Margaret Forster: A Life in Books

Margaret Forster is one of the UK's most prolific and respected authors. Born in Cumbria to working class parents in 1938, she wrote her first novel at the age of twenty two. Since then she has published 24 novels (and has another on the way), as well as 9 non-fiction titles - a mixture of award-winning biography and memoir. Her books are all very different - there has never been a formula to attract readers - and perhaps this is the secret of her success.

Kathleen Jones, a biographer, poet and fellow Cumbrian, explores Margaret's books against the background of her life; a life divided between the quiet hills of the Lake District and the busy capital city London; between the demands of a lively family, and her own writing career.

A Life in Books sets out to answer the questions readers most often want to ask. How has Margaret managed to sustain her career from the nineteen sixties best-seller 'Georgy Girl', to the Orange Prize listed 'Over' in 2006, without doing any of the author events or publicity stunts that publishers expect? Where did the idea for 'Diary of an Ordinary Woman come from? How autobiographical are her novels? Does Margaret prefer writing biography or fiction? Is she a feminist? And above all, how has she accomplished the juggling act of family and career through a marriage that has lasted more than fifty years?

Written originally with an Arts Council grant and published by Northern Lights, the book has now been updated to include all Margaret Forster’s recent publications, including illustrations, and is re-published with the author’s full consent.