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Joe Orton

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A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.

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104-403: John Kingsley Orton (1 January 1933 – 9 August 1967), known by the pen name of Joe Orton , was an English playwright , author, and diarist. His public career, from 1964 until his murder in 1967, was short but highly influential. During this brief period he shocked, outraged, and amused audiences with his scandalous black comedies . The adjective Ortonesque refers to work characterised by

208-496: A haigō (俳号). The haiku poet Matsuo Bashō had used two other haigō before he became fond of a banana plant ( bashō ) that had been given to him by a disciple and started using it as his pen name at the age of 36. Similar to a pen name, Japanese artists usually have a gō or art-name , which might change a number of times during their career. In some cases, artists adopted different gō at different stages of their career, usually to mark significant changes in their life. One of

312-542: A Swedish author of the 19th century, wrote under the name Ernst Ahlgren. The science fiction author Alice B. Sheldon for many years published under the masculine name of James Tiptree, Jr. , the discovery of which led to a deep discussion of gender in the genre. More recently, women who write in genres commonly written by men sometimes choose to use initials, such as K. A. Applegate , C. J. Cherryh , P. N. Elrod , D. C. Fontana , S. E. Hinton , G. A. Riplinger , J. D. Robb , and J. K. Rowling . Alternatively, they may use

416-612: A West End debut. The play opened in Cambridge on 1 February to scathing reviews. Orton, disagreeing with director Peter Wood over the plot, produced 133 pages of new material to replace, or add to, the original 90. But the play received poor reviews in Brighton , Oxford , Bournemouth , Manchester , and finally Wimbledon in mid-March. Discouraged, Orton and Halliwell went on an 80-day holiday in Tangiers. In January 1966, Loot

520-539: A campaign to honour him with a statue in his native city, Leicester. The campaign enjoyed prominent support from the acting community, including from Sheila Hancock , Kenneth Cranham , Ian McKellen and Alec Baldwin . Although the fundraising target was met, the project was cancelled in 2022, with the organisers citing pandemic challenges and changing attitudes to statues in Britain. Orton's sister Leonie stated that Orton's history of sexual encounters with underage boys

624-603: A cold, nondescript note and bouquet at the funeral on their behalf. At the suggestion of Halliwell's family, Peggy Ramsay asked Orton's brother Douglas if Orton and Halliwell's ashes could be mixed. Douglas agreed, "As long as nobody hears about it in Leicester." The mixed ashes were scattered in section 3-C of the Garden of Remembrance at Golders Green. There is no memorial. John Lahr 's biography of Orton, entitled Prick Up Your Ears (a title Orton himself had considered using),

728-571: A decline shared by its direct tabloid rivals The Sun and the Daily Star . Morgan was fired from the Mirror on 14 May 2004 after authorising the newspaper's publication of photographs allegedly showing Iraqi prisoners being abused by British Army soldiers from the Queen's Lancashire Regiment . Within days the photographs were shown to be fakes. Under the headline "SORRY.. WE WERE HOAXED",

832-637: A junior clerk for £3 a week. Orton became interested in performing in theatre around 1949 and joined a number of dramatic societies, including the Leicester Dramatic Society. While working on amateur productions he was determined to improve his appearance and physique, buying bodybuilding courses, taking elocution lessons. He was accepted for a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in November 1950, and he left

936-622: A marketing exercise with Pepsi-Cola , who on the same day had decided to relaunch its cans with a blue design instead of the traditional red and white logo. Source: Tabloid Nation Notable former and current columnists of the Daily Mirror include: The Daily Mirror won "Newspaper of the Year" in 2002 at the British Press Awards . It won "Scoop of the Year" in 2003 ("3am", 'Sven and Ulrika'), 2004 (Ryan Parry, 'Intruder at

1040-630: A number of unpublished novels (often imitating Ronald Firbank ) with no success at gaining publication. The rejection of their great hope, The Last Days of Sodom, in 1957 led them to solo works. Orton wrote his last novel, The Vision of Gombold Proval (posthumously published as Head to Toe ), in 1959. He later drew on these manuscripts for ideas; many show glimpses of his stage-play style. Confident of their "specialness," Orton and Halliwell refused to work for long periods. They subsisted on Halliwell's money (and unemployment benefits) and were forced to follow an ascetic life to restrict their spending to £5

1144-459: A pen name is employed to avoid overexposure. Prolific authors for pulp magazines often had two and sometimes three short stories appearing in one issue of a magazine; the editor would create several fictitious author names to hide this from readers. Robert A. Heinlein wrote stories under the pseudonyms of Anson MacDonald (a combination of his middle name and his then-wife's maiden name) and Caleb Strong so that more of his works could be published in

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1248-437: A purportedly liberal country. As Orton put it: "It affected my attitude towards society. Before I had been vaguely conscious of something rotten somewhere, prison crystallised this. The old whore society really lifted up her skirts and the stench was pretty foul.... Being in the nick brought detachment to my writing. I wasn't involved any more. And suddenly it worked." The book covers Orton and Halliwell vandalised have since become

