goers who, on at least a monthly basis would, go with our drama teachers to various theatres in and around Manchester. One of these trips was to see A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney at The Octagon Theatre in Bolton. Though that evening is something in the region of twenty years ago, I still remember the performance vividly. It was unlike a lot of the productions we went to see, for a start it was set in Salford, very close to where we went to school and the characters were so realistic to us, well, because they were just like the people all around us. I don't remember if I identified that the female roles were so strong at the time but I do remember thinking one day, when I became an actress I'd love to play Jo (sadly, this was one ambition that I never did fulfil).

Shelagh came from humble beginings, born and raised in Salford in the north of England. She wrote her most famous work, A Taste of Honey, while just 18, it opened in London at the Theatre Royal East in 1958 and was an instant success.

A Taste of Honey showed working-class women from a working-class woman's point of view, had a gay man as a central and sympathetic figure, and a black character who was neither idealised nor a racial stereotype.
Dennis Barker, The Guardian

The play was turned into a film in 1961. The film was also a great success winning four Bafta awards, including best British screenplay and best British film.

Shelagh wrote a number of other plays after A Taste of Honey, though none matched it's success. In 1963, she published a book of short stories, Sweetly Sings the Donkey. Over time, she began to write more for radio and television than for theatre. She was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1985.

Her style of writing continued, throughout her career, to be filled with harsh realism, social protest and strong female characters. She has been, and remains to be, an enormous influence on other creatives, her champions include Morrissey of The Smiths who says many of his lyrics would not exist were it not for Shelagh. Jeanette Winterson - Wonderful Woman 98, also remarks on her influence, saying Shelagh was "the first working-class woman playwright".

It may not seem so unusual now, a female writer having huge success at an early age but at the time A Taste of Honey was released, this could only be described as groundbreaking. In some way, Shelagh's success knocked down some of the boundaries faced by women of the lower-classes of the time, opened up the idea that theatre, literature and even, more generally speaking, education were things that could be accessible to all - for these reasons she well-deserves her Wonderful Woman title.

Women never have young minds. They were born three thousand years old.
Shelagh Delaney

Isabella Beeton - Wonderful Woman No. 139

Isabella Beeton - 1836–1865
British Culinary Writer

Added to the album by Sarah, A Wonderful Woman

Many women from the world of food have now been included as Wonderful Women, from Elizabeth David - Wonderful Woman No. 60 to Angela Hartnett - Wonderful Woman No. 65, all very different but all having inspired something in those who have nominated them. It is fair to say that Sarah's addition of Mrs Isabella Beeton is one of the original people to ignite this type of inspiration in home cooks.

Isabella wrote a great many articles and recipes for newspapers and magazines, she wrote a monthly supplement in The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine during the 1850s and 1860s.

In 1861, the first publication of The Book of Household Management was released with instant success. The book featured over 900 recipes many with illustrations and it was really the popularity of these recipes that brought Isabella such fame and notoriety. The book was also something of a guide for a Victorian 'lady-of-the-house,' it contained advice on rearing children, social etiquette, employing servents and also spoke of science, religion and industrialialism. Long before such ideas were popular, Isabella wrote about the importance of using seasonal

and local produce, the welfare of animals and an understanding of what goes into the food people eat.

A place for everything and everything in it's place.
Mrs Beeton - The Book of Household Management

In 1858, Britain suffered a particularly harsh winter and during this time Isabella turned her culinary skill to help those most in need, by opening a soup kitchen for poverty stricken children in her own home.

Isabella, who died when just 28 years old, became the first woman to have her portrait bought and hung in The National Gallery , in 1938. She is still remembered by many as a real pioneer in the art of food.

As I said in the opening paragraph, we have celebrated a number of women for their excellent careers in catering, I think though, Isabella was an original, an innovator and it is this which makes her most welcome in this album.

The true woman combines with mere tact that subtle sympathy which makes her the loved companion and friend alike of husband, children and all around her.
Isabella Beeton

Susan Sarandon - Wonderful Woman No. 138

Susan Sarandon - Born 1946
American Actress, Film Producer, Business Woman & Political Activist

Added to the album by Lowri, A Wonderful Woman

Reading up on Susan Sarandon has been an enlightening experience. I knew she was a fabulous actress, having seen many of her films, but learning about her other endeavours, I have learnt that she is a much more formidable woman than I ever knew. Thank you Lowri for your fantastic nomination.

