Patrice Chaplin (1940– ) is an internationally renowned playwright and author with more than thirty-five books and plays to her credit. One of her most notable works is Siesta: A Supernatural Love Story (1979), in which a young woman in Spain wakes up blood-soaked and bruised but with no memory of the past few days. When she has flashbacks, she begins to think she might have killed someone. It was made into a 1987 film starring Ellen Barkin, Gabriel Byrne, Jodie Foster, Martin Sheen, and Isabella Rossellini.
Among her other works are her first novel, A Lonely Diet (1970), the autobiographical Albany Park: A Story of Bohemian Adventure and Obsessive Love (1986), Into the Darkness Laughing: The Story of Jeanne Hébuterne, Modigliani’s Last Mistress (1990), Night Fishing: An Urban Tale (1992), and Hidden Star: Oona O’Neill Chaplin: A Memoir (1995); Patrice Chaplin was once married to one of Charlie Chaplin’s sons, Michael.
Several of Chaplin’s plays, documentaries, and short stories have been adapted for radio. The short story “Night in Paris” has been translated into many languages, and her stage play From the Balcony, a joint commission by London’s National Theatre in conjunction with BBC Radio 3, was performed at the Cottesloe Theatre. Her journalistic pieces have been published in numerous newspapers and magazines, including The Guardian, The Sunday Times, Marie Claire, The Jewish Chronicle, The Daily Mail, and The London Magazine.
“By Flower and Dean Street” was first published in By Flower and Dean Street & The Love Apple by Patrice Chaplin (London, Duckworth, 1976).