Polly Devlin OBE (born 1944) is a writer and Irish broadcaster.

Biography

She was born in

Ardboe Ardboe () is a large parish civil parish in east County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It borders the western shore of Lough Neagh and lies within the Mid Ulster District Council area. It is also the name of the local civil parish, which incorporat ...

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an administrative division for local government but retai ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, then a remote area without telephones or electricity. She left for London after winning the ''

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...

'' magazine Talent competition, working there as Features Editor. She also wrote a column for the ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British Political magazine, political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney Webb, Sidney and Beatrice ...

'' and she had her own page in the ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'' a year later. She moved to Manhattan in 1967 becoming a features editor and writer for

Diana Vreeland Diana Vreeland (September 29, 1903 – August 22, 1989) was a French-American fashion columnist and editor. She worked for the fashion magazine ''Harper's Bazaar'' and as editor-in-chief at ''Vogue'', later becoming a special consultant to the ...

on American Vogue. She reviewed theatre and film and interviewed

Barbra Streisand Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand (; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success in multiple fields of entertainment, and is among the few performers awar ...

, Janis Joplin,

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

, John Osborne,

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

and

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the Art movement, visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore th ...

among many others. When she moved back to England, she attended the National Film School for four years and directed a one-hour documentary ''The Daisy Chain''. She also wrote for ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

'', ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, w ...

'', ''Vogue'', and many other newspapers and magazines. She has been a Booker Prize judge (1984), Irish Times Literary Award judge (1994),

Pushkin Prize The Pushkin Prize (russian: Пушкинская премия) was established in 1881 by the Russian Academy of Sciences to honor one of the greatest Russian poets Alexander Pushkin (1799–1837). The prize was awarded to the Russian who achieve ...

judge (1998) and was awarded the OBE for Services to Literature in the

1992 Birthday Honours The Queen's Birthday Honours are announced on or around the date of the Queen's Official Birthday in the Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The dates vary, both from year to year and from country to country. All are published i ...

. She currently writes a column for ''

The Big Issue ''The Big Issue'' is a street newspaper founded by John Bird and Gordon Roddick in September 1991 and published in four continents. ''The Big Issue'' is one of the UK's leading social businesses and exists to offer homeless people, or individ ...

'' and is Adjunct Professor at

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, New York teaching creative non-fiction. She is also Northern Ireland panel member on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

Round Britain Quiz ''Round Britain Quiz'' (or ''RBQ'' for short) is a panel game that has been broadcast on BBC Radio since 1947, making it the oldest quiz still broadcast on British radio. It was based on a format called ''Transatlantic Quiz'', a contest betwee ...

'' She has five sisters and one brother,

Barry Devlin Barry Devlin (born 27 November 1946) is an Irish musician, screen writer and director. Early life Devlin is from Moortown in Ardboe, County Tyrone. He initially began to train as a Columban priest, but left to study English at University Col ...

who is bass player and vocalist in the Irish Celtic rock band

Horslips Horslips are an Irish Celtic rock band that compose, arrange and perform songs frequently inspired by traditional Irish airs, jigs and reels. The group are regarded as 'founding fathers of Celtic rock' for their fusion of traditional Irish ...

. Her sister Marie is an editor and writer (''Over Nine Waves'', a collection of Irish myths and legends) who married the Nobel Laureate

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

. In 1967 Polly married Andy Garnett an industrialist, philanthropist and writer of books including ''Steel Wheels, A Social History of Railways'' and ''Lucky Dog'', a memoir. Together they had three daughters

Rose Garnett Rose Garnett (born 1970) is the director of BBC Film, the feature film-making arm of the BBC. Garnett has a producing credit on 26 productions. Biography Garnett was born in 1970 to Andy Garnett and Polly Devlin, a writer for Vogue from Coun ...

, Head of Development at

Film 4 Film4 is a British free-to-air television network owned by Channel Four Television Corporation launched on 1 November 1998, devoted to broadcasting films. While its standard-definition channel is available on Freeview and Freesat platforms, it ...

, Daisy Garnett writer and journalist and

Bay Garnett Bay Garnett is a British freelance fashion stylist, author, editor, creative director and advocate for sustainability in fashion. She pioneered the idea of "thrifting", the art of shopping in second-hand stores, as being relevant to high fashion b ...

fashion stylist, author and editor.

Books

* ''All of us There'' a social history. Many re-prints. Latest Virago Modern Classics * ''The Far side of the Lough'' Short stories. Re-published

O'Brien Press The O'Brien Press is an Irish publisher of mainly children's fiction and adult non-fiction. History The O'Brien Press was founded in 1973, evolving out of a family-run printing and type-house. Its first publication came in November 1974 and n ...

1999 * ''Vogue Book of Fashion Photography''. Thames and Hudson. 1979 * ''Dora or the Shifts of the Heart'' a novel pub 1993 Chatto and Windus. Serialised for 13 weeks on Radio 4 * ''Dublin a Guide Book'' 1996 * ''Only Sometimes Looking Sideways'' A Book of Essays. O'Brien Press 1998 * ''A Year in the Life of an English Meadow'' Frances Lincoln 2007 * ''A Guide to Ceramics'' for the National Gallery Ireland New York: Places to Write Home About Pimpernel Press 2017 New York:Behind Closed Doors: Gibbs-Smith. USA 2017 * ''Writing Home'' Essays. 2019 * Film: ''The Daisy Chain'' A documentary film: director and writer. * Radio Play: ''The Hiring Fair''

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Devlin, Polly 1944 births Living people Officers of the Order of the British Empire People from Ardboe