Lady Rachel Mary Billington (née Pakenham; born 11 May 1942) is a British author, the third daughter of the 7th Earl and Countess of Longford; both parents were writers, as was her aunt, Christine Longford.
Career
Billington worked in television in London and New York before taking up full-time writing in 1968. She has published twenty-one novels for adults, including the bestsellers A Woman's Age and Bodily Harm. Her novel Glory (2015) describes the First World War Gallipoli campaign through the eyes of the participants and their wives and girlfriends at home. She has also written six children's novels, six religious books for children and three non-fiction books, including The Great Umbilical, about mothers and daughters.
She has written plays for BBC Television's Play for Today series (Don't Be Silly and Life After Death), and several radio plays, and has contributed to film scripts including The Light at the Edge of the World (1971). Billington has also written and continues to write journalism for newspapers in both the UK and the US, including a three-year stint as columnist for The Sunday Telegraph.
Volunteer work
Billington was President of English PEN, the writers' organisation, from 1998 to 2001 and is now Honorary Vice-President. During her period as President, she initiated PEN's Readers & Writers programme, which sends books and writers to meet readers in schools, prisons and other institutions which lack resources.
She is a trustee of the Longford Trust, which was founded in memory of her father, Lord Longford. In 1991, she became a member of the editorial team of Inside Time, the not-for-profit national newspaper for prisoners. She now writes a monthly column. In addition she is a trustee of the Catholic weekly, The Tablet, and of the Siobhan Dowd Trust, set up to encourage reading among disadvantaged children.
Awards
Billington was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2012 New Year Honours for her services to literature.
Personal life
Billington was married to the film, theatre and television director Kevin Billington. They had four children and five grandchildren, and lived in London and in the oldest continuously inhabited house in Dorset. She is the godmother of Boris Johnson. Her cousin is former Labour Deputy Leader Harriet Harman.
In the 2006 television film Longford, a biopic of Billington's father and his campaign for the parole of Myra Hindley, Billington was portrayed by actress Kate Miles.
Books
Novels
Glory
Maria and the Admiral
The Missing Boy
Lies and Loyalties
One Summer
The Space Between
A Woman's Life
Tiger Sky
Perfect Happiness
Magic and Fate
Bodily Harm
Theo and Matilda
Loving Attitudes
The Garish Day
Occasion of Sin
A Woman's Age
A Painted Devil
Beautiful
Cock Robin
Lilacs Out of the Dead Land
The Big Dipper
All Things Nice
Religious books
The First Christmas
The First Easter
The First Miracles
The Life of Jesus
The Life of Saint Francis
Chapters of Gold
Non-fiction
The Great Umbilical
The Family Year
Children's books
Poppy's Angel
Poppy's Hero
There's More to Life
Far Out! Star Time Rosanna and the Wizard-Robot