{{Short description|English author and playwright (1906–1995)}} {{More citations needed|date=January 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2016}} {{Use British English|date=October 2016}} thumb|in 1948 '''Emery Bonett''' (2 December 1906 – 7 November 1995) was the pen name of '''Felicity Winifred Carter''', an English writer and playwright. Her books were made into films. She wrote several mystery, suspense and detective novels in collaboration with her husband, John Bonett, published during the 1940s-60s.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/library/special/bonett|title=Bonett Manuscripts - Special Collections - The University Library - The University of Sheffield|first=University of|last=Sheffield|website=www.sheffield.ac.uk|date=7 June 2023 }}</ref>
==Life== Felicity Winifred Carter was born in Ecclesall, Sheffield, to John Carter and Winifred (née Naylor). Her father worked in his Sheffield-based family firm of manufacturing chemists, Carter and Sons Ltd. She came from a literary family: her mother, Winifred Carter, was a prolific author, as was her uncle, John L. Carter, and her aunt, Edith Carter, wrote several plays.
Initial success came with ''A Girl Must Live'', which was first serialized in ''Leisure'' magazine and later published as a novel in 1936. It was also adapted as a 1939 film of the same name, starring Margaret Lockwood.<ref name=girl>{{cite web|url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6ab23eea|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202033211/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6ab23eea|url-status=dead|archive-date=2 February 2017|title=A Girl Must Live (1939)|publisher=}}</ref>
She married John Hubert Arthur Coulson (John Bonett), at Westminster Registry Office, London on 21 January 1939. They had one son, Nicholas (Nick) John Coulson, born 2 January 1947, at Queen Charlotte’s Hospital, Hammersmith, London.
She lived in Spain with her husband during her later years.
John planned the books and Emery did most of the actual writing: the partnership is described by the self-penned blurb in the Penguin edition of ''No Grave for a Lady'': <blockquote> "John and Emery Bonett met at a Spanish language class. Instead of learning Spanish they became engaged. Emery had been a repertory actress, a scene-painter, a showgirl at the Prince of Wales, the back legs of a horse, and finally a writer. She was working as an ‘extra’ in a film studio when she heard that her first novel, ''A Girl Must Live'', had been accepted for publication. The next time she set foot in the same studio was to see the film version of the story being made.<br /> John had been in various disreputable professions: banker, company secretary, Civil Servant, journalist, sales promotion executive. Emery found he had imagination and plot-sense as well as grammar and a distorted sense of humour, not to mention a magnificent grasp of facts – which always eluded Emery. So she brought him into the writing business... Jointly and separately they have written for radio and television, short stories, song lyrics, and film scripts." </blockquote>
==Combined works of John and Emery Bonett==
'''Novels''' (with first UK/US publishing date)
'''Credited to Emery Bonett:'''
*''A Girl Must Live'' 1936/—<ref name=girl/> *''Never Go Dark'' 1940/— *''Make Do With Spring'' 1941/— *''High Pavement'' (US title: ''Old Mrs Camelot'') 1944/1944
'''Credited to John and Emery Bonett:'''
*''Dead Lion'' 1949/1949 *''A Banner for Pegasus'' (US title: ''Not in the Script'') 1951/1951 *''No Grave for a Lady'' 1960/1959 *''Better Dead'' (US title: ''Better Off Dead'') 1964/1964 *''The Private Face of Murder'' 1966/1966 *''This Side Murder?'' (US title: ''Murder On the Costa Brava'') 1967/1967 *''The Sound of Murder'' 1970/1971 *''No Time to Kill'' 1972/1972
'''Credited to John Bonett:'''
*''Perish the Thought'' 1984/—
'''BBC Radio plays''' (with first broadcast date) *''One Fine Day'' 27.10.44 Home Service – included in ''Radio Theatre: Plays Specially Written for Broadcasting'', edited and introduced by Val Gielgud; published: MacDonald & Co, London, 1946 *''Mr Beverly Plays God'' 15.7.46 Home Service *''The Puppet Master'' 29.1.48 Home Service – included in ''Five Radio Plays'', edited and introduced by Val Gielgud; published: Vox Mundi, London, 1948 *''Divorce From Reality'' 16.11.52 Light Programme *''Deadly Nightingale'' 15.8.62 Home Service *''Manalive'' 31.10.62 Home Service – recording now lost *''The Gossamer Syndrome'' 7.4.75 Radio 4
'''Television''' (with first broadcast date) *''One Fine Day'' UK 14.8.47 *''Face to Face'' UK 11.8.51 *''Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Presents: Blue Murder'' US/UK 24.8.55 *''The Puppet Master'' US 24.1.56
'''Films''' *''A Girl Has to Live'' (US title: ''A Girl Must Live'') UK 1939 – based on eponymous novel *''One Exciting Night'' aka ''You Can’t Do Without Love'' UK 1944 – wrote additional dialogue *''My Sister and I'' UK 1948 – based on novel: ''High Pavement'' *''The Glass Mountain'' (Italian title: ''Montagna di cristallo'') Italy/UK 1949 – cowrote screenplay; also wrote lyrics to ''Take the Sun'', a Nino Rota song featured in the film *''Children Galore'' UK 1955 – cowrote screenplay
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{IMDb name|id=0094956|name=Emery Bonett (Felicity Winifred Carter)}} *[http://www.shef.ac.uk/library/special/bonett.html Bonett Manuscripts] Collection of published and unpublished manuscripts, novels, etc. at University of Sheffield Library.
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonett, Emery}} Category:1906 births Category:1995 deaths Category:People from Ecclesall Category:English crime fiction writers Category:English mystery writers Category:English women screenwriters Category:English women mystery writers Category:20th-century English novelists Category:Writers from Sheffield Category:20th-century English screenwriters Category:20th-century English women novelists