Dame Margaret Drabble, Lady Holroyd, (born 5 June 1939) is an English biographer,

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

and short story writer. Drabble's books include '' The Millstone'' (1965), which won the following year's John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize, and ''

Jerusalem the Golden ''Jerusalem the Golden'' is a novel by Margaret Drabble published in 1967, and is a winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1967.Stevenson, Randall (2004''The Oxford English Literary History: Volume 12: The Last of England?'' p. 541. O ...

'', which won the 1967

James Tait Black Memorial Prize The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Unit ...

. She was honoured by the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

in 2006, having earlier received awards from numerous

redbrick A red brick university (or redbrick university) was originally one of the nine civic universities founded in the major industrial cities of England in the 19th century. However, with the 1960s proliferation of plate glass universities and t ...

(e.g.

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

, Hull,

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

,) and plateglass universities (such as

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

Keele Keele is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. It is approximately three miles (5 km) west of Newcastle-under-Lyme, and is close to the village of Silverdale. Keele lies on the A53 roa ...

East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...

and

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

). She received the

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqu ...

E. M. Forster Award The E. M. Forster Award is a $20,000 award given annually to an Irish or British writer to fund a period of travel in the United States. The award, named after the English novelist E. M. Forster, is administered by the American Academy of Arts and L ...

in 1973. Drabble also wrote biographies of

Arnold Bennett Enoch Arnold Bennett (27 May 1867 – 27 March 1931) was an English author, best known as a novelist. He wrote prolifically: between the 1890s and the 1930s he completed 34 novels, seven volumes of short stories, 13 plays (some in collaboratio ...

and

Angus Wilson Sir Angus Frank Johnstone-Wilson, CBE (11 August 191331 May 1991) was an English novelist and short story writer. He was one of England's first openly gay authors. He was awarded the 1958 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for ''The Middle Age of ...

and edited two editions of ''

The Oxford Companion to English Literature ''The Oxford Companion to English Literature'' first published in 1932, edited by the retired diplomat Sir Paul Harvey (1869–1948), was the earliest of the Oxford Companions to appear. It is currently in its seventh edition (2009), edited by D ...

'' and a book on

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Word ...

Early life

Drabble was born in

, the second daughter of the advocate and novelist John F. Drabble and the teacher Kathleen Marie (

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 ...

Bloor). Her elder sister is the novelist and critic Dame Antonia Byatt (A.S. Byatt); the youngest sister is

art historian Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

Helen Langdon, and their brother, Richard Drabble, is a KC (lawyer). Drabble's father participated in the placement of Jewish refugees in Sheffield during the 1930s. Her mother was a

Shavian The Shavian alphabet (; also known as the Shaw alphabet) is an alphabet conceived as a way to provide simple, phonemic orthography for the English language to replace the difficulties of English orthography, conventional spelling using the E ...

and her father a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

. After attending The Mount School, a Quaker boarding school at

where her mother was employed, Drabble received a scholarship to

Newnham College, Cambridge Newnham College is a women's Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sid ...

. She studied English Literature whilst attending Cambridge. She joined the

Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, St ...

Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-we ...

in 1960, and, before leaving to pursue a career in literary studies and

writing Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically Epigraphy, inscribed, Printing press, mechanically transferred, or Word processor, digitally represented Symbols (semiot ...

, served as an

understudy In theater, an understudy, referred to in opera as cover or covering, is a performer who learns the lines and blocking or choreography of a regular actor, actress, or other performer in a play. Should the regular actor or actress be unable to ap ...

for

Vanessa Redgrave Dame Vanessa Redgrave (born 30 January 1937) is an English actress and activist. Throughout her career spanning over seven decades, Redgrave has garnered numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Television Award, two ...

and

Diana Rigg Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg (20 July 193810 September 2020) was an English actress of stage and screen. Her roles include Emma Peel in the TV series '' The Avengers'' (1965–1968); Countess Teresa di Vicenzo, wife of James Bond, in '' On H ...

Personal life

Drabble was married to the actor

Clive Swift Clive Walter Swift (9 February 1936 – 1 February 2019) was an English actor and songwriter. A classically trained actor, his stage work included performances with the Royal Shakespeare Company, but he was best known to television viewers for ...

between 1960 and 1975; they had three children, including the gardener and TV personality

Joe Swift Joseph Samuel Swift (born 25 May 1965) is an English garden designer, journalist and television presenter. Television career Swift is a regular presenter and designer on the BBC's ''Gardeners' World'', co-presenter on the Royal Horticultural So ...

