Elizabeth Morton

Elizabeth Morton, born Elizabeth Heery on 8 January 1961, is a British actress, screenwriter, and novelist who works professionally under the names Elizabeth Morton and Eliza Morton. Educated at Seafield Convent School in Liverpool, she trained at the Guildhall School of Drama and was a member of The Royal Court Young Writers Group. She is married to actor Peter Davison, and the couple have two sons, Louis Davison, an actor known for Netflix's Vikings: Valhalla, and Joel Davison, an actor and musician. She also has a stepdaughter, actress Georgia Tennant.

Morton's screen career began with a television role under her professional name, playing Papagena in the BBC science fiction series The Tripods. She went on to appear as a regular in the ITV series Jeeves and Wooster, in which she played Madeline Bassett, and in Watching. Her BBC credits include Rockliffe's Folly, where she portrayed Hester Goswell, and seasons four and five of London's Burning, in which she played Helen Field. Guest appearances followed in Spender, The Brothers McGregor, Brookside, Capital City, and Dear John. On the film side, she appeared in Tobe Hooper's Lifeforce, Franc Roddam's Lords of Discipline, and Alan Clark's Billy the Kid and The Green Baize Vampire. In 1988, she starred in Philip Ridley's The Universe of Dermot Finn, which was officially selected for the Cannes Film Festival. In 1995, she played Gabriella de Courtney in Gurinder Chadha's BBC film Rich Deceiver, and on PBS America she portrayed Miss Jessel in The Haunting of Helen Walker. She appeared as herself in the Doctor Who 50th anniversary production The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot.

On stage, Morton was a member of Toby Robertson's company at Theatr Clwyd, working alongside Ralph Fiennes and Nathaniel Parker. She was part of the original casts of Howard Goodall's Girlfriends and The Hired Man, and played Linda in the second West End cast of Blood Brothers, directed by Bill Kenwright. In 2012, she appeared on Broadway in Death of a Salesman. As a voice actress, she is known for her work on the animated film Faeries, which starred Kate Winslet, and for her contributions to Big Finish audio drama. In 2016, she voiced Mary Westerna in Dracula, starring Mark Gatiss, and in 2015 she voiced Teldak in The Waters of Amsterdam and Stella Preston in The Avengers: The Lost Episodes, both opposite Peter Davison. Since 2016, Morton has served as an ambassador for the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond.

Morton launched her writing career after winning The London Writer's Competition, sponsored by Time Out Group, and subsequently began publishing under her birth name. She has written for BBC Radio 4's Brief Lives, BBC Doctors, Channel 4's Coming Up film series, BBC Brief Encounters, and CBeebies' Topsy and Tim. Her stage writing includes Feeding the Troll, which premiered at the Edinburgh Festival, Clip at Battersea Arts Centre, First Kiss and Lauren the Brave at the Landor Theatre, and Sophie in Wonderland, produced by Theatre 503. In 2012, she co-founded Twotreeisland Films and won first prize at the Southend-on-Sea Film Festival for the film Beached. As a short story writer, she has been shortlisted for and won prizes including the 2016 Margery Allingham CWA award, the 2012 Bath Short Story Award, the Exeter Short Story Award, the Trisha Ashley Award, and the Fish Short Story Award in 2015.

In 2018, Morton secured a two-book deal with Ebury Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Her debut novel, A Liverpool Girl, was published in 2019 and reached number one on The Bookseller's Heatseekers Chart. A Last Dance in Liverpool followed in August 2020 and reached number three on the same chart. That same month, she signed a further two-book deal with Pan Macmillan. Angel of Liverpool was published in 2021, reaching number three on the Heatseekers Chart, earning a People's Friend Recommendation, and entering the top ten of the WHSmith bestsellers list; in 2022 it was shortlisted for the RoNA Best Saga award. The Girl from Liverpool, published in July 2022, also reached the top ten of the Booksellers Heatseekers Chart and number five on Amazon's Historical Romance Bestsellers list. In August 2022, Pan Macmillan signed Morton to a three-book deal for her Orphans of the Living trilogy. Morton narrates all of her books for audio release.