1352-503: A restructuring of the media interests of the Harmsworth family led to the Mirror becoming a part of International Publishing Corporation . During the mid-1960s, daily sales exceeded 5 million copies, a feat never repeated by it or any other daily (non-Sunday) British newspaper since. The Mirror was owned by Robert Maxwell between 1984 and 1991. The paper went through a protracted period of crisis after his death before merging with

1456-642: A short BBC radio interview first transmitted in August 1967 and a video recording, held by the British Film Institute , of his appearance on Eamonn Andrews ' ITV chat show transmitted 23 April 1967. A pedestrian concourse in front of the Curve theatre in Leicester has been renamed Orton Square. In July 2019, Dr Emma Parker, professor at the University of Leicester and an Orton expert, began

1560-580: A similarly dark yet farcical cynicism . Joe Orton was born on 1 January 1933 at Causeway Lane Maternity Hospital, Leicester , to William Arthur Orton and Elsie Mary Orton (née Bentley). William worked for Leicester County Borough Council as a gardener and Elsie worked in the local footwear industry until tuberculosis cost her a lung. At the time of Joe's birth, William and Mary were living with William's family at 261 Avenue Road Extension in Clarendon Park, Leicester . Joe's younger brother, Douglas,

1664-490: A single magazine. Stephen King published four novels under the name Richard Bachman because publishers did not feel the public would buy more than one novel per year from a single author. Eventually, after critics found a large number of style similarities, publishers revealed Bachman's true identity. Sometimes a pen name is used because an author believes that their name does not suit the genre they are writing in. Western novelist Pearl Gray dropped his first name and changed

1768-554: A time when opinion polls showed the party on course for their worst election result since 1983. The newspaper was critical of the Liberal Democrats for forming the coalition which enabled the Conservatives to form a new government in 2010, and branded leader Nick Clegg as Pinickio (alluding to the lying fictional character Pinocchio ) for going back on numerous pre-election pledges. It has frequently referred to

1872-460: A unisex pen name, such as Robin Hobb (the second pen name of novelist Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden ). A collective name , also known as a house name , is published under one pen name even though more than one author may have contributed to the series. In some cases, the first books in the series were written by one writer, but subsequent books were written by ghostwriters . For instance, many of

1976-658: A valued part of the Islington Local History Centre collection. Some are exhibited in the Islington Museum . A collection of the book covers is available online. Orton began writing plays in 1959 with Fred and Madge ; The Visitors followed two years later. In 1963, the BBC paid £65 for the radio play The Ruffian on the Stair , broadcast on 31 August 1964. It was substantially rewritten for

2080-466: A week. From 1957 to 1959, they worked in six-month stretches at Cadbury's to raise money for a new flat; they moved into a small, austere flat at 25 Noel Road in Islington in 1959. A lack of serious work led them to amuse themselves with pranks and hoaxes. Orton created the second self "Edna Welthorpe", an elderly theatre snob, whom he later revived to stir controversy over his plays. Orton chose

2184-545: Is a British national daily tabloid newspaper . Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc . From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply The Mirror . It had an average daily print circulation of 716,923 in December 2016, dropping to 587,803 the following year. Its Sunday sister paper is the Sunday Mirror . Unlike other major British tabloids such as The Sun and

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2288-664: Is difficult to trace the authorship of many earlier literary works from India. Later writers adopted the practice of using the name of their deity of worship or Guru's name as their pen name. In this case, typically the pen name would be included at the end of the prose or poetry. Composers of Indian classical music used pen names in compositions to assert authorship, including Sadarang , Gunarang ( Fayyaz Ahmed Khan ), Ada Rang (court musician of Muhammad Shah ), Sabrang ( Bade Ghulam Ali Khan ), and Ramrang ( Ramashreya Jha ). Other compositions are apocryphally ascribed to composers with their pen names. Japanese poets who write haiku often use

2392-557: Is known. Romance writer Nora Roberts writes erotic thrillers under the pen name J. D. Robb (such books were originally listed as by "J. D. Robb" and are now titled "Nora Roberts writing as J. D. Robb"); Scots writer Iain Banks wrote mainstream or literary fiction under his own name and science fiction under Iain M. Banks; Samuel Langhorne Clemens used the aliases Mark Twain and Sieur Louis de Conte for different works. Similarly, an author who writes both fiction and non-fiction (such as

2496-525: Is used as a synonym for "pen name" ( plume means 'pen'). However, it is not the French usage, according to H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler in The King's English , but instead a "back-translation" from English. The French usage is nom de guerre (a more generalised term for 'pseudonym'). Since guerre means 'war' in French, nom de guerre confused some English speakers, who "corrected"

2600-680: The Daily Mail , the Mirror has no separate Scottish edition; this function is performed by the Daily Record and the Sunday Mail , which incorporate certain stories from the Mirror that are of Scottish significance. Originally pitched to the middle-class reader, it was converted into a working-class newspaper after 1934, in order to reach a larger audience. It was founded by Alfred Harmsworth , who sold it to his brother Harold Harmsworth (from 1914 Lord Rothermere) in 1913. In 1963

