Molly Parkin

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"Welcome to Mollywood" redirects here. For other uses, see Welcome to Mollywood (disambiguation).

Molly Noyle Parkin
Brighton College of Art
Known forPainter, novelist, and journalist
ChildrenSophie Parkin and Sarah Lieberson

Molly Parkin (born Molly Noyle Thomas, 3 February 1932) is a Welsh painter, novelist and journalist, who became most well-known for her work on Nova magazine, newspapers and television in the 1960s.

Early life

Parkin was born on 3 February 1932, the second of two daughters, in

paperboys. When one of the paperboys was caught stealing money, her mother—needing to fill his shift quickly—made Parkin, then aged 14, do his paper round instead. On her first day, a car knocked her off her bicycle and she hit her head on the kerb. She was knocked unconscious, hospitalised, and spent about a year off school, convalescing. Parkin spent much of this period alone in her room above the shop, drawing and painting. This developed into an interest in the arts.[2]

Career

In 1949 Parkin gained a scholarship to study

Brighton College of Art. After marriage, she became a teacher, painting throughout this period. Following a series of affairs, including a long-term association with James Robertson Justice, Parkin separated from her husband at the start of the 1960s; at this time she lost the desire, inspiration and passion to continue with her artwork.[citation needed
]

To support her two daughters, Parkin turned to fashion. After making hats and bags for

Swinging London. She sold the shop to business partner Terence Donovan, then joined Nova magazine in 1965, when the radical Dennis Hackett became its editor. David Gibbs' comprehensive anthology[3]
of Nova pages and images says of Parkin: "A dynamic sense of colour and design was all she needed to guide her. Unfettered by the accepted wisdom of the fashion system, she introduced an unconventional and startling view of what women could wear... always teasing the edges of taste... She set the standard."

In that year 1965, Molly Parkin starred in the anti-war film Good Times, Wonderful Times, by Lionel Rogosin which represented Britain at the Venice Festival that year.[1]

In her two years as fashion editor, the flamboyant Parkin raised the bar with her coverage – shot by the new generation of young photographers – that again affirmed the Swinging City,

Harpers & Queen in 1967, and The Sunday Times in 1969, being named Fashion Editor of the Year in 1971. After becoming a television personality in the 1970s, Parkin was banned from the BBC
for swearing.

In the 1970s, as a chatshow celebrity and libidinous novelist, Parkin wrote an uninhibited weekly interview in the Saturday edition of the

Time Out magazine's review of London's best erotic writers.[7]

After the publication of her autobiography Moll: The Making of Molly Parkin in 1993, Parkin started painting again, with her first exhibition in more than a decade at the Washington Gallery in Penarth. Much of her new work was inspired by Celtic landscapes, in particular Pontycymer—although she also found her travels in India moved her to produce more vibrantly coloured works. In October 2010, her memoirs Welcome to Mollywood were published.[8]

In 2010, a portrait of Parkin painted by Darren Coffield was exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery, London for the BP Portrait Award.[9]

She was a "castaway" on the BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs in May 2011.[1]

In May 2012, she was awarded a Civil List Pension by the Queen for her services to the arts.[10]

Parkin featured in an episode of

bankrupt following a period of alcoholism.[11]

In 2017 Parkin appeared live in a one-woman show at a London salon hosted by Simon Oldfield of Pin Drop Studio.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b "Desert Island Discs with Molly Parkin". Desert Island Discs. 8 May 2011. BBC. Radio 4.
  2. ^ "The Paper Round with Molly Parkin". The Paper Round. 3 January 2012. BBC. Radio 4.
  3. ^ "Nova 1965–1975, by David Gibbs (Editor), David Hillman (Compiler), Harri Peccinotti (Photographer)". Pavilion Books, 1993, page 39.
  4. ^ Brown, Mick (10 November 2016). "The Diamond Decades: The 1960s". The Telegraph.
  5. ^ "Giants who went before". Shapersofthe80s.com. 21 August 2010. Retrieved 21 October 2021.
  6. ^ "How we met: John Maybury & Molly Parkin". The Independent. UK. 29 July 2007. Retrieved 22 April 2008.[dead link]
  7. ^ "Sex and books: London's most erotic writers". TimeOut. 26 February 2008. Retrieved 22 April 2008.
  8. ^ Cacciottolo, Mario (30 October 2010). "Molly Parkin: Fashioning her own career". BBC News. Retrieved 3 January 2012.
  9. ^ "Welsh artist Molly Parkin becomes a subject in awards show". Wales Online. 24 June 2010.
  10. ^ Eden, Richard (20 May 2012). "Molly Parkin shocked to receive rare honour". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
  11. ^ Martin, Clife (14 June 2014). "Molly Parkin: 'when Louis Armstrong kisses you, he takes in your nose and mouth, too': Clive Martin meets the octogenarian artist whose wild social life has been as striking as her painting". The Guardian.
  12. ^ "Molly Parkin". Pin Drop. Retrieved 2 May 2018.

Further reading

  • Parkin, Molly (17 November 1996). "She Ain't Heavy, She's... the woman who bedded Brando, shared a flat with Monroe, and upstaged Gielgud. She is Shelley Winters, Molly Parkin's new soul sister". The Sunday Telegraph Magazine. pp. 25, 26

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Molly_Parkin&oldid=1204502594"