In 1970, Susan made her film debut in Joe. She appeared on American television throughout the '70s and had roles in a number of films. In 1975, she starred in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (which became a cult musical and one I am a huge fan of myself) and this really catapulted her into fame. She has appeared in over seventy films, including some huge box-office successes such as The Witches of Eastwick, Thelma and Louise, Little Women (an adaptation of the book by Louisa May Alcott - Wonderful Woman No. 38) and Dead Man Walking, which gained her the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1995. Now in the fifth decade of her acting career, she is still working hard and landing great roles, she currently has two films in post-production, including the much awaited Cloud Atlas. She has also produced some films.

Susan is the co-owner of the SPiN table tennis club, which has social clubs in four cities in the USA and Canada.

One of the most interesting things I have discovered about Susan is her political activism. She is an outspoken liberal, who has campaigned and spoke publicly about gay rights issues, the Iraq war, various human rights causes and the catholic church (in particular about the current Pope and the church having "harboured paedophiles"). She has supported a number of politicians over the years. She has also worked hard for charitable causes, she was appointed as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, a spokesperson for Heifer International (a not-for-profit organisation with the vision of ending global poverty and hunger) and in 2006, Susan received the Action Against Hunger Humanitarian Award.

Like so many of the women featured in this album, Susan's life is littered with great achievement and success but she is also wonderful for her qualities as a humanitarian, as someone who speaks out for causes which she feels strongly about and takes action when she sees something is unjust. Exactly the kind of woman we like to celebrated here.

I try to live my life every day in the present, and try not to turn a blind eye to injustice and need.
Susan Sarandon

Shirley Valentine - Wonderful Woman No. 137

Shirley Valentine - Played by Pauline Collins in the 1988 film Shirley Valentine
Fictional British Housewife

This is a very personal and emotive addition to the album for me, even just thinking about this film brings the prinkly sensation of nostalgic tears welling in my eyes. I hope no-one will mind if this particular blog is partly Shirley Valentine's story but partly mine too.

In 2004, I went to work on the Greek island, Rhodes, for a travel company. I thought I would stay for the summer, have a great time and then move on. It didn't really work out like that.

I was posted in a resort called Afandou... which wasn't really a holiday resort at all, it was a working Greek village, with dusty streets, a pebbled beach, was filled with the smells of flowers and kleftiko carried on the warm evening breeze but in the summer it became alive with British tourists and people, like me, there to work in the sunshine. From day one, I was welcomed with open arms, the Greeks still remain the friendliest people I have ever known and I also met and befriended other people who had moved to spend their lives abroad. It wasn't just the people but the village itself that seemed to hold me in a warm, maternal embrace. In all my life, I have never been more at home anywhere or felt more happy than I did in Afandou.

I spent three years coming and going from Afandou, doing seasonal jobs, finding new places to live and so on. I wanted to make it my permenent home but try as I did, I could never find work for the winter and what I earned during the 8 months of summer was never enough to support me the rest of the time. After three years, I decided I couldn't live in constant transit anymore, it was time to grow up and accept things as they were. I have been back there for holidays many times and leaving always breaks my heart. Though I now live in picturesque Sicily, I still hold out hope that one day I will find a way to return to Afandou and live, like in films, happily ever after.

Which is exactly what Shirley Valentine did. She stayed and that is why she is so wonderful to me, she made the dream happen, she made it work, did the thing I most wanted but wasn't able to do.

On the screen she transformed from a drab, down-trodden Liverpudlian housewife to an independent woman, able to enjoy life with true abandon, a woman who embraced the beauty and culture and history of, what is to me, the most wonderful country on Earth. In the end, she is completely unrecognisable from the shadow of a woman she was before. She is a heroine to me.

Στην καρδιά μου είμαι Έλληνας!!!

Madhur Jaffrey - Wonderful Woman No. 136

Madhur Jaffrey - Born 1933
Indian Actress, Cook, Food Writer and Author

Added to the album by Sarah, A Wonderful Woman

Having now done some research into the life of Mafhur Jaffrey, I feel rather ignorant. I once saw her do the 'omelette challege' on the BBC's cookery show Saturday Kitchen but I am ashamed to say that, until now, this had been my only exposure to this Wonderful Woman. I did not know that she was a celebrated actress, I did not even really know about her excellence as a cookery writer. I am grateful to Sarah for changing this and nominating her to the album.

After graduating with honours from Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in 1957, Madhur embarked on a career in film and theatre. From the 1960s to now she has appeared in over 20 films, made in both India and the U.S.A. among them are Six Degrees of Separation, The Perfect Murder and Shakespeare Wallah, for which she was awarded the prize for Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival.