2704-458: The 2003 invasion of Iraq , and ran many front pages critical of the war. It also gave financial support to the 15 February 2003 anti-war protest , paying for a large screen and providing thousands of placards. Morgan re-hired John Pilger , who had been sacked during Robert Maxwell 's ownership of the Mirror titles. Despite such changes, Morgan was unable to halt the paper's decline in circulation,

2808-468: The 2010 UK general election two days later, confirming the Daily Mirror ' s Labour allegiance. The election ended in Britain's first hung parliament since 1974 but Cameron still became prime minister within days as the Conservatives formed a coalition with the Liberal Democrats . The Daily Mirror was the only leading national newspaper to remain loyal to Labour and Gordon Brown at

2912-460: The 2019 UK general election , the newspaper again endorsed Labour "to protect NHS, end poverty and for a kinder Britain." The Daily Mirror threw its support behind the Labour Party for the 2024 UK general election , stating that "a Labour government is more crucial than ever for the new generation." On 2 April 1996, the Daily Mirror was printed entirely on blue paper. This was done as

3016-507: The Daily and Sunday Mirror moved to Trinity Mirror's facilities in Watford and Oldham. Under the editorship of Piers Morgan (from October 1995 to May 2004) the paper saw a number of controversies. Morgan was widely criticised and forced to apologise for the headline "ACHTUNG! SURRENDER For you Fritz, ze Euro 96 Championship is over" a day before England met Germany in a semi-final of

3120-523: The Daily Mirror remained loyal to Labour and urged its readers to vote for the party, then led by Michael Foot , condemning the Thatcher-led Tory government for its "waste of our nation", as well as the rise in unemployment that Thatcher's Conservative government had seen in its first term in power largely due to monetarist economic policies to reduce inflation, although the government's previously low popularity had dramatically improved since

3224-762: The East Midlands for London. His entrance into RADA was delayed until May 1951 by appendicitis . Orton met Kenneth Halliwell at RADA in 1951 and moved into a West Hampstead flat with him and two other students that June. Halliwell was seven years older than Orton; they quickly formed a strong relationship and became lovers. After graduating, both Orton and Halliwell went into regional repertory work: Orton spent four months in Ipswich as an assistant stage manager; Halliwell in Llandudno , Wales. Both returned to London and began to write together. They collaborated on

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3328-829: The Euro 96 football championships. In 2000, Morgan was the subject of an investigation after Suzy Jagger wrote a story in The Daily Telegraph revealing that he had bought £20,000 worth of shares in the computer company Viglen soon before the Mirror ' s 'City Slickers' column tipped Viglen as a good buy. Morgan was found by the Press Complaints Commission to have breached the Code of Conduct on financial journalism, but kept his job. The 'City Slickers' columnists, Anil Bhoyrul and James Hipwell , were both found to have committed further breaches of

3432-642: The Herald competing with the Mirror for readers, and in 1964, relaunched it as a mid-market paper, now named The Sun . When it failed to win readers, The Sun was sold to Rupert Murdoch – who immediately relaunched it as a more populist and sensationalist tabloid and a direct competitor to the Mirror . In an attempt to cater to a different kind of reader, the Mirror launched the "Mirrorscope" pull-out section on 30 January 1968. The Press Gazette commented: "The Daily Mirror launched its revolutionary four-page supplement "Mirrorscope". The ambitious brief for

3536-870: The Jeannetta Cochrane Theatre in Bloomsbury , under the direction of Charles Marowitz . Orton clashed with Marowitz, although the additional cuts further improved the play. This production was first staged in London on 27 September 1966, to rave reviews. Ronald Bryden in The Observer asserted that it had "established Orton's niche in English drama". Loot moved to the Criterion Theatre in November where it ran for 342 performances. This time it won several awards, and Orton sold

3640-514: The Labour Party since the 1945 UK general election . On the day of the 1979 UK general election , the Daily Mirror urged its readers to vote for the governing Labour Party led by James Callaghan . As widely predicted by the opinion polls, Labour lost this election and Conservative Margaret Thatcher became prime minister. The Mirror ' s continued support of the Labour government

3744-422: The Mirror attempted to move mid-market, claiming to eschew the more trivial stories of show-business and gossip. The paper changed its masthead logo from red to black (and occasionally blue), in an attempt to dissociate itself from the term " red top ", a term for a sensationalist mass-market tabloid. (On 6 April 2005, the red top came back.) Under then-editor Piers Morgan , the newspaper's editorial stance opposed

3848-457: The Mirror in circulation, and in 1984 the Mirror was sold to Robert Maxwell . The first Mirror using colour appeared on the 1st August 1988 edition. Following Maxwell's death in 1991, David Montgomery became Mirror Group's CEO, and a period of cost-cutting and production changes ensued. The Mirror went through a protracted period of crisis before merging with the regional newspaper group Trinity to form Trinity Mirror in 1999. Printing of

