Molly Parkin

Molly Parkin (born Molly Noyle Thomas, 3 February 1932) is a Welsh painter, novelist and journalist, who became most well-known for her work on ''Nova'' magazine, newspapers and television in the 1960s.

Early life

Parkin was born on 3 February 1932, the second of two daughters, in Pontycymer in the Garw Valley, Glamorgan, Wales. She and her family moved to London to live with her grandparents when the Second World War began in 1939. She went to Willesden County Grammar School (now Capital City Academy). During the war, without her parents' knowledge, at the age of 12 she worked on a paper round in Dollis Hill, London, in the evenings. She told her mother that she was studying art after-hours at school. Her grandfather saw her delivering papers, however, and reported this to her mother, who prevented her from continuing with the job and punished her by making her do housework. After this, Parkin earned a little money from a Mr Hill, their lodger, who took pity on her and paid her to clean his room. She idolised Hill, who she thought was a gentleman, and many years later saw similar characteristics in the actor James Robertson Justice. Later the family bought a tobacconist's and newsagent shop, which employed four paperboys. When one of the paperboys was caught stealing money, her mother—needing to fill his shift quickly—made Parkin, then aged 14, do his paper round instead. On her first day, a car knocked her off her bicycle and she hit her head on the kerb. She was knocked unconscious, hospitalised, and spent about a year off school, convalescing. Parkin spent much of this period alone in her room above the shop, drawing and painting. This developed into an interest in the arts.

Career

In 1949 Parkin gained a scholarship to study fine art at Goldsmiths College, London, and then a scholarship to Brighton College of Art. After marriage, she became a teacher, painting throughout this period. Following a series of affairs, including a long-term association with James Robertson Justice, Parkin separated from her husband at the start of the 1960s; at this time she lost the desire, inspiration and passion to continue with her artwork.

To support her two daughters, Parkin turned to fashion. After making hats and bags for Barbara Hulanicki at Biba, and working alongside Mary Quant, she opened her own Chelsea boutique, which was featured in a ''Newsweek'' article about Swinging London. She sold the shop to business partner Terence Donovan, then joined ''Nova'' magazine in 1965, when the radical Dennis Hackett became its editor. David Gibbs' comprehensive anthology of ''Nova'' pages and images says of Parkin: "A dynamic sense of colour and design was all she needed to guide her. Unfettered by the accepted wisdom of the fashion system, she introduced an unconventional and startling view of what women could wear... always teasing the edges of taste... She set the standard."

In her two years as fashion editor, the flamboyant Parkin raised the bar with her coverage – shot by the new generation of young photographers – that again affirmed the Swinging City, which ''Time'' magazine reported in 1966 as the hub of creativity and hedonism. Parkin moved on to become fashion editor of '' Harpers & Queen'' in 1967, and ''The Sunday Times'' in 1969, being named Fashion Editor of the Year in 1971. After becoming a television personality in the 1970s, Parkin was banned from the BBC
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