| Dilys Powell |
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Information AboutDilys Powell |
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She was born into a middle class family in Bridgnorth , Shropshire ; her mother was Mary Jane Lloyd, her father, Thomas Powell a bank manager. She went to school in Bournemouth and afterwards obtained a first class honours degree in modern languages at the University Of Oxford , where she was a member of Somerville College . While at Oxford she met an archaeologist Humfrey Payne whom she was to marry in 1926 . After graduation Powell spent a period as personal assistant to Ottoline Morrell before being appointed in the literary department of The Sunday Times in 1928 . In 1929 her husband was appointed director of the British School At Athens and from 1931 until his death in 1936, they had no children, Powell spent part of each year in Greece, she frequently attended excavations where her husband was working. She continued these visits when she was able until World War II intervened. On her return to Britain Powell was appointed film critic on the Sunday Times and in 1941 she found war work with a Greek connection in the Political Warfare Executive who oversaw Britain's propaganda in occupied Europe. In June 1943 she married Leonard Russell (1906–1974) an editor at the Sunday Times. Her journalism lead a change in the writing of cinema criticism, to quote from the British Film Institute ''... she was open to new directions in cinema and was not constrained by the middle class shibboleths of "good taste" ...''. She remained as film critic at the Sunday Times until 1976, her collected reviews being published in 1989 . After leaving the Sunday Times she wrote for Punch until the magazine closed in 1992 . She had a gift for the pithy comments and memorable phrase about films and the people of the film world are still frequently quoted by other journalists. In addition to her journalism appeared on radio, as a contestant on the BBC radio panel game '' My Word! '', and wrote books about film and travel particularly about Greece. WRITING BY DILYS POWELL
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