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Molly Parkin, the artist, fashion designer, broadcaster, and writer, has died at the age of 93. She was one of Wales’ most vibrant and influential figures.
Born in Pontycymer, Parkin became a symbol of the “Swinging Sixties,” embracing the era with her flamboyant personality and distinctive style.
Beyond her cultural impact, she achieved critical acclaim as an abstract painter and later as an award-winning fashion editor in London.
Parkin famously gave up alcohol in her 50s, maintaining that her earlier hedonism was simply “a rejoicing in life.”
She held fashion editor roles at Nova and Harpers and Queen before winning an award for the same position at the Sunday Times in 1971.
Later in her career, Parkin authored 10 “comic erotica” novels and two volumes of memoirs, while also becoming a popular guest on television chat shows.
She was married twice, first to art dealer Michael Parkin and later to artist Patrick Hughes.
Parkin also had a string of notable lovers, including blues musician Bo Diddley, writer John Mortimer, and actor James Robertson Justice. She reportedly turned down advances from Louis Armstrong. Her circle of friends included Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol, and George Melly.
Her two-year affair with Justice was a defining period in her life, and she described him as “the love of my life.”
The affair occurred at the height of Justice’s fame, best known for his role as Sir Lancelot Spratt in the popular 1950s Doctor films. The actor was known for his own prodigious appetites and was said to have once out-drunk Ernest Hemingway.
“I was 22, he was 52,” Parkin recalled in a BBC Desert Island Discs interview.
“My father died and I looked at James’s hands and his skin reminded me of my father and I didn’t want any reminders of my father and I thought what are you doing with a man as old as your father? He was very funny though.”
Born Molly Noyle Thomas in February 1932, she hailed from a Garw Valley family of preachers, teachers, and miners.
Both her parents struggled with alcoholism, and later in life, she revealed that her father had abused her until she left home during World War Two.
Her grandfather was a deacon, and her mother played the organ in the Presbyterian chapel.
“It was very religious,” Parkin recalled.
“We went three times on Sunday and in the week as well, we were living on the side of a mountain anyway and God seemed very close, just at the top.
“I wasn’t allowed to walk on the same side of the street as the pub.”
About her mother she said she was “the beauty of the valley – with strange navy blue eyes and the personality to go with it.
“She would have been an amazing concert pianist but the nervous system wasn’t there, there was great expectation on her with her looks. She was in and out of psychiatric wards throughout our girlhood.
“She’d be in the front room pounding Beethoven or some dramatic score with the door locked. I do have turbulent feelings when I go to concerts and hear that sort of music.”
Parkin’s grandmother encouraged her to pursue painting and writing, and they shared a close bond.
Her talent earned her a scholarship to Goldsmiths College of Art at the age of 17, and by 22, she was a member of the prestigious Chelsea Arts Club.
After marrying at 25, she focused on painting from home, earning “enormous amounts,” driving a yellow Rolls-Royce, and owning a house in Chelsea.
This success led her to open her own fashion boutique, where she created hats and bags, as well as a restaurant.
Her issues with alcohol began when she entered the magazine industry.
“We were all drinking, you’ve seen that American series Mad Men,” she recalled.
“It became out of control. When I went into journalism drinking escalated because it seemed quite normal to go over to the pub.
“I didn’t have that when I was a painter.”
She hit rock bottom in the mid 1980s. One morning she ended up in a gutter at Smithfield, where she had been drinking in one of the market pubs.
Parkin slept for two days and then heard the voice of her grandmother telling her it was time to stop. She gave up drinking and cigarettes and said she also rediscovered her spiritual side.
“When I say I don’t harbour regrets, my mother and father were alcoholics, it runs in my family,” she told the BBC.
“But my grandmother was my role model, so I am a sublime grandmother.
“An alcoholic mother is not what I’d wish on anybody but those two girls of mine – Sarah and Sophie – we’re so close, I’ve made amends and we’ve come through any lingering resentment which I’m sure would have been there.”
After bankruptcy, Parkin spent her last years in a council flat in the World’s End estate in London, on the fringes of Chelsea, still painting and writing – including for music.
A retrospective of her work was held at a gallery on the King’s Road in 2017.
“I’m a typical product of my Welsh valley, I’ve also got Romany blood,” she said.
“The Celts are a nomadic race and I’ve actually had 54 homes in adult years and I’ve been blessed and made it my business to surround myself with larger than life characters, I’ve learnt a lot from them, especially those lovers.”
Her daughter Sophie confirmed her death, posting “Molly Parkin…extraordinary human, has left the building”.
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