Patricia Olive "Pat" Kavanagh (31 January 1940 – 20 October 2008) was a British literary agent.

Life and work

Kavanagh was born in 1940 in

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

, South Africa, where her father was a journalist before and after his service as a fighter pilot in the SAAF during the Second World War. Her mother, Olive (née Le Roux), was a pioneering public health inspector. Her half-sister, Julie Kavanagh, is a ballet critic. Her half-brother, Michael O'Brien, is a geologist living in

Vancouver, British Columbia Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. The ...

, Canada. She attended the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

, but pursued an interest in acting. She had an uncredited, non-speaking role in Dylan Thomas's ''

Under Milk Wood ''Under Milk Wood'' is a 1954 radio drama by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, commissioned by the BBC and later adapted for the stage. A film version, ''Under Milk Wood'' directed by Andrew Sinclair, was released in 1972, and another adaptation of ...

'' after coming to Britain in 1964. She did not get paid for the part, but, as she later recalled, she did "get to snog

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". It marked the end of her acting career. While working for

J. Walter Thompson J. Walter Thompson (JWT) was an advertisement holding company incorporated in 1896 by American advertising pioneer James Walter Thompson. The company was acquired in 1987 by multinational holding company WPP plc, and in November 2018, WPP merge ...

as a copywriter, she answered an advertisement for a position as a literary agent. She was hired by " A. D. Peters, a legendary agent who showed her the ropes", taught her how to negotiate and gave her responsibility for selling serialization and newspaper rights for the agency's early group of clients, including

Arthur Koestler Arthur Koestler, (, ; ; hu, Kösztler Artúr; 5 September 1905 – 1 March 1983) was a Hungarian-born author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest and, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria. In 1931, Koestler join ...

S. J. Perelman Sidney Joseph Perelman (February 1, 1904 – October 17, 1979) was an American humorist and screenwriter. He is best known for his humorous short pieces written over many years for ''The New Yorker''. He also wrote for several other magazines ...

Rebecca West Dame Cicily Isabel Fairfield (21 December 1892 – 15 March 1983), known as Rebecca West, or Dame Rebecca West, was a British author, journalist, literary critic and travel writer. An author who wrote in many genres, West reviewed books ...

and

Tom Wolfe Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (March 2, 1930 – May 14, 2018)Some sources say 1931; ''The New York Times'' and Reuters both initially reported 1931 in their obituaries before changing to 1930. See and was an American author and journalist widely ...

. She was married to, and was the literary agent of, the writer

Julian Barnes Julian Patrick Barnes (born 19 January 1946) is an English writer. He won the Man Booker Prize in 2011 with '' The Sense of an Ending'', having been shortlisted three times previously with '' Flaubert's Parrot'', ''England, England'', and '' A ...

. They lived in North London. In the 1980s, Kavanagh left Barnes for a relationship with author

Jeanette Winterson Jeanette Winterson (born 27 August 1959) is an English writer. Her first book, '' Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit'', was a semi-autobiographical novel about a sensitive teenage girl rebelling against convention. Other novels explore gender pola ...

, author of ''

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'', but later returned to the marriage. Winterson is said to have used the relationship as the basis of her novel ''The Passion'' (1987). Kavanagh became the agent in 1985 of Martin Amis, who left her after 23 years to "throw in his lot" with American agent Andrew Wylie, as part of an effort to get a large advance for his own novel '' The Information''. In 2001, her employer, now known as Peters, Fraser & Dunlop, was purchased by CSS Stellar, a company specializing in sports marketing. Kavanagh was one of several former employees who left the company in September 2007 to form United Agents. Her clients left to join her at the new firm. She died of a brain tumour on 20 October 2008 in London, aged 68, and was buried on the east side of

Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...

Clients

Her clients included: * Sally Beauman * Dirk Bogarde (Estate) * Duncan Campbell *

Lindsay Clarke Lindsay Clarke (born 1939, Halifax, West Yorkshire) is a British novelist. He was educated at Heath Grammar School in Halifax and at King's College, Cambridge. The landscape of hills, moors and crags around Halifax informed the growth of his ima ...