3952-580: The Mirror responded that it had fallen victim to a "calculated and malicious hoax" and apologised for the publication of the photographs. The Mirror 's front page on 4 November 2004, after the re-election of George W. Bush as U.S. president, read "How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB?". It provided a list of states and their alleged average IQ, showing the Bush states all below average intelligence (except for Virginia ), and all John Kerry states at or above average intelligence. The source for this table

4056-655: The Playhouse series on 26 August 1968, five weeks after an adaptation of Mr Sloane . In March 1967, Orton and Halliwell had intended another extended holiday in Libya , but they returned home after one day because the only hotel accommodation they could find was a boat that had been converted into a hotel/nightclub. They spent May and June holidaying in Tangier , Morocco, where they frequently engaged in sex with teenage boys. Orton's once controversial farce What The Butler Saw

4160-729: The Andy Capp cartoon, created by Reg Smythe from Hartlepool, in the northern editions. The Mirror 's mass working-class readership had made it the United Kingdom's best-selling daily tabloid newspaper. In 1960, it acquired the Daily Herald (the popular daily of the labour movement) when it bought Odhams , in one of a series of takeovers which created the International Publishing Corporation (IPC). The Mirror management did not want

4264-667: The British daily newspaper market, selling more than 5 million copies a day at its peak in the mid-1960s. The Mirror was an influential model for German tabloid Bild , which was founded in 1952 and became Europe's biggest-selling newspaper. In 1955, the Mirror and its stablemate the Sunday Pictorial (later to become the Sunday Mirror ) began printing a northern edition in Manchester . In 1957 it introduced

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4368-581: The Butler Saw . The Erpingham Camp , Orton's take on The Bacchae , written through mid-1965 and offered to Associated-Rediffusion in October of that year, was broadcast on 27 June 1966 as the "pride" segment in their series Seven Deadly Sins . The Good and Faithful Servant was a transitional work for Orton. A one-act television play, it was completed by June 1964 but first broadcast by Associated-Rediffusion on 6 April 1967, representing "faith" in

4472-547: The Code, and were sacked before the inquiry. In 2004, further enquiry by the Department of Trade and Industry cleared Morgan from any charges. On 7 December 2005 Bhoyrul and Hipwell were convicted of conspiracy to breach the Financial Services Act. During the trial it emerged that Morgan had bought £67,000 worth of Viglen shares, emptying his bank account and investing under his wife's name too. In 2002,

4576-473: The Conservative policy of privatisation, but its decision to be up-front about tax increases was seen as a key factor in its failure to win. By the time of the 1997 UK general election , support for the Labour Party, by then led by Tony Blair , in the opinion polls had exceeded that of support for the Conservative government led by John Major since late 1992, whose reduced popularity largely blamed on

4680-473: The French metaphor. This phrase precedes "pen name", being attested to The Knickerbocker , in 1841. An author may use a pen name if their real name is likely to be confused with that of another author or other significant individual. For instance, in 1899 the British politician Winston Churchill wrote under the name Winston S. Churchill to distinguish his writings from those of the American novelist of

4784-500: The Tory government was now led by John Major . The election was won by the Conservatives, although Labour managed to significantly cut the Tory majority to 21 seats compared to the triple-digit figure of the previous two elections, which led to a difficult term for Major. The outcome of this election had been far less predictable than any of the previous three elections, as opinion polls over the previous three years had shown both parties in

4888-582: The address to which to send membership applications. By the mid-1930s, the Mirror was struggling – it and the Mail were the main casualties of the early 1930s circulation war that saw the Daily Herald and the Daily Express establish circulations of more than two million, and Rothermere decided to sell his shares in it. In 1935 Rothermere sold the paper to Harry Guy Bartholomew and Hugh Cudlipp . With Cecil King (Rothermere's nephew) in charge of

4992-454: The author of the Warriors novel series, is a collective pen name used by authors Kate Cary , Cherith Baldry , Tui T. Sutherland , and the editor Victoria Holmes . Collaborative authors may also have their works published under a single pen name. Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee published their mystery novels and stories under the pen name Ellery Queen , which was also used to publish

5096-681: The combined title with immediate effect. In 2018, Reach plc acquired the Northern & Shell titles, including the Daily Express, which led to a number of editor moves across the stable. Lloyd Embley was then promoted to editor-in-chief across the entire group, and Alison Phillips (previously deputy editor-in-chief for the Trinity Mirror titles) was appointed editor of the Daily Mirror. The Mirror has consistently supported

5200-444: The doctor tomorrow morning." Halliwell had felt increasingly threatened and isolated by Orton's success, and had come to rely on antidepressants and barbiturates . The bodies were discovered the following morning when a chauffeur arrived to take Orton to a meeting with director Richard Lester to discuss filming options on Up Against It . Halliwell left a suicide note: "If you read his diary, all will be explained. KH PS: Especially

5304-506: The end of the name (often marked by a graphical sign   ـؔ   placed above it) when referring to the poet by his full name. For example, Hafez is a pen-name for Shams al-Din , and thus the usual way to refer to him would be Shams al-Din Hafez or just Hafez . Mirza Asadullah Baig Khan (his official name and title) is referred to as Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib , or just Mirza Ghalib . Daily Mirror The Daily Mirror

