- Barbara Skelton
Barbara Skelton (
June 26 1916 -January 27 1996 ) was an English memoirist, novelist and socialite.The daughter of an army officer, she spent some of her early years in
India . Her good looks allowed her to work as a model for several years. Later years found her inYugoslavia ,Egypt and back in England. Her works include a volume of short stories, 1966's "Born Losers", two volumes of memoirs, 1987's "Tears Before Bedtime" and 1989's "Weep No More", as well as two novels, "a Young Girl's Touch" (1956) and "A Love Match" (1969). Her works are marked by a savage wit and gift for detail.She wed prominent critic
Cyril Connolly in 1950, a marriage which ended in 1956. She marriedGeorge Weidenfeld , a publisher, the same year; that marriage ended in 1961. Her final marriage in 1966 to Derek Jackson, a nuclear physicist, was brief. She also had an affair with KingFarouk of Egypt .Novelist
Anthony Powell used her as the basis for Pamela Flitton, a character in his novel sequence "a Dance to the Music of Time ". Powell also wrote a critical essay on Skelton, included in the collection "Miscellaneous Verdicts". She died inWorcestershire of a brain tumour at age 79.References
Powell, Anthony. "Miscellaneous Verdicts: Writings on Writers, 1946-1989". University of Chicago Press, 1992. ISBN 0226677109
External links
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C03EFDE1739F932A35751C0A960958260 New York Times Obituary]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