Wendy Cope Wendy Cope (born 21 July 1945) is a contemporary English poet. She read history at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She now lives in Ely, Cambridgeshire, with her husband, the poet Lachlan Mackinnon. Biography Cope was born in Erith in Kent (no ...

Russell Davies Robert Russell Davies (born 5 April 1946) is a British journalist and broadcaster. Davies was born in Barmouth, North Wales. He attended Manchester Grammar School, according to his own statement on a November 2010 ''Brain of Britain'' programme ...

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Douglas Dunn Douglas Eaglesham Dunn, OBE (born 23 October 1942) is a Scottish poet, academic, and critic. He is Professor of English and Director of St Andrew's Scottish Studies Institute at St Andrew's University. Background Dunn was born in Inchinnan, Re ...

James Fenton James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

* Sir Christopher Frayling * Nicci and Sean French *

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* Robert Harris *

John Irving John Winslow Irving (born John Wallace Blunt Jr.; March 2, 1942) is an American-Canadian novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. Irving achieved critical and popular acclaim after the international success of ''The World According to ...

* Clive James *

(Estate) * Dame

Hermione Lee Dame Hermione Lee, (born 29 February 1948) is a British biographer, literary critic and academic. She is a former President of Wolfson College, Oxford, and a former Goldsmiths' Professor of English Literature in the University of Oxford and Pr ...

* Laurie Lee (Estate) *

Prue Leith Dame Prudence Margaret Leith, (born 18 February 1940) is a South African restaurateur, chef, caterer, television presenter/broadcaster, journalist, cookery writer and novelist. She is Chancellor of Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. She wa ...

* Adam Mars-Jones * Brian Moore (Estate) * Blake Morrison * Sir Andrew Motion *

Chris Mullin Christopher Paul Mullin (born July 30, 1963) is an American former professional basketball player, executive and coach. He is a two-time Olympic Gold medalist and a two-time Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee (in 2010 as a memb ...

* John Preston *

Ruth Rendell Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, (; 17 February 1930 – 2 May 2015) was an English author of thrillers and psychological murder mysteries. Rendell is best known for creating Chief Inspector Wexford.The Oxford Companion ...

* Helen Simpson *

Sandi Toksvig Sandra Birgitte Toksvig (; ; born 3 May 1958) is a Danish-British writer, comedian and broadcaster on British radio, stage and television. She is also a political activist, having co-founded the Women's Equality Party in 2015. She has written ...

* William Trevor, KBE *

Joanna Trollope Joanna Trollope (; born 9 December 1943) is an English writer. She has also written under the pseudonym of Caroline Harvey. Her novel ''Parson Harding's Daughter'' won in 1980 the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Ass ...

(aka

Caroline Harvey Caroline Harvey may refer to: * Caroline Harvey, pseudonym of English writer Joanna Trollope * Caroline Harvey (ice hockey) Caroline "K.K." Harvey (born October 14, 2002) is an American college ice hockey defenceman for Wisconsin and member of t ...

) *

Auberon Waugh Auberon Alexander Waugh (17 November 1939 – 16 January 2001) was an English journalist and novelist, and eldest son of the novelist Evelyn Waugh. He was widely known by his nickname "Bron". After a traditional classical education at Downsid ...

(Estate) *

Francis Wheen Francis James Baird Wheen (born 22 January 1957) is a British journalist, writer and broadcaster. Early life and education Wheen was born into an army familyNicholas Wro"A life in writing" ''The Guardian'', 29 August 2009 and educated at two ind ...

* Bee Wilson *

References

External links

Portrait with Kingsley Amis
npg.org.uk; accessed 6 June 2014. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kavanagh, Pat 1940 births 2008 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery Literary agents Bisexual women English LGBT people South African LGBT people Deaths from brain cancer in England Neurological disease deaths in England University of Cape Town alumni British people of Irish descent South African people of Irish descent South African emigrants to the United Kingdom 20th-century LGBT people