In 1973, Madhur produced her first cook book, An Invitation to Indian Cooking

and she has subsequently produced almost 30 books, which focus on Indian, Asian and vegetarian cuisine. She has hosted numerous cookery shows on television and is now widely considered as the world authority on Indian food.

In addition to her cook books, Madhur has published four other books, which are largely about travel in India. Her latest, published in 2006, is a personal memoir about her childhood in India.

I expect there is much more to this Wonderful Woman than my research has uncovered and than I have poured into these few short blog paragraghs... what is clear though is that Madhur Jaffrey has been brilliantly successful in not one but two careers, she has perfected her craft as both an actress and a culinary writer and she is admired by countless budding cooks across the world. She is clearly a very Wonderful Woman.

A book that changed me ... Robin Hood. When I was a little girl, I would become him in my mind. It gave me the belief – nothing to do with being male or female – that I could do anything. It made me feel invulnerable. There was a pure joy at being anything I wanted to be.
Madhur Jaffrey

Raquel Welch - Wonderful Woman No. 135

Raquel Welch - Born 1940
American Actress, Television Personality and Business Woman

Added to the album by Tay, A Wonderful Man

Well I’d like to spin a yarn about how much I admired her perfect timing or on screen poise..but that would be total bollocks... Growing up in the 70s... there was only one woman we all talked about at school. She was such an icon to us... Probably not for the right reasons I suggested her... but to me and countless other men of a certain age… Sex on legs!! ICON!
Tay

A few of the other women in the album have been nominated for similar reasons. In my mind, being beautiful alone isn't qualification enough to this celebration of Wonderful Women, however, as in the cases of the likes of Jamie Lee Curtis - Wonderful Woman No. 111 and Twiggy - Wonderful Woman No. 120, Raquel Welch is much more than just a pretty face and a toned body, her life achievements make her worthy of the title Wonderful Woman.

Raquel's career started as a Weather Forecaster on local television in San Diego, U.S.A. She went on to move to Hollywood, where she had a number of bit-parts in film and on TV before appearing in her most memorable role in 1966, when she starred in One Million Years B.C., launching her iconic image as a cave woman in a fur bikini. In total, Raquel has appeared in almost forty motion pictures, including the 1974 version of The Three Musketeers, for which she was awarded a Golden Globe.

As well as her wonderful career as an Actress, Raquel has founded her own businesses, including a signature line of wigs, a jewellery collection and a skincare range.

As with a number of other women celebrated in this album, though now in her seventies, Raquel is still looking great, her beauty and feminine allure unchanged by the passage of time.

She was, and still is, an iconic beauty but more than that, a great Actress, a successful career woman and most definitely a Wonderful Woman.

There aren't any hard women, only soft men.
Raquel Welch

Ellen MacArthur - Wonderful Woman No. 134

Ellen MacArthur - Born 1976
British Yachtswoman

Added to the album by Gavin, A Wonderful Man

For feats of extreme endurance, and as a test of character against overwhelming odds, solo sailing the Atlantic and then again around the World take some beating. Ellen managed to do both, through thick and thin, and in record times, as we witnessed in her much-parodied but complulsive video diaries. Massive effort and courage, and a great inspiration.
Gavin

When Gavin suggested Ellen MacArthur to the Wonderful Women album, it was one of those times when I thought "Yes. Why didn't I think of her?" - she really embodies the spirit of this celebration of women; daring, individual, groundbreaking, strong.

Ellen's passion for sailing started at an early age, indeed she saved her pocket money for years in order to buy her first vessel. She began competing whilst still a schoolgirl.

Ellen has broken a good number of world records in sailing, and still holds some of these records today. Among her many achievements are; sailing from Plymouth, UK to Newport, Rhode Island, USA in 14 days, 23 hours, 11 minutes in 2000, she set a new world record for a transatlantic crossing by women (7 days, 3 hours, 50 minutes) in 2004 and she fulfilled the incredible task of breaking the world record for a single-handed non-stop circumnavigation of the globe (71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes 33 seconds ) in 2005.

Ellen has now retired from her sailing career, she has since founded the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust, which helps children and young adults aged between 8-24 to regain their confidence, after suffering with cancer, through sailing. The charity not only teaches sailing skills but also organises sailing trips for those recovering from illness.

Once again, a Wonderful Woman who has not only been amazingly successful in one career but has also chosen to use her success and notoriety for the good of others. Her strength, courage and vigour really are exceptional and she is a perfect addition to this album.

In weak moments I always turn round and get strong.
Ellen MacArthur