, the academic Adam Swift, and

Rebecca Swift Rebecca Swift (10 January 1964 – 18 April 2017) was a British poet and essayist. She was co-founder in 1996 of The Literary Consultancy. Biography Rebecca Margaret Swift was born in Highbury, north London, the daughter of Clive Swift and Marg ...

(d. 2017), who ran

The Literary Consultancy The Literary Consultancy (TLC) is a UK-based editorial consultancy service that was founded in 1996, becoming the first service of its kind to offer "professional, in-depth editorial advice and assessment to anyone writing in the English languag ...

. In 1982, Drabble married the writer and biographer Sir Michael Holroyd; they live in London and

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

. Drabble's relationship with her sister

A. S. Byatt Dame Antonia Susan Duffy ( Drabble; born 24 August 1936), known professionally by her former marriage name as A. S. Byatt ( ), is an English critic, novelist, poet and short story writer. Her books have been widely translated, into more than t ...

has sometimes been strained because of the presence of autobiographical elements in both their writing. While their relationship is no longer especially close and they do not read each other's books, Drabble describes the situation as "normal sibling rivalry" and Byatt says it has been "terribly overstated by gossip columnists" and that the sisters "always have liked each other on the bottom line." When sought out for interview by ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Philip ...

s Barbara Milton in 1978, Drabble was described as "smaller than one might expect from looking at her photographs. Her face is finer, prettier and younger, surprisingly young for someone who has produced so many books in the past sixteen years. Her eyes are very clear and attentive and they soften when she is amused, as she often is, by the questions themselves and her own train of thought". In the same interview she admitted there were three writers for whom she felt an "immense admiration":

Saul Bellow Saul Bellow (born Solomon Bellows; 10 July 1915 – 5 April 2005) was a Canadian-born American writer. For his literary work, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts. He is the only wr ...

and

Doris Lessing Doris May Lessing (; 22 October 1919 – 17 November 2013) was a British-Zimbabwean novelist. She was born to British parents in Iran, where she lived until 1925. Her family then moved to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where she remain ...

Views on the 2003 invasion of Iraq

In the aftermath of the

2003 invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...

, Drabble wrote of the anticipated wave of

anti-Americanism Anti-Americanism (also called anti-American sentiment) is prejudice, fear, or hatred of the United States, its government, its foreign policy, or Americans in general. Political scientist Brendon O'Connor at the United States Studies Centr ...

, saying: "My anti-Americanism has become almost uncontrollable. It has possessed me, like a disease. It rises up in my throat like

acid reflux Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) or gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) is one of the upper gastrointestinal chronic diseases where stomach content persistently and regularly flows up into the esophagus, resulting in symptoms and/ ...

, that fashionable American sickness. I now loathe the United States and what it has done to Iraq and the rest of the helpless world", despite "remembering the many Americans that I know and respect". She wrote of her distress at images of the war, her objections to

Jack Straw John Whitaker Straw (born 3 August 1946) is a British politician who served in the Cabinet from 1997 to 2010 under the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He held two of the traditional Great Offices of State, as Home Secretary ...

about the

Guantanamo Bay detention camp The Guantanamo Bay detention camp ( es, Centro de detención de la bahía de Guantánamo) is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Guantánamo, GTMO, and Gitmo (), on the coast of Guant ...

and "American imperialism, American infantilism, and American triumphalism about victories it didn't even win". She recalled

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitar ...

's words in ''

Nineteen Eighty-Four ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (also stylised as ''1984'') is a dystopian social science fiction novel and cautionary tale written by the English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final ...

'' about "the intoxication of power" and "the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — for ever". She closed by saying, "I hate feeling this hatred. I have to keep reminding myself that if

Bush Bush commonly refers to: * Shrub, a small or medium woody plant Bush, Bushes, or the bush may also refer to: People * Bush (surname), including any of several people with that name **Bush family, a prominent American family that includes: *** ...

hadn't been (so narrowly) elected, we wouldn't be here, and none of this would have happened. There is another America. Long live the other America, and may this one pass away soon".

Writing

Drabble's early novels were published by

Weidenfeld & Nicolson Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd (established 1949), often shortened to W&N or Weidenfeld, is a British publisher of fiction and reference books. It has been a division of the French-owned Orion Publishing Group since 1991. History George Weidenfeld a ...

(1963–87), while the publishers of her later works were

Penguin Penguins (order (biology), order List of Sphenisciformes by population, Sphenisciformes , family (biology), family Spheniscidae ) are a group of Water bird, aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: on ...

