Dates

• Existence: 13 October 1923 - 28 July 2017

Biography

Rosemary Anne Sisson was born to Elizabethan dramatist scholar Charles Sisson on 13th October 1923 in London. She attended the Cheltenham Ladies’ College, where she discovered her love for literature before volunteering in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force during the Second World War. Sisson was awarded her bachelor's degree from the University College London and her master's in literature at Newnham College.

Initially, Sisson pursued an academic career lecturing at the University of Wisconsin, the University of London and the University of Birmingham while also serving as a drama critic at the Stratford Herald.

Her career transitioned into writing, where she became a renowned British television dramatist and novelist. Sisson’s notable works include her contributions to the television series ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’, for which she wrote eleven episodes and received a 1975 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series. She also wrote for the ‘Six Wives of Henry VIII’, earning a BAFTA TV Award nomination in 1971. Her adaptations include an animated series of ‘The Wind in the Willows’ and several episodes of ‘The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles’. Additionally, she penned screenplays for several Disney films, including ‘The Black Cauldron’. Her theatrical works include ‘The Queen and the Welshman’, which was also released as a novel. The Radcliffe Press released her poetry in the ‘Rosemary for Remembrance’ collection.

Her writings for several military tattoos, including the 50th-anniversary celebration of VE Day, earned her the Prince Michael of Kent Award for Services to Soldiers, Sailors and Air Force Association.

Sisson is credited for her significant contributions to British television and contemporary art.

She died on 28th July 2017 in London, UK.