Brenda, Lady Maddox FRSL (née Murphy; February 24, 1932 – June 16, 2019)[1] was an American writer and biographer, who spent most of her adult life living and working in the UK, from 1959 until her death.
[2] She is best known for her biographies, including of Nora Barnacle, the wife of James Joyce, and for her semi-autobiographical book, The Half-Parent: Living with Other People's Children.
Born Brenda Murphy in Bridgewater, Massachusetts in 1932, she graduated from Harvard University (class of 1953) with a degree in English literature.
Her biographies of Elizabeth Taylor, D. H. Lawrence, Nora Joyce, W. B. Yeats and Rosalind Franklin[5] have been widely acclaimed.
She was vice-president of the Hay-on-Wye Festival of Literature, a member of the Editorial Board of British Journalism Review, and a past chairman of the Broadcasting Press Guild.