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5408-480: The enigmatic twentieth-century novelist B. Traven has never been conclusively revealed, despite thorough research. A multiple-use name or anonymity pseudonym is a pseudonym open for anyone to use and these have been adopted by various groups, often as a protest against the cult of individual creators. In Italy, two anonymous groups of writers have gained some popularity with the collective names of Luther Blissett and Wu Ming . Wuxia novelist Louis Cha uses

5512-466: The failings of Black Wednesday in September of that year and it had failed to recover popularity in spite of a strong economic recovery and fall in unemployment. A reinvented New Labour had further improved its credibility under Blair by promising traditional Labour essentials including more funding for healthcare and education but also promising not to increase income tax and ending its commitment to

5616-499: The film rights for £25,000. Loot , when performed on Broadway in 1968, repeated the failure of Sloane , and the film version of the play was not a success when it surfaced in 1970. Over the next ten months, he revised The Ruffian on the Stair and The Erpingham Camp for the stage as a double called Crimes of Passion , wrote Funeral Games , the screenplay Up Against It for the Beatles , and his final full-length play, What

5720-471: The illustrations more abundant. By 1939, the publication was selling 1.4 million copies a day. In 1937, Hugh McClelland introduced his wild Western comic strip Beelzebub Jones in the Daily Mirror . After taking over as cartoon chief at the Mirror in 1945, he dropped Beelzebub Jones and moved on to a variety of new strips. During the Second World War the Mirror positioned itself as

5824-603: The largest daily picture paper. In 1924 the newspaper sponsored the 1924 Women's Olympiad held at Stamford Bridge in London. Lord Rothermere was a friend of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler , and directed the Mirror ' s editorial stance towards them in the early 1930s. On Monday, 22 January 1934 the Daily Mirror ran the headline "Give the Blackshirts a helping hand" urging readers to join Sir Oswald Mosley 's British Union of Fascists , and giving

5928-541: The later books in The Saint adventure series were not written by Leslie Charteris , the series' originator. Similarly, Nancy Drew mystery books are published as though they were written by Carolyn Keene , The Hardy Boys books are published as the work of Franklin W. Dixon , and The Bobbsey Twins series are credited to Laura Lee Hope , although numerous authors have been involved in each series. Erin Hunter ,

6032-467: The latter part." This is presumed to be a reference to Orton's description of his promiscuity ; the diary contains numerous incidents of cottaging in public lavatories and other casual sexual encounters with teenagers, including with rent boys on holiday in North Africa . The diaries have since been published. The last diary entry is dated 1 August 1967 and ends abruptly in midsentence at the end of

6136-460: The lead, although any Labour lead in the polls had been relatively narrow since the Conservative government's change of leader from Thatcher to Major in November 1990, in spite of the onset of the early 1990s recession which had pushed unemployment up again after several years of decline. Labour's credibility was helped by plans including extra National Health Service (NHS) funding and moving away from firm commitments on re-nationalisation to reverse

6240-611: The main characters. Some, however, do this to fit a certain theme. One example, Pseudonymous Bosch , used his pen name just to expand the theme of secrecy in The Secret Series . Authors also may occasionally choose pen names to appear in more favorable positions in bookshops or libraries , to maximize visibility when placed on shelves that are conventionally arranged alphabetically moving horizontally, then upwards vertically. Some female authors have used pen names to ensure that their works were accepted by publishers and/or

6344-408: The mathematician and fantasy writer Charles Dodgson, who wrote as Lewis Carroll ) may use a pseudonym for fiction writing. Science fiction author Harry Turtledove has used the name H. N. Turtletaub for some historical novels he has written because he and his publisher felt that the presumed lower sales of those novels might hurt bookstore orders for the novels he writes under his name. Occasionally,

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6448-523: The most extreme examples of this is Hokusai , who in the period 1798 to 1806 alone used no fewer than six. Manga artist Ogure Ito uses the pen name Oh! great because his real name Ogure Ito is roughly how the Japanese pronounce "oh great". A shâ'er ( Persian from Arabic, for poet) (a poet who writes she'rs in Urdu or Persian ) almost always has a "takhallus", a pen name, traditionally placed at

6552-409: The murder, Orton had told a friend that he wanted to end his relationship with Halliwell, but did not know how to go about it. Halliwell's doctor spoke to him by telephone three times on the day of the murder, and had arranged for him to see a psychiatrist the following morning. The last call was at 10 o'clock, during which Halliwell told the doctor, "Don't worry, I'm feeling better now. I'll go and see

6656-511: The name Émile Ajar and even asked his cousin's son to impersonate Ajar; thus he received the most prestigious French literary prize twice, which is forbidden by the prize rules. He revealed the affair in a book he sent his editor just before committing suicide in 1980. A pen name may be shared by different writers to suggest continuity of authorship. Thus the Bessie Bunter series of English boarding school stories, initially written by

6760-517: The name "Publius" because it recalled the founder of the Roman Republic and using it implied a positive intention. In pure mathematics , Nicolas Bourbaki is the pseudonym of a group of mostly French-connected mathematicians attempting to expose the field in an axiomatic and self-contained, encyclopedic form. A pseudonym may be used to protect the writer of exposé books about espionage or crime. Former SAS soldier Steven Billy Mitchell used

