Elizabeth Morton

Elizabeth Heery (born 8 January 1961) is a British actress, screenwriter and novelist. As an actress and author she works under the name Elizabeth Morton and Eliza Morton. She played Madeline Bassett in ITV series ''Jeeves and Wooster.'' Since 2016, she has been an ambassador for the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond. She trained at the Guildhall School of Drama and The Royal Court Young Writers Group.

She is a short story writer and has written for BBC Radio 4, Channel 4, ITV and BBC Films and TV. In 2018, she secured a two book deal with Ebury Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Her novel ''A Liverpool Girl'' was published in 2019, followed by in August 2020, ''A Last Dance in Liverpool''. The books reached Number 1 and Number 3 respectively in ''The Bookseller''s Heatseekers Charts. In August 2020 she secured a book deal with Pan Macmillan for two more Liverpool sagas. ''Angel of Liverpool'' was published in 2021 and was a number 3 Heatseeker, People’s Friend Recommendation and reached the Top 10 WHSmith bestsellers. ''The Girl From Liverpool'' was published July 2022 and also made Top 10 Booksellers Heatseekers chart and No 5 Amazon Historical Romance Bestsellers. Elizabeth narrates all her books for audio. In 2022, ''Angel of Liverpool'' was shortlisted for RoNA Best Saga award.

In August 2022 she received a three book deal from Pan for her ‘Orphans of The Living’ trilogy.

Life and education

Heery was educated at Seafield Convent School in Liverpool. She studied at the Guildhall School of Drama. She is married to actor Peter Davison. The couple have two sons, Louis Davison who is an actor, starring in Netflix Vikings Valhalla, and Joel Davison, also an actor and a musician. She also has a step-daughter, actress Georgia Tennant.

Career

Television and film

Heery's first TV role under the name Morton was playing Papagena in BBC sci-fi series ''The Tripods''. As well as playing a regular in ITV series ''Jeeves and Wooster'' and '' Watching'', she starred in BBC's ''Rockliffe's Folly'', playing Hester Goswell, and was in seasons four and five of London's ''Burning'', playing Helen Field.

She guest starred in British TV series ''Spender'', '' The Brothers McGregor'', '' Brookside'', ''Capital City'', and '' Dear John''. In 1988 she starred in Philip Ridley's film ''The Universe of Dermot Finn'', which was officially selected for The Cannes Film Festival. In 1995, she starred in Gurinder Chadha's BBC film ''Rich Deceiver'', playing Gabriella de Courtney. On PBS America, she played Miss Jessel in the film ''The Haunting of Helen Walker''. She was in Tobe Hooper's ''Life Force'', Franc Roddam's ''Lords of Discipline'', and Alan Clark's ''Billy the Kid'' and ''The Green Baize Vampire''. She appeared as herself in the Doctor Who 50th anniversary film, ''The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot''.

Stage and audio

She is a voice actress best known for the film '' Faeries'', starring Kate Winslet and her work with Big Finish audio drama. In 2016, she voiced Mary Westerna in ''Dracula'', starring Mark Gatiss. In 2015, she voiced the role of Teldak in ''The Waters of Amsterdam'', starring Peter Davison, and Stella Preston in ''The Avengers, the Lost Episodes''. She was a member of Toby Robertson's company at Theatr Clwyd, alongside actors Ralph Fiennes and Nathaniel Parker. She was in the original casts of Howard Goodall's ''Girlfriends'' and ''The Hired Man''. She played Linda in the second cast of ''Blood Brothers'' in the West End, directed by Bill Kenwright.

Writing

Heery began using her birth name for writing after winning The London Writer's Competition sponsored by Time Out Group. She was a member of The Royal Court Young Writers Group and took up a bursary at ITV on the New Writer's Initiative scheme. She has written for the BBC Radio 4 drama series ''Brief Lives''. and episodes of BBC '' Doctors'', C4 Film Series '' Coming Up'', BBC Brief Encounters mentored by Andrew Davies, and CBeebies ''Topsy and Tim''. She is a short story writer, having been shortlisted and won prizes in 2016 Margery Allingham CWA writer's award, 2012 Bath Short story award, Exeter Short story award, Trisha Ashley Award, Fish short story award 2015.

In 2012, she formed Twotreeisland films and won first prize in Southend-On-Sea film festival for the film ''Beached''. She wrote the plays ''Feeding the Troll'', which premiered at the Edinburgh Festival, ''Clip'' which ran at Battersea Arts Centre, ''First Kiss'' and ''Lauren The Brave'' at the Landor Theatre, and ''Sophie in Wonderland'', which was produced by Theatre 503.

She has written two books; ''A Liverpool Girl'' was published in 2019 and ''A Last Dance in Liverpool'' was published in 2020. Two more books will follow, published by PanMacMillan.

Filmography

References

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morton, Elizabeth
1961 births
Living people
Actresses from Liverpool
Alumni of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Davison–Tennant family
English women writers
English stage actresses