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

and

Canongate The Canongate is a street and associated district in central Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. The street forms the main eastern length of the Royal Mile while the district is the main eastern section of Edinburgh's Old Town. It began ...

, and a recurring theme is the correlation between contemporary England's society and its people. Most of her

protagonist A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a st ...

s are women and the realistic descriptions of her figures often derive from Drabble's personal experiences; thus, her first novels describe the life of young women during the 1960s and 1970s, for whom the conflict between motherhood and intellectual challenges is being brought into focus, while '' The Witch of Exmoor'', published in 1996, shows the withdrawn existence of an elderly writer. As

Hilary Mantel Dame Hilary Mary Mantel ( ; born Thompson; 6 July 1952 – 22 September 2022) was a British writer whose work includes historical fiction, personal memoirs and short stories. Her first published novel, ''Every Day Is Mother's Day'', was releas ...

wrote in 1989: "Drabble's heroines have aged with her, becoming solid and sour, more prone to drink and swear; yet with each successive book their earnest, moral nature blossoms". Her characters' tragic faults reflect their political and economic situation. Drabble wrote novels, she claimed in 2011, "to keep myself company". Her first novel, ''

A Summer Bird-Cage ''A Summer Bird-Cage'' is the 1963 debut novel by Margaret Drabble published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. The title of the novel is taken from a quotation from the play ''The White Devil'' by John Webster: ‘"Tis just like a summer bird-cage in a ...

'', was published in 1963. She wrote it, she said, because she had just got married and "the children—I had one and was expecting another—and writing was such a convenient career to combine with having a family". With it she found her "informal first-person narrative voice", which she said was an unexpected discovery. She maintained this approach for her first three books, having "liberated myself from the neutral critical prose of the university essay", which she nevertheless admitted she had enjoyed writing. Her second novel ''

The Garrick Year ''The Garrick Year'' is the second novel by British novelist Margaret Drabble, first published in 1964. It is a first-person account of Emma, a London wife and mother examining the fraught bits of her marriage and an affair. Development Drabbl ...

'', published in 1964, drew upon her theatrical experience. Her third novel, '' The Millstone'', was published in 1965. About a woman with a baby, Drabble made her character unmarried so as to avoid having to write about marriage or the baby's father. She used the personal experience of one of her own children's diagnosis with a

lesion A lesion is any damage or abnormal change in the tissue of an organism, usually caused by disease or trauma. ''Lesion'' is derived from the Latin "injury". Lesions may occur in plants as well as animals. Types There is no designated classifi ...

(a hole in the heart) to inform her writing on the illness she gave the child. Indeed, Drabble herself wrote ''The Millstone'' whilst pregnant with her own child, that is, her third. On the book's fiftieth anniversary in 2015,

Tessa Hadley Tessa Jane Hadley (born 28 February 1956; née Nichols) is a British author, who writes novels, short stories and nonfiction. Her writing is realistic and often focuses on family relationships. Her novels have twice reached the longlists of the ...

described it as "the seminal 60s feminist novel that

's ''

The Golden Notebook ''The Golden Notebook'' is a 1962 novel by the British writer Doris Lessing. Like her two books that followed, it enters the realm of what Margaret Drabble in ''The Oxford Companion to English Literature'' called Lessing's "inner space fiction"; ...

'' is always supposed to be". Drabble admitted, years after writing ''The Millstone'': "I didn't realise until many years later that some of the medical details I invented were way off the mark". Drabble's fourth novel, ''

'', was published in 1967. It is also about a woman, an English woman who, not unlike Drabble, is from the north of the country and is attending university in London. Her fifth novel, '' The Waterfall'', was published in 1969. It is experimental. Drabble's sixth novel, '' The Needle's Eye'', was published in 1972. It is about an

heir Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officiall ...

ess who gives away her

inheritance Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, Title (property), titles, debts, entitlements, Privilege (law), privileges, rights, and Law of obligations, obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ ...

. Her seventh novel '' The Realms of Gold'', published in 1975, has a lady

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

as its central character. Her eighth novel '' The Ice Age'', published in 1977, is set in 1970s England and the social and economic conditions of that time. Drabble's ninth novel '' The Middle Ground'', published in 1980, has a lady journalist as its central character.

Margaret Forster Margaret Forster (25 May 1938 – 8 February 2016) was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, historian and critic, best known for the 1965 novel ''Georgy Girl'', made into a successful film of the same name, which inspired a hit song by T ...

