List Of Writers

MORGAN, ELAINE

Elaine Morgan was born in 1920 in Pontypridd. She is a television playwright, author and biological anthropologist. Elaine read English at Oxford University, and became Chairman of the Democratic Socialist Club at Oxford University. Keen on social reform, she considered running for parliament but chose motherhood instead. She lectured for the Workers’ Education Association in Norfolk until 1945, when she married. Becoming a full–time housewife in a farmhouse in the Radnor mountains during the 1950s, Elaine found herself alone during the week as her husband was working in Abertillery as a teacher. With little to occupy her mind, Elaine entered a writing competition in the Statesman and won. Spurred on by her winnings, Elaine started writing short stories for magazines, which were published, followed by a series of plays which were accepted by the BBC for television. This was the start of a thirty year relationship with the BBC, and Elaine’s television serials, documentaries and adaptations grew with television’s popularity: she won two Baftas, two Writers’ Guild award, a Prix Italia and Writer of the Year award from the Royal Television Society. Amongst her most famous television works for BBC Wales are How Green Was My Valley (1976) and The Life and Times of Lloyd George (1980).

Elaine’s success spurred on her strong political leanings, and she found herself increasingly interested in the body of New Science evolutionary writings emerging in the 1960s and 70s. These texts attempted to synthesise and interpret the exciting new hominid fossil discoveries of the time, propounding male–centric ideas about human evolution. Elaine published three books over the following decade which addressed evolution from both a female and male perspective, the latter of which The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis (1980) was internationally renowned. The books’ successes were partly due to their populist feminist undertone and although somewhat derided in academic spheres, Elaine’s legacy is the consideration of factors other than the ’male-hunter model’ in the explanation of why and how humans evolved. In 1994, Elaine was awarded the Letten F. Saugstad’s Prize for her contribution to scientific knowledge.

Elaine still lives in South Wales and regularly travels the country to discuss both her writing and anthropological work. She currently writes a well-received weekly column for the Western Mail.

Please click here to read a recent interview with Elaine.

Selected Publications: 
Literature:
The Waiting Room: A Play for Women in One Act (Samuel French Ltd, 1958)
Rest You Merry: A Christmas Play in Two Acts (Samuel French Ltd, 1959)
Eli’r Teulu: Comedi Dair Act (Gwasg Aberystwyth, 1960)
The Soldier and the Woman: A Play in One Act (Samuel French Ltd, 1961)
Licence to Murder: A Play in Two Acts (Samuel French Ltd, 1963)
A Chance to Shine: A Play in One Act (Samuel French Ltd, 1964)
Love from Liz (Samuel French Ltd, 1967)

Anthropology:
The Descent of Woman (Stein & Day, 1972)
Falling Apart: The Rise and Decline of Urban Civilisation (Souvenir Press, 1976)
The Aquatic Ape: Theory of Human Evolution (Souvenir Press, 1982) 
The Scars of Evolution: What Our Bodies Tell Us About Human Origins (Souvenir Press, 1990) 
The Descent of the Child: Human Evolution from a New Perspective (Souvenir Press, 1994)
Pinker’s List: Darwinists and the Left (Elidon Press, 2005)