BRIGGS, Mrs Michael (Isabel Diana nee COLEGATE) (1931-2023)

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Obit in Telegraph -  Isabel Colegate, author of The Shooting Party and other novels, whose work was not easy to pigeonhole – obituary (telegraph.co.uk)

She was the d of the politician Sir (William) Arthur COLEGATE (1884-1956) and (m 1917 as her 2nd h, her 1st h having been Capt Francis Percy Campbell PEMBERTON ka 1914) Winifred Mary (1888-1955) d of Sir William Henry Arthington Worsley, 3rd Baronet (1861-1936). She m 1953 Michael BRIGGS (1926-2017)

EXTRACTS:

Isabel Colegate, author of The Shooting Party and other novels, whose work was not easy to pigeonhole – obituary

The Shooting Party was a key influence on Julian Fellowes in creating Downton Abbey and it won the WH Smith Literary AwarD

Isabel Colegate, who has died aged 91, was the author of 13 novels, including The Shooting Party (1980), an elegiac and highly acclaimed portrayal of a rapidly disappearing world of Edwardian privilege, set on the eve of the First World War; in 1984 it was made into an award-winning film by Alan Bridges, with an all-star cast led by James Mason as the lord of the manor, Edward Fox as a difficult guest and John Gielgud as a banner-waving animal-rights campaigner.

The book’s thesis was that “an age, perhaps a civilisation, is coming to an end,” and the director and screenwriter Julian Fellowes cited The Shooting Party as the key influence on Gosford Park and Downton Abbey. It won the 1981 WH Smith Literary Award…..

Isabel Diana Colegate was born in Lincolnshire on September 10 1931, the youngest of four daughters of Arthur (later Sir Arthur) Colegate and Winifred, née Worsley, the daughter of a baronet and widow of an Army officer killed in action in the First World War.

Arthur Colegate had started out as a socialist and a had been close to Beatrice and Sidney Webb. But after periods in the Civil Service and in business, he joined the Conservatives, serving as MP for The Wrekin from 1941 to 1945, then for Burton from 1950 to 1955.

Isabel and her sisters spent much of their childhood at Bembridge on the Isle of Wight, and early in the war went to stay with their uncle Sir Marcus Worsley and cousins at Hovingham Hall, Yorkshire. When their father entered Parliament they moved to Shropshire.

Isabel was sent to Runton Hill School, a girls’ boarding school in Norfolk, but claimed to have had “no education at all”. Her first job, from 1952, was with Anthony Blond, with whom she set up the Anthony Blond literary agency. She had met him through Michael Briggs, a dashingly handsome commodity trader whom she would marry in 1953…..

In 1961 the Briggses bought Midford Castle, a Strawberry Hill Gothic country house near Bath which they worked to restore and where they brought up their three children. In partnership with Jeremy Fry of the chocolate family, Michael Briggs built up a thriving engineering firm and he went on to serve as a successful chairman of the Bath Preservation Trust. The couple also had a home in London and for many years a farmhouse in Tuscany….

Isabel Colegate was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Her husband Michael Briggs died in 2017. She is survived by two sons and a daughter.

Isabel Colegate, born September 10 1931, died March 12 2023

Michael Briggs obit in Telegraph - Michael Briggs, chairman of Bath Preservation Trust – obituary (telegraph.co.uk)

I feel I need to read The Shooting Party now

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From the Daily Telegraph 18 March 2023 - BRIGGS Isabel Diana (née Colegate). Died peacefully at home in Mells on Sunday 12th March 2023 aged 91 years. Widow of Michael, much loved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother and author of fourteen books. Funeral Service at St Andrew's Church, Mells BA11 3PW on Thursday 30th March at 3 p.m. Family flowers only but donations in her memory to the BookTrust. All enquiries to William Adlam Funeral Directors, 68 Locks Hill, Frome BA11 1NH. Tel: 01373 452100.