Early years

Dunn was born in London and educated at a convent, which she left at the age of fourteen. Although she came from an upperclass background, in 1959 she moved to Battersea and made friends in the neighborhood and worked for a time in a sweets factory. This world inspired much of what Dunn would later write.

Career

Dunn came to fame in 1963 with the publication of Up the Junction, a series of short stories set in South London. The book became a controversial success because of its vibrant, realistic and nonjudgmental portrait of the lower classes. It was filmed for television and film and was awarded the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize.

A collection of interviews, Talking to Women (1965), preceded the publication of her first novel.

In 1967 she published her first novel Poor Cow which was a bestseller and also achieved a succès de scandale. Poor Cow was made into a film starring Carol White and Terence Stamp, under the direction of Ken Loach.

Her more recent adult books are Grandmothers (1991) and My Silver Shoes (1996). Dunn's acclaimed play Steaming was produced in 1981 and her first television film Every Breath You Take, appeared in 1987. She has also written Sisters, a film script commissioned by the BBC.

She won the 1982 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.

Personal life

Dunn was married to writer Jeremy Sandford from 1957 to 1979. They have three sons. She is the daughter of Sir Philip Dunn.

• Up the Junction 1963
• Poor Cow 1967
• Tear His Head Off His Shoulders 1974
• Grandmothers 1991
• My Silver Shoes 1996

Plays

• I Want, 1976
• Steaming, 1981
• Variety Night, 1982
• The Little Heroine, 1988
• Consequences, 1988
• Babe XXX, 1998
• Cancer Tales, 2003

Film Script

• Every Breath You Take 1987
• Sisters, 1994