Mollie Harris
Born
Mollie Woodley

(1913-06-23)23 June 1913
Duckington, Oxfordshire, England
Died2 October 1995(1995-10-02) (aged 82)
NationalityBritish
Occupation(s)actress,author

Mollie Harris (born Mollie Woodley, 23 June 1913 – 2 October 1995) was an English actress and author, known for her appearances as village shopkeeper Martha Woodford in the BBC Radio soap opera The Archers.[1]

Life

Mollie Woodley was born in Ducklington, Oxfordshire[2] and raised in that county.[1] After World War II, she became a writer and broadcaster for BBC Radio, on programmes such as In The Country, with Phil Drabble.[2] She joined The Archers in 1970. and appeared as a castaway on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 8 October 1983.[1]

Harris's books about her life in Oxfordshire, include her three-volume autobiography, A Kind of Magic (1969), Another Kind of Magic (1971) and The Green Years (1976).[2] She wrote From Acre End (1982) about Eynsham, the village where she lived,[2]. Mollie Harris wrote the book "The Archers Country Cookbook", which did appear under the name of "Martha Woodford", and was for a while a country cook resident on BBC television programme Pebble Mill at One. She also wrote books about privies.[2]

She married Ginger Harris, a heating engineer, in 1937 and adopted his surname.[2] He died in 1982.[2] Harris died on 2 October 1995 in Oxford.[2]

The painter Gary Woodley, who illustrated some of her books, was her cousin.[2]

Bibliography

  • —— (1969). A Kind of Magic. Chatto & Windus. ISBN 9780701114503.
  • —— (1971). Another Kind of Magic.
  • —— (1976). The Green Years.
  • —— (1977). The Archer's Country Cookbook.
  • —— (1982). From Acre End: a portrait of a village.
  • —— (1984). Cotswold Privies.
  • —— (1987). The Magic of the Cotswold Way. Chatto & Windus. ISBN 9780701131524.
  • —— (1989). Where the Windrush Flows.
  • —— (1990). Privies Galore.
  • —— (1991). Wychwood: the secret Cotswold forest.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Desert Island Discs - Castaway : Mollie Harris". BBC Online. BBC. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Fergusson, James (4 October 1995). "OBITUARY:Mollie Harris". The Independent. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
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