| Aileen Armitage | |||||||
| Birth Date: | 1930 | ||||||
| Birth Place: | Luton, Bedfordshire, England | ||||||
| Alma Mater: | Hull University | ||||||
| Spouse: | |||||||
| Children: | 4 children and 2 stepchildren | ||||||
| Known For: | being depicted in Wide-Eyed and Legless and Lost for Words | ||||||
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Aileen Longden (pen names Ruth Fabian, Erica Lindley, Aileen Quigley and better known by her maiden name Aileen Armitage) is a British writer and public speaker. She is the author of more than thirty-five historical novels. She is partially-sighted and legally blind.[1]
Armitage was born in Luton, Bedfordshire in 1930,[2] daughter of Eric Armitage and Evelyn Armitage (née Colgan) who were married in 1929.[3] She grew up in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, where her father's family had already lived for about 400 years. The family house was in Lindley Moor near Huddersfield. Her grandfather owned a mill in this area. Armitage studied Modern Languages at Hull University gaining a BA. She became a teacher, but ten years later, due to failing eyesight she had to give up teaching. In 1967, she took a creative writing class through night school and began writing at night with a felt tip pen. She had numerous magazine articles and short stories published before she turned to longer fiction.[4] [5]
Armitage's first novel was accepted by a publisher, who asked her to write more. She has since been widely published in the UK and in the US. She has written under the names Ruth Fabian, Erica Lindley, Aileen Quigley and Aileen Armitage and has had more than thirty-five historical novels published.[6] In the UK, Armitage is a high Public Lending Right earner.
In 1954 Armitage married Peter Quigley, with whom she had four children, two sons and two daughters. The marriage later ended in divorce.[7]
In 1984, she met writer Deric Longden (who at that time was married to his first wife Diana), at a writers' conference. At the conference they discussed writing a television script together about disability, with Longden's wife Diana, at the heart of the story. Diana Longden had an illness which baffled doctors, left her wheelchair-reliant and in almost constant pain. The illness was later believed to be chronic fatigue syndrome or myalgic encephalomyelitis.
Armitage and Diana became devoted friends, notwithstanding the evident attraction Deric Longden and Armitage felt for one another; indeed, Diana hoped that they would marry after her death. Diana Longden died in 1985.
Armitage and Longden moved to Huddersfield. Armitage married Longden in 1990.
On 19 November 2012, Longden was diagnosed with terminal cancer[8] and died of cancer of the oesophagus on 23 June 2013.[9]
Armitage's life from when she first met Deric Longden is included in Longden's 1989 novel Diana's Story, later made into a TV film Wide-Eyed and Legless (1993) (known in the US as The Wedding Gift). Armitage is played by actress Sian Thomas whilst Longden is played by Jim Broadbent. Diana Longden is played by Julie Walters. Thora Hird plays Longden's mother Annie Mary Longden (23 August 1910 – 1988).
Longden's book Lost For Words (1991), which continues the story of his life with Armitage and his eccentric mother, was also made into a TV film, Lost for Words (1999), in which Penny Downie plays Armitage and Pete Postlethwaite plays Longden. Thora Hird reprises her role as Annie Longden. Armitage has a cameo as a voice on an answerphone, as does Longden. The film won the Emmy for best foreign drama and a BAFTA for Hird as best actress. The film was repeated on ITV in 2012, following the death of Pete Postlethwaite.
In 1988, Armitage received the Frink Woman of the Year Award.[10] [11] In November 2002 Armitage and her husband were awarded honorary Doctor of Literature degree by University of Huddersfield.[12] International Emmy 1999, Nominated for a BAFTA, Winner of the Peabody Prize and Le Priz Crystale all for the TV film Lost For Words, co-written with husband Deric Longden.