Simon James Holliday Gray CBE FRSL (21 October 1936 – 7 August 2008)[1] was an English playwright and memoirist who also had a career as a university lecturer in English literature at Queen Mary, University of London, for 20 years.

[2][3] While teaching at Queen Mary, Gray began his writing career as a novelist in 1963 and, during the next 45 years, in addition to five published novels, wrote 40 original stage plays, screenplays, and screen adaptations of his own and others' works for stage, film and television and became well known for the self-deprecating wit characteristic of several volumes of memoirs or diaries.

[7] In 1939, during World War II, when he was three years old, Simon and his elder brother Nigel were evacuated to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to live in "a house where his grandfather and [his grandfather's] alcoholic wife were attended upon by a younger aunt"; in 1945, when he was nearly 10, he returned to England, where he was educated at Westminster School, in London.

[6][7] He married his first wife, Beryl Kevern, in 1965; they had two children, a son, Benjamin, and a daughter, Lucy, and were divorced in 1997.

[5][7] During their marriage, he had an eight-year affair with another Queen Mary lecturer, Victoria Katherine Rothschild (b.

[10] In 2004 he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to drama and literature.

[12] His career in drama began when he adapted one of his own short stories, The Caramel Crisis, for television.

[13] Gray wrote 40 plays and screenplays for the stage, television, and film and eight volumes of memoirs based on his diaries.

It starred Simon Ward and Alec Guinness and was produced by Michael Codron at Wyndham's Theatre in 1967.

His original television screenplays include Running Late, After Pilkington, Unnatural Pursuits, and A Month in the Country.

The last one was a stage production of The Old Masters, starring Peter Bowles and Edward Fox.

"[12] He wrote many other successful stage plays, including The Common Pursuit, The Late Middle Classes, Hidden Laughter, Japes, Close of Play, The Rear Column, and Little Nell, several of which he directed himself.

In 1984, at the suggestion of Robert McCrum, Faber editor-in-chief at that time, he kept a diary of the London premiere of The Common Pursuit, directed by Pinter at the Lyric Hammersmith, resulting in the first of his 8 volumes of theatre-related and personal memoirs, An Unnatural Pursuit (Faber 1985), and culminating in the critically acclaimed trilogy entitled The Smoking Diaries (Granta, 2004–2008).

[16] Gray's play about George Blake, Cell Mates (1995), starring Rik Mayall, Stephen Fry and Simon Ward, attracted media attention when Stephen Fry suffered a nervous breakdown and abruptly "fled to Bruges" after the third West End performance, thus leaving the show without its lead actor.

[3] Gray subsequently wrote his theatrical memoir Fat Chance, providing an account of the episode.

[17] In August 2008, shortly before his death, he attracted further press attention with his criticism of the Royal National Theatre's "cowardice" in dealing with the subject of radical Islam.

[19][20] From 8 to 12 December 2008, in five 15-minute episodes, actor Toby Stephens read from this "candid and darkly comic account of coming to terms with terminal cancer" for BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week.

[21] Simon Gray: A Celebration, directed by Harry Burton, who directed Gray's last stage production in Spring 2008 (Quartermaine's Terms at Theatre Royal, Windsor),[22] was held at the Comedy Theatre, in London, on 15 March 2009.

[23] A production entitled The Last Cigarette, based on Gray's and Hugh Whitemore's adaptation of the three volumes of his memoirs called The Smoking Diaries and directed by Richard Eyre, opened at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, England, in April 2009.

[24][25] The production, with Felicity Kendal, Nicholas Le Prevost, and Jasper Britton, then transferred to the Trafalgar Studios, in London's West End,[26][27] An official web site was launched in October 2009.

[28] The Late Middle Classes finally received its London premiere on 27 May 2010 at the Donmar Warehouse in London, directed by David Leveaux and starring Helen McCrory, Eleanor Bron, Peter Sullivan and Robert Glenister.

The original production of the play, directed by Harold Pinter, was prevented from reaching its intended West End theatre by a musical about a boy band.

In May–June 2014 In the Vale of Health, consisting of three unseen plays and one revival—Japes, Michael, Japes Too and Missing Dates—was performed at the Hampstead Theatre, London, directed by Tamara Harvey and starring Gethin Anthony, Jamie Ballard, Imogen Doel, Tom Mothersdale and Laura Rees.

The plays tell the story, from different perspectives, of two brothers who fall in love with the same woman.

(Includes: Butley; Otherwise Engaged; Close of Play; Quartermaine's Terms; and The Late Middle Classes.)

"Memo to the BBC: Bring Back Simon Gray's TV Plays".

("His reflective, moving and often very funny memoirs have brought Simon Gray a whole new readership outside theatre circles.

"Simon Gray: Playwright, Diarist and Novelist Who Bridged the Gulf between Intellectual and Popular Drama".

"Appreciation: Simon Gray, 1936–2008: Smoker, Gambler, Teacher and Writer with an Enviable Gift for Friendship".

"Simon Gray, Playwright, Novelist and Author of a Series of Hilarious Irascible Memoirs".