, normally one of her kinder reviewers, called ''The Middle Ground'' "not a novel but a

sociological Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation and ...

treatise". Her eleventh novel, titled ''

A Natural Curiosity ''A Natural Curiosity'' is a 1989 novel by Margaret Drabble. The novel is an unintended sequel to Drabble's 1987 novel '' The Radiant Way'', follows the lives of the three protagonist women first introduced in that novel. The novel continues Dra ...

'', published in 1989, continues the story of characters from her tenth novel, titled ''

The Radiant Way ''The Radiant Way'' is a 1987 novel by British novelist Margaret Drabble. The novel provides social commentary and critique of 1980s Britain, by exploring the lives of three Cambridge-educated women with careers as knowledge professionals. Plo ...

'', which was published in 1987. Drabble apologised to her readers in a

preface __NOTOC__ A preface () or proem () is an introduction to a book or other literary work written by the work's author. An introductory essay written by a different person is a '' foreword'' and precedes an author's preface. The preface often closes ...

to ''A Natural Curiosity'' and said a sequel had been unintended. Her thirteenth novel '' The Witch of Exmoor'', published in 1996, treats of contemporary Britain. Drabble's fourteenth novel '' The Peppered Moth'', published in 2001, treats of a young girl growing up in a mining town in

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. In N ...

and spans four generations of her family. Her fifteenth novel ''

The Seven Sisters ''The Seven Sisters'' is an accessory for the 2nd edition of the ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game, published in 1995. ''The Seven Sisters'' details the fictional characters known as the Seven Sisters of the Forgotten R ...

'', published in 2002, is about a woman whose marriage has collapsed and off she goes to Italy. ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'' referred to part of her sixteeth novel, '' The Red Queen'' (published in 2004), as " psychodrabble", noting her claim in the book's preface that she is seeking "universal transcultural human characteristics".

Ursula K. Le Guin Ursula Kroeber Le Guin (; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the '' Earthsea'' fantasy series. She was ...

compared Drabble's seventeenth novel, ''

The Sea Lady ''The Sea Lady'' is a fantasy novel by British writer H. G. Wells, including some of the aspects of a fable. It was serialized from July to December 1901 in ''Pearson's Magazine'' before being published as a volume by Methuen. The inspiratio ...

'' (published in 2006), favourably with her earlier book ''The Needle's Eye''. In 2009, Drabble announced she would cease to write fiction, for fear of "repeating herself". The same year, she published her

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobi ...

''The Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History with Jigsaws''. ''A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman,'' a collection of the 14 short stories that Drabble published between 1966 and 2000, appeared in 2011. Drabble's other writing includes several screenplays, plays and short stories, as well as non-fiction such as ''A Writer's Britain: Landscape and Literature'' and biographies of

and

. Her critical works include studies of

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ' ...

and

. She edited two editions of ''

'' in 1985 and 2000. Drabble served as chairman of the National Book League (now Booktrust) from 1980 until 1982.

Awards and honours

Drabble was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(CBE) in

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

1980 Birthday Honours The Queen's Birthday Honours 1980 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The appointments were made to celebrate ...

, and was promoted to

Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(DBE) in the

2008 Birthday Honours The Queen's Birthday Honours 2008 were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as part of the Queen's Off ...

. *1966: John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize, for '' The Millstone'' *1967:

, for ''

'' *1972: ''

The Yorkshire Post ''The Yorkshire Post'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper, published in Leeds in Yorkshire, England. It primarily covers stories from Yorkshire although its masthead carries the slogan "Yorkshire's National Newspaper". It was previously owned by ...

'' Book Award (Finest Fiction), for '' The Needle's Eye'' *1973:

*1976: Honorary doctorate from the

University of Sheffield , mottoeng = To discover the causes of things , established = – University of SheffieldPredecessor institutions: – Sheffield Medical School – Firth College – Sheffield Technical School – University College of Sheffield , type = Pu ...

*1987: Honorary doctorate from the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

*1988: Honorary doctorate from the

Keele University Keele University, officially known as the University of Keele, is a public research university in Keele, approximately from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as the University College of North Staffordshire, Keele ...

*1988: Honorary doctorate from the

University of Bradford The University of Bradford is a Public university, public research university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. A plate glass university, it received its royal charter in 1966, making it the 40th university to be creat ...

*1992: Honorary doctorate from the

University of Hull The University of Hull is a public research university in Kingston upon Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1927 as University College Hull. The main university campus is located in Hull and is home to the Hull ...

*1994: Honorary doctorate from the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...

*1995: Honorary doctorate from the

University of York , mottoeng = On the threshold of wisdom , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £8.0 million , budget = £403.6 million , chancellor = Heather Melville , vice_chancellor = Charlie Jeffery , students ...

