Carolyn Pertwee

Born into the Pertwee dynasty, Carolyn soon displayed the family talent for acting and writing. Graduating with honours from RADA, Carolyn joined The Old Vic Company on its world tour and enjoyed her first big break playing opposite Vivien Leigh in Duel of Angels. Then followed a successful stint in television appearing in many dramas including Compact, a TV soap in which she played a suicidal kleptomaniac.

Carolyn married Coeks Gordon and together they had two daughters. Putting her acting career on hold to concentrate on family, Carolyn turned to writing with a commission from Warner Sisters for her sitcom Rosie and Dud.

Her short play, For the Love of Art, was showcased at the Battersea Arts Centre as part of a season presenting new writing.

A Very Private Matter – her first full length play – was selected for the Wandsworth Arts Festival and was also performed at the BAC. Her other prize winning short plays were performed at the Soho Theatre, Bullion Room Hackney Empire, New End Theatre Hampstead.

BBC Radio Four commissioned Carolyn to write The Beautiful Couple for their afternoon play slot, starring Julia McKenzie and Ronald Pickup. Reviews in the national press were glowing.

In 2007 her quartet of plays, Sexologically Speaking, was a sell out at the O.S.O Arts Centre. Between Friends, a tense drama written with Rosalind Adler, followed with equal success.

Carolyn wrote the book for the musical A Bowl of Cherries, performing at the Charing Cross Theatre in March 2012.

Carolyn is the Joint Deputy Chair of Actors and Writers London, a 175 strong collective that puts on regular rehearsed readings. Still married to Coeks, she lives in Barnes, enjoying her other role as grandmother of four.

Feeling the Fear is Carolyn’s first published collection of short stories.

Click here to visit Carolyn's website.


Carolyn Pertwee reading 'Cassocks and Kilts' from 'Feeling the Fear', London 2012