6864-474: The name as an allusion to Terence Rattigan 's archetypal playgoer "Aunt Edna". From January 1959, Orton and Halliwell began surreptitiously to remove books from several local public libraries and modify the cover art or the blurbs before returning them. A volume of poems by Sir John Betjeman was returned to the library with a new dust jacket featuring a photograph of a nearly naked, heavily tattooed middle-aged man. The couple decorated their flat with many of

6968-401: The name had reverted and the front page was mainly photographs. Circulation grew to 466,000 making it the second-largest morning newspaper. Alfred Harmsworth sold the newspaper to his brother Harold Harmsworth (from 1914 Lord Rothermere) in 1913. In 1917, the price was increased to one penny. Circulation continued to grow: in 1919, some issues sold more than a million copies a day, making it

7072-486: The nationalisation of leading industries. The Daily Mirror urged its readers that their country needed Blair, and to vote Labour. The 1997 election produced a Labour landslide that ended the party's 18-year exile from power, followed by two further wins in the 2001 and 2005 UK general elections . On 4 May 2010, the newspaper printed a picture of Conservative leader David Cameron with a giant red cross through his face. The headline read "How to stop him" in reference to

7176-552: The page, suggesting that some pages may be missing. Orton was cremated at the Golders Green Crematorium , his maroon cloth-draped coffin being brought into the west chapel to a recording of The Beatles song " A Day in the Life ". Harold Pinter read the eulogy, concluding with "He was a bloody marvellous writer." Orton's agent Peggy Ramsay described Orton's relatives as "the little people in Leicester", leaving

7280-464: The paper of the ordinary soldier and civilian, and was critical of the political leadership and the established parties. At one stage, the paper was threatened with closure following the publication of a Philip Zec cartoon (captioned by William Connor ), which was misinterpreted by Winston Churchill and Herbert Morrison . In the 1945 UK general election , the paper strongly supported the Labour Party in its eventual landslide victory. In doing so,

7384-438: The paper supported Herbert Morrison, who co-ordinated Labour's campaign, and recruited his former antagonist Philip Zec to reproduce, on the front page, a popular VE Day cartoon on the morning of the election, suggesting that Labour were the only party who could maintain peace in post-war Britain. By the late 1940s, it was selling 4.5 million copies a day, outstripping the Express ; for some 30 years afterwards, it dominated

7488-530: The paper's finances and Guy Bartholomew as editor, during the late 1930s the Mirror was transformed from a conservative, middle class newspaper into a left-wing paper for the working class. Partly on the advice of the American advertising agency J. Walter Thompson, the Mirror became the first British paper to adopt the appearance of the New York tabloids. The headlines became bigger, the stories shorter and

7592-406: The party as the "Fib Dems" or "Lib Dumbs". The Daily Mirror endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the run-up for the 2016 U.S. presidential election . Also in 2016, the newspaper asked for Jeremy Corbyn 's resignation "for the good of the party and of the country." Despite this critical position, the Daily Mirror endorsed the Labour Party in the 2017 UK general election . For

7696-489: The pen name Gum Yoong (金庸) by taking apart the components of the Chinese character in his given name (鏞) from his birth name Cha Leung-yung (查良鏞). In Indian languages, writers may put a pen name at the end of their names, like Ramdhari Singh Dinkar . Some writers, like Firaq Gorakhpuri , wrote only under a pen name. In early Indian literature, authors considered the use of names egotistical. Because names were avoided, it

7800-643: The prints. They were discovered and prosecuted. On 30 April 1962 they pleaded guilty to two joint charges of theft, the first relating to 36 books taken from Islington Public Library in Essex Road, and the second to 36 books taken from a branch of the same library in Holloway Road. At a further hearing in May 1962 they pleaded guilty to further joint charges of theft and criminal damage, and were sentenced to prison for six months, with fines of £2 each. The incident

7904-435: The prolific Charles Hamilton under the name Hilda Richards, was taken on by other authors who continued to use the same pen name. In some forms of fiction, the pen name adopted is the name of the lead character, to suggest to the reader that the book is an autobiography of a real person. Daniel Handler used the pseudonym Lemony Snicket to present his A Series of Unfortunate Events books as memoirs by an acquaintance of

8008-442: The pseudonym Andy McNab for his book about a failed SAS mission titled Bravo Two Zero . The name Ibn Warraq ("son of a papermaker") has been used by dissident Muslim authors. Author Brian O'Nolan used the pen names Flann O'Brien and Myles na gCopaleen for his novels and journalistic writing from the 1940s to the 1960s because Irish civil servants were not permitted at that time to publish political writings. The identity of

8112-419: The pseudonym George Sand . Charlotte , Emily , and Anne Brontë published under the names Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, respectively. French-Savoyard writer and poet Amélie Gex chose to publish as Dian de Jeânna ("John, son of Jane") during the first half of her career. Karen Blixen 's very successful Out of Africa (1937) was originally published under the pen name Isak Dinesen. Victoria Benedictsson ,