*2003:

St. Louis Literary Award The St. Louis Literary Award has been presented yearly since 1967 to a distinguished figure in literature. It is sponsored by the Saint Louis University Library Associates. Winners Past Recipients of the Award: *2023 Neil Gaiman *2022 Arundhati ...

, given by the

Saint Louis University Saint Louis University (SLU) is a private Jesuit research university with campuses in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, and Madrid, Spain. Founded in 1818 by Louis William Valentine DuBourg, it is the oldest university west of the Mississip ...

Library Associates *2006: Honorary Doctorate in Letters from the

*2011:

Golden PEN Award The Golden PEN Award is a literary award established in 1993 by English PEN given annually to a British writer for "a Lifetime's Distinguished Service to Literature". The winner is chosen by the Board of English PEN. The award has previously been ...

English PEN Founded in 1921, English PEN is one of the world's first non-governmental organisations and among the first international bodies advocating for human rights. English PEN was the founding centre of PEN International, a worldwide writers' associati ...

, for "a Lifetime's Distinguished Service to Literature"

Bibliography

Novels

*''

'',

(1963) *''

'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1964) *'' The Millstone'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1965) *''

'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1967) *'' The Waterfall'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1969) *'' The Needle's Eye'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1972) *'' The Realms of Gold'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1975) *'' The Ice Age'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1977) *'' The Middle Ground'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1980) *''

'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1987) *''

'',

(1989) *''

The Gates of Ivory ''The Gates of Ivory'' is a 1991 novel by novelist Margaret Drabble. The novel is the third in a series of novels, following ''The Radiant Way'' and ''A Natural Curiosity ''A Natural Curiosity'' is a 1989 novel by Margaret Drabble. The nove ...

'', Viking (1991) *'' The Witch of Exmoor'', Viking (1996) *'' The Peppered Moth'', Viking (2001) *''

'', Viking (2002) *'' The Red Queen'', Viking (2004) *''

'',

(2006) *'' The Pure Gold Baby'',

(2013) *'' The Dark Flood Rises'', Canongate (2016)

Short fiction

*''The Gifts of War'' (1969), title story republished (alongside "Hassan's Tower") by

Penguin Modern Classics Penguin Classics is an imprint of Penguin Books under which classic works of literature are published in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Korean among other languages. Literary critics see books in this series as important members of the Wester ...

on 24 February 2011 *"Hassan's Tower" (1980), published by Sylvester & Orphanos *''A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman: Complete Short Stories'' (2011)

Non-fiction

*''Wordsworth'' (''Literature in Perspective'' series) (1966) *''Arnold Bennett: A Biography'' (1974) *''For Queen and Country: Britain in the Victorian Age'' (1978)

André Deutsch André Deutsch (15 November 1917 – 11 April 2000) was a Hungarian-born British publisher who founded an eponymous publishing company in 1951. Biography Deutsch was born on 15 November 1917 in Budapest, Hungary, the son of a Jewish dentis ...

*''A Writer's Britain: Landscape in Literature'' (1979) *''Angus Wilson: A Biography'' (1995)

Secker & Warburg Harvill Secker is a British publishing company formed in 2005 from the merger of Secker & Warburg and the Harvill Press. History Secker & Warburg Secker & Warburg was formed in 1935 from a takeover of Martin Secker, which was in receivership, ...

*''The Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History with Jigsaws'' (2009)

As editor

*'' London Consequences'' (1972) – also co-editor *''The Genius of Thomas Hardy'' (1976) *''

'' (5th and 6th editions) (1985, 2000)

Critical studies and reviews of Drabble's work

* (20 pages) *Glenda Leeming. ''Margaret Drabble'' (Liverpool University Press; 2004, 2020)

References

External links

* *
''One Pair of Eyes: Margaret Drabble''
BBC2, 9 March 1968, BBC Archive site
Margaret Drabble's research files for her 1995 biography of novelist Sir Angus Wilson
are housed at the University of Iowa Special Collections & University Archives. {{DEFAULTSORT:Drabble, Margaret 1939 births Living people Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge British women biographers British women short story writers Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire English biographers English book editors English women dramatists and playwrights English women novelists British women screenwriters English screenwriters English short story writers English women non-fiction writers Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients John Llewellyn Rhys Prize winners People educated at Sheffield High School, South Yorkshire People educated at The Mount School, York Swift family Wives of knights Writers from Sheffield 20th-century biographers 20th-century British short story writers 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English women writers 21st-century biographers 21st-century English novelists 21st-century English women writers