Angela Maria Lambert (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Helps; 14 April 1940 – 26 September 2007) was a British journalist, art critic, and author. She is best known for her novels ''

A Rather English Marriage ''A Rather English Marriage'' is a novel by Angela Lambert, first published in 1992, and later adapted for television by Andrew Davies for the BBC. Plot summary The book's plot concerns two retired men who are thrown together following the deat ...

'' and ''Kiss and Kin'', the latter of which won the

Romantic Novel of the Year Award The Romantic Novel of the Year Award is an award for romance novels since 1960, presented by Romantic Novelists' Association, and since 2003, the novellas, also won the Love Story of the Year (now RoNA Rose Award). In 2018, awards were given to ...

Biography

Lambert was born Angela Maria Helps to an English civil servant and a German-born housewife. She was unhappy when sent to

Wispers School Wispers School was a British independent boarding school for girls aged between 11 and 18 which was founded in 1947 and which closed in 2008 after 61 years' operation. For the first part of its life it was based at Wispers, a large country house ne ...

, a girls' boarding school in

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

, where by the age of 12 she had decided that she wanted to be a writer. She went to

St Hilda's College, Oxford St Hilda's College is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college is named after the Anglo-Saxon Saint, Hilda of Whitby and was founded in 1893 as a hall for women; it ...

, where she read politics, philosophy and economics. In 1962, she married Martin Lambert, they had a son and a daughter, and the union ended five years later, when he left her with two young children to support. Later she also had another daughter with the Hungarian-born writer

Stephen Vizinczey Stephen Vizinczey, originally István Vizinczey (12 May 1933 – 18 August 2021) was a Hungarian-Canadian writer. Early career and influences Vizinczey was born in Káloz, Hungary. His first published works were poems which appeared in Geor ...

. She began her career as a journalist in 1969, working for

ITN Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based television production company. It is made up of two divisions: Broadcast News and ITN Productions. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, N ...

before joining ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' newspaper in 1988. Lambert suffered multiple immune disorders and

hepatitis C Hepatitis C is an infectious disease caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV) that primarily affects the liver; it is a type of viral hepatitis. During the initial infection people often have mild or no symptoms. Occasionally a fever, dark urine, a ...

(caught from a blood transfusion) which led to

cirrhosis of the liver Cirrhosis, also known as liver cirrhosis or hepatic cirrhosis, and end-stage liver disease, is the impaired liver function caused by the formation of scar tissue known as fibrosis due to damage caused by liver disease. Damage causes tissue repai ...

. Having survived a critical illness in February 2006, she never quite recovered, and became increasingly disabled. She lived in London and France (having bought a house in the Dordogne in 1972). She was survived by her partner of 21 years, television director Tony Price, and her three children.

Works

Novels

* ''Love Among the Single Classes'' (1989) * ''No Talking After Lights'' (1990) * ''

'' (1992) * ''The Constant Mistress'' (1994) * ''Kiss and Kin'' (1997) * ''Golden Lads and Girls'' (1999) * ''The Property of Rain'' (2001)

Non-fiction

* ''Unquiet Souls: A Social History of the Illustrious, Irreverent, Intimate Group of British Aristocrats Known As "the Souls"'' (1987) * ''1939: The Last Season of Peace'' (1989) * ''The Lost Life of Eva Braun'' (2006)

References

External links

ObituaryObituary in ''The Times'', 27 September 2007Romaunce Books
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lambert, Angela 1940 births 2007 deaths Alumni of St Hilda's College, Oxford ITN newsreaders and journalists English journalists English non-fiction writers Writers from London People educated at Wispers School RoNA Award winners 20th-century English novelists 21st-century British novelists 20th-century English women writers 21st-century English women writers Women romantic fiction writers English women novelists English women non-fiction writers British women television journalists 20th-century British businesspeople