Isabel Colegate

Isabel Colegate (born September 10, 1931, London, England—died March 12, 2023) was a British author of novels about life among the upper classes in England during the 20th century.

At the age of 19 Colegate began working as an assistant to literary agent Anthony Blond. When Blond became a publisher, one of the first books he brought was Colgate’s first novel, The Blackmailer (1958). Her next, A Man of Power (1960), portrays a newly rich businessman who abandons his wife and then is duped by the aristocrat whom he loves. Among her subsequent novels are the partly autobiographical The Great Occasion (1962) and Statues in a Garden (1964), which details the ramifications of an affair between a young man and his aunt.

Orlando King (1968), Orlando at the Brazen Threshold (1971), and Agatha (1973) constitute Colegate’s modern retelling of the myth of Oedipus and Antigone set during the rise of fascism, World War II, and the 1956 Suez Crisis.

Colegate’s The Shooting Party (1980) is about a group of aristocrats who are gathered for a weekend pheasant hunt. Her best-known novel, it was adapted as a movie first shown at Cannes in 1984 and then widely released in 1985.

Colegate’s other fiction includes News from the City of the Sun (1979), an investigation of a utopian commune; Deceits of Time (1988), concerning a biographer’s unpleasant revelations about her subject; and The Summer of the Royal Visit (1991), about the conditions in Bath during the Victorian era. Winter Journey (1995) delves into the relationship between an aging brother and sister through their reminisces during a holiday together.

A Glimpse of Sion’s Glory (1985) is a short-story collection. A Pelican in the Wilderness: Hermits, Solitaries, and Recluses (2002), a work of nonfiction, is Colegate’s personal consideration of solitude and its permutations throughout history.