Penelope Gilliatt, who retains the surname of her first husband, is a writer of short stories; novels; television and film scripts; and film, book, and theater criticism. She has been awarded a fiction prize by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, London. She was born the redheaded daughter of barrister Cyril and Mary Douglass Conner in London on 25 March 1932. She grew up in and around Northumberland but lived in London during the war years; later, she attended Queens College, London, and spent a year (1948) as a student at Bennington College, Vermont. Her first marriage (1954), to professor Roger William Gilliatt, ended in divorce, as did her second (1963), to playwright John Osborn, the father of her daughter, Nolan Kate.

Gilliatt is best known for the screenplay Sunday Bloody Sunday (1972), which won prizes from the National Society of Film Critics...