8216-460: The public. Such is the case of Peru's Clarinda , whose work was published in the early 17th century. More often, women have adopted masculine pen names. This was common in the 19th century when women were beginning to make inroads into literature but, it was felt they would not be taken as seriously by readers as male authors. For example, Mary Ann Evans wrote under the pen name George Eliot ; and Amandine Aurore Lucile Dupin, and Baronne Dudevant, used

8320-475: The regional newspaper group Trinity in 1999 to form Trinity Mirror . The Daily Mirror was launched on 2 November 1903 by Alfred Harmsworth (later Lord Northcliffe) as a newspaper for women, run by women. About the name, he said: "I intend it to be really a mirror of feminine life as well on its grave as on its lighter sides ... to be entertaining without being frivolous, and serious without being dull." It cost one penny (equivalent to 57p in 2023). It

8424-465: The relaunched paper did not have advertisements on the front page as previously, but instead news text and engraved pictures (of a traitor and an actress), with the promise of photographs inside. Two days later, the price was dropped to one halfpenny and to the masthead was added: "A paper for men and women". This combination was more successful: by issue 92, the guaranteed circulation was 120,000 copies and by issue 269, it had grown to 200,000: by then

8528-458: The same name . An author may use a pen name implying a rank or title which they have never actually held. William Earl Johns wrote under the name "Capt. W. E. Johns" although the highest army rank he held was acting lieutenant and his highest air force rank was flying officer . Authors who regularly write in more than one genre may use different pen names for each, either in an attempt to conceal their true identity or even after their identity

8632-412: The same pseudonym; examples include T. H. Lain in fiction. The Australian fiction collaborators who write under the pen name Alice Campion are a group of women who have so far written The Painted Sky (2015) and The Shifting Light (2017). In the 1780s, The Federalist Papers were written under the pseudonym "Publius" by Alexander Hamilton , James Madison , and John Jay . The three men chose

8736-400: The series Seven Deadly Virtues . Orton rewrote Funeral Games four times from July to November 1966. Also intended for The Seven Deadly Virtues , it dealt with charity – Christian charity – in a confusion of adultery and murder. Rediffusion did not use the play; instead, it was made as one of the first productions of the new ITV company Yorkshire Television , and broadcast posthumously in

8840-473: The slogan "You know he's right, chuck her out." By this stage, unemployment was falling and inflation had remained low for several years. As a result, the Tories were re-elected for a third successive term, although Labour did cut the Tory majority slightly. For the 1992 UK general election , the Daily Mirror continued to support Labour, still led by Neil Kinnock . By this stage, Thatcher had stepped down and

8944-510: The spelling of his last name to Zane Grey because he believed that his real name did not suit the Western genre. Romance novelist Angela Knight writes under that name instead of her actual name (Julie Woodcock) because of the double entendre of her surname in the context of that genre. Romain Gary , who was a well-known French writer, decided in 1973 to write novels in a different style under

9048-711: The stage in 1966. He had completed Entertaining Mr Sloane by the time Ruffian was broadcast. He sent a copy to theatre agent Peggy Ramsay in December 1963. It premiered at the New Arts Theatre in Westminster 6 May 1964, produced by Michael Codron . Reviews ranged from praise to outrage. The Times described it as making "the blood boil more than any other British play in the last 10 years". Entertaining Mr Sloane lost money in its three-week run, but critical praise from playwright Terence Rattigan , who invested £3,000 in it, ensured its survival. The play

9152-521: The success of the Falklands conflict a year earlier. However, the Conservatives were re-elected and Labour suffered its worst postwar general election result, only narrowly bettering the SDP–Liberal Alliance in terms of votes whilst winning considerably more seats. At the 1987 UK general election , the Daily Mirror remained loyal to Labour, led by Neil Kinnock , and urged its readers with

9256-474: The supplement, which ran on Wednesdays and Fridays, was to deal with international affairs, politics, industry, science, the arts and business". The British Journalism Review said in 2002 that "Mirrorscope" was "a game attempt to provide serious analysis in the rough and tumble of the tabloids". It failed to attract significant numbers of new readers, and the pull-out section was abandoned, its final issue appearing on 27 August 1974. In 1978, The Sun overtook

9360-491: The work of several ghostwriters they commissioned. The writers of Atlanta Nights , a deliberately bad book intended to embarrass the publishing firm PublishAmerica , used the pen name Travis Tea. Additionally, the credited author of The Expanse , James S. A. Corey , is an amalgam of the middle names of collaborating writers Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck respectively, while S. A. is the initials of Abraham's daughter. Sometimes multiple authors will write related books under

9464-415: The work. The author's real identity may be known only to the publisher or may become common knowledge. In some cases, such as those of Elena Ferrante and Torsten Krol , a pen name may preserve an author's long-term anonymity . Pen name is formed by joining pen with name . Its earliest use in English is in the 1860s, in the writings of Bayard Taylor . The French-language phrase nom de plume

