Fonds PGL - Peter Lennon Correspondence

4 files

The Samuel Beckett papers are with the archive on long term loan from Peter Lennon. All other papers are owned by the archive.

Letters written to Peter Lennon by Samuel Beckett, Denis Thatcher, Jill Craigie, Tony Harrison and Henri Cartier-Bresson. Also includes one note from Lennon to Thatcher.

Administrative/Biographical history: Peter Lennon was born in Ireland. Educated by the Christian Brothers, he began his career in a Dublin bank, but published occasional articles in the Irish press at the same time. This continued after he moved to Paris, where he struck up a friendship with Samuel Beckett when in his mid-20s.

Lennon became The Guardian's freelance junior Paris correspondent, reporting to the features department, in the 1960s. His contract lapsed in 1969 but - after successfully suing the paper over his severance pay - he began writing for The Guardian again in the mid-1980s, beginning with contributions to the book pages. He was formally rehired on a contract in 1989, writing features for both the print newspaper and website until his retirement in 2005. He continued to contribute occasional pieces, with his last appearing in May 2009.

During his years away from the Guardian, Lennon wrote for the Sunday Times (chiefly as television critic) and the BBC's Listener. When a printing dispute suspended publication of the Times and Sunday Times in the late 1970s, he edited a substitute newspaper, the Sunday Times Reporter, with Lew Chester.

In adddition to his journalism, Lennon wrote short stories for the New Yorker and wrote and directed a film, Rocky Road to Dublin, which was selected for the Cannes Film Festival of 1968.

[Source: Guardian obituary at: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/mar/20/peter-lennon-obituary]