Pam Gems (1 August 1925 – 13 May 2011)[1] was an
Englishplaywright.[2] The author of numerous original plays, as well as of adaptations of works by European playwrights of the past, Gems is best known for the 1978
musicalplayPiaf.
Personal life
Iris Pamela Price was born in
Bransgore,
Hampshire, and had her first play – a tale of goblins and elves – staged when she was eight by her fellow pupils at primary school.
She studied psychology at
Manchester University from which she graduated in 1949.[3] She was in her forties when she started to write professionally. She is best known for her 1978
musicalplayPiaf about French singer
Édith Piaf.[4]
She married wax model manufacturer (the family firm, Gems Wax Models, established in 1885, has supplied models to
Madame Tussauds) and former architect[5] Keith Gems; the couple had four children.[6]