9568-414: Was Loot . The first draft was written from June to October 1964 and was called Funeral Games , a title Orton dropped at Halliwell's suggestion but later reused. The play is a wild parody of detective fiction , adding the blackest farce and jabs at established ideas on death, the police, religion, and justice. Orton offered the play to Codron in October 1964 and it underwent sweeping rewrites before it

9672-420: Was The Economist , although it was a hoax. Richard Wallace became editor in 2004. On 30 May 2012, Trinity Mirror announced the merger of the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror into a single seven-day-a-week title. Richard Wallace and Tina Weaver, the respective editors of the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror , were simultaneously dismissed and Lloyd Embley , editor of The People , appointed as editor of

9776-421: Was a major factor in the failure of the project. Pen name A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise the author's gender, to distance the author from their other works, to protect the author from retribution for their writings, to merge multiple persons into a single identifiable author, or for any of several reasons related to the marketing or aesthetic presentation of

9880-541: Was born in 1935. That year, the Ortons moved to 9 Fayrhurst Road on the Saffron Lane Estate, a council estate . Orton's younger sisters, Marilyn and Leonie, were born in 1939 and 1944, respectively. Orton attended Marriot Road Primary School but failed the eleven-plus exam after extended bouts of asthma , and so took a secretarial course at Clark's College in Leicester from 1945 to 1947. He began working as

9984-479: Was in spite of its falling popularity over the previous few months which had been partly as a result of what was labelled by the Daily Mail the " Winter of Discontent ", where the country was crippled by numerous public sector strikes. By the time of the 1983 UK general election , Labour support was at a postwar low, partly due to the strong challenge by the recently formed SDP–Liberal Alliance . Despite this,

10088-525: Was judged fit for the West End. Codron had manoeuvred Orton into meeting his colleague Kenneth Williams in August 1964. Orton reworked Loot with Williams in mind for Truscott. His other inspiration for the role was DS Harold Challenor . With the success of Sloane , Loot was hurried into pre-production despite its flaws. Rehearsals began in January 1965, with plans for a six-week tour culminating in

10192-403: Was not an immediate success and in 1904 Harmsworth decided to turn it into a pictorial newspaper with a broader focus. Harmsworth appointed Hamilton Fyfe as editor and all of the paper's female journalists were fired. The masthead was changed to The Daily Illustrated Mirror , which ran from 26 January to 27 April 1904 (issues 72 to 150), when it reverted to The Daily Mirror . The first issue of

10296-580: Was played by the actor Kenny Doughty in the 2006 BBC film Kenneth Williams: Fantabulosa! , starring Michael Sheen as Kenneth Williams . Leonie Orton Barnett's memoir I Had It in Me was published in 2016 containing new information about her brother's life growing up in Leicester. In 2017, film-maker Chris Shepherd made an animated short inspired by Orton's Edna Welthorpe letters, 'Yours Faithfully, Edna Welthorpe (Mrs)', starring Alison Steadman as Edna. Two archive recordings of Orton are known to survive:

10400-564: Was published in 1978 by Bloomsbury . A 1987 film adaptation of the same name was released based on Orton's diaries and on Lahr's research. Directed by Stephen Frears , it stars Gary Oldman as Orton, Alfred Molina as Halliwell, and Vanessa Redgrave as Peggy Ramsay. Alan Bennett wrote the screenplay. Katrina Sheldon was the sound editor. Carlos Be wrote a play about Orton and Halliwell's last days, Noel Road 25: A Genius Like Us , first performed in 2001. It received its New York premiere in 2012, produced by Repertorio Español . Joe Orton

10504-538: Was reported in the Daily Mirror as "Gorilla in the Roses", illustrated with the altered Collins Guide to Roses by Bertram Park . Orton and Halliwell felt that the sentence was unduly harsh "because we were queers". Prison was a crucial formative experience; the isolation from Halliwell allowed Orton to break free of him creatively; and he saw what he considered the corruption, priggishness, and double standards of

10608-488: Was revived, with Oscar Lewenstein taking up an option. Before his production, it had a short run (11–23 April) at the University Theatre, Manchester . Orton's growing experience led him to cut over 600 lines, raising the tempo and improving the characters' interactions. Directed by Braham Murray , the play garnered more favourable reviews. Lewenstein put the London production in a "sort of Off-West End theatre,"

10712-620: Was staged in the West End in 1969, more than 18 months after his death. It opened in March at the Queen's Theatre with Sir Ralph Richardson , Coral Browne , Stanley Baxter and Hayward Morse . On 9 August 1967, Halliwell bludgeoned to death the 34-year-old Orton at their home in Noel Road with nine hammer blows to the head. Halliwell then killed himself with an overdose of Nembutal . In 1970, The Sunday Times reported that four days before

10816-547: Was transferred to Wyndham's Theatre in the West End at the end of June and to the Queen's Theatre in October. Sloane tied for first in the Variety Critics' Poll for Best New Play and Orton came second for Most Promising Playwright. Within a year, Sloane was performed in New York, Spain, Israel, and Australia as well as made into a film (after Orton's death) and a television play. Orton's next performed work

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