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Mavis Cheek is an English novelist.〔''Guardian'' interview, 21 January 2006. (Retrieved 2 August 2012. )〕 ==Life== Born in Wimbledon, now part of London, Mavis only met her father once, at the age of seven. Her mother worked in a factory to keep the family together and life was lived in a fairly hand-to-mouth fashion. However it was no life of misery, but a reasonably happy childhood lived in a pleasant area of London.〔''Guardian'' interview.〕 Mavis was educated in church schools until the age of 11 when she failed her eleven-plus examination and was placed in the B stream of her girls' secondary modern school in Raynes Park. They did not do O-levels in her stream, but they did do drama. She appeared in school plays, including the title role of ''Julius Caesar'',〔''Guardian'' interview.〕 which began her lifelong love of theatre. She left school at 16 to become a receptionist with Editions Alecto, a Kensington art publishing company. They produced the first series of etchings by David Hockney, "A Rake's Progress", and other groundbreaking works by contemporary artists. She later moved to the firm's gallery in Albemarle Street, where she dealt with Hockney and other artists like Allen Jones, Patrick Caulfield and Gillian Ayres.〔Fantastic Fiction site: (Retrieved 2 April 2012. )〕 In 1969 she married a "childhood sweetheart", whom she had met at a meeting of the Young Communist League in New Malden, when she was fifteen. They both attended the Wimbledon Youth Parliament. They separated when she was in her mid-twenties. Following this and after twelve happy years working with Editions Alecto, Mavis left to take a degree at Hillcroft College, a further education college for women, from which she graduated in the Arts with distinction. Shortly after this her daughter Bella by the artist Basil Beattie was born.〔Author's website. (Retrieved 28 September 2012. )〕 Although Cheek had planned to take a degree course, she turned instead to fiction writing while her daughter was a child,〔''Observer'' interview, 3 March 2002: (Retrieved 2 April 2012. )〕 reading her early efforts to weekly meetings of the Richmond Community Centre Writers' Circle, which she attended for several years. She completed a first, very serious novel, which she says she is thankful was never published. Instead she found her metier in "beady-eyed humour".〔''Guardian'' interview.〕 She moved from London to Berkshire in 2001 and finally to Aldbourne in the Wiltshire countryside in 2003,〔''Wiltshire Life'', September 2010. (Retrieved 3 April 2012. )〕 but as she has explained in several newspaper interviews, "Life in the city was a comparative breeze. Life in the country is tough, a little bit dangerous and not for wimps."〔''Daily Mail'' 28 May 2011: (Retrieved 2 April 2012. )〕 Cheek was a moving force in 2010 behind the Marlborough LitFest. Her vision was to stop the celebrities taking over such festivals and celebrate authors who objectively write well. This has proved successful.〔Marlborough LitFest website. (Retrieved 28 September 2012. )〕 Cheek also teaches creative writing for the Arvon Foundation, for Tŷ Newydd, the Welsh affiliate to Arvon, and elsewhere.〔Faber biography: (Retrieved 2 April 2012. ); ''Woman&Home'' article, undated (2009): (Retrieved 2 April 2011. )〕 The occasions have varied from university weekend schools to voluntary work on courses at Holloway and Erlestoke prisons. As she described in an article, "What I see (Erlstoke ) is reflected in my own experience. Bright, overlooked, unconfident men, who are suddenly given the opportunity to learn, grow wings and dare to fail. It helps to be able to tell them that I, too, was once designated thick by a very silly () system. My prisoners have written some brilliant stuff, and perhaps it gives them back some self-esteem."〔''New Statesman'' 28 March 2005: (Retrieved 2 April 2012 )〕 She has been Royal Literary Fund fellow at Chichester University (twice) and at the University of Reading.〔Royal Literary Fund. (Retrieved 2 April 2012. )〕 She gives talks and readings at Festivals, at literary lunches and as an after-dinner speaker. In 2011 and 2012 she has been the judge for the Society of Authors' McKitterick Prize, awarded for a first novel. Among Cheek's close friends is the actor Graham Seed.〔''Independent'', 1 May 2011: How we met. (Retrieved 2 August 2012. )〕 She has expressed interest in environmental issues, notably her carbon footprint as a gas-guzzling countrywoman.〔''The Guardian'', 21 August 2008: The Green Room – Mavis Cheek. (Retrieved 3 August 2012. )〕 She has also appeared in discussions of literature and classical music on the BBC, in Michael Berkley's Private Passions and Sarah Walker's morning programme.〔Cached page from BBC website: (Retrieved 3 August 2012. )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mavis Cheek」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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