Michèle Brigitte Roberts FRSL (born 20 May 1949) is a British writer, novelist and poet. She is the daughter of a French Catholic teacher mother (Monique Caulle) and English Protestant father (Reginald Roberts), and has dual UK–France nationality.

Early life

Roberts was born to a French Catholic mother and English Protestant father in

Bushey, Hertfordshire Bushey is a town in the Hertsmere borough of Hertfordshire in the East of England. It has a population of over 25,000 inhabitants. Bushey Heath is a large neighbourhood south east of Bushey on the boundary with the London Borough of Harrow ...

, but raised in

Edgware Edgware () is a suburban town in northern Greater London, mostly in the London Borough of Barnet but with small parts falling in the London Borough of Harrow and in the London Borough of Brent. Edgware is centred north-northwest of Charing Cros ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...

. She was educated at a convent, expecting to become a nun, before reading English at Somerville College, Oxford, where she lost her Catholic faith. She also studied at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

, training to be a librarian. She worked for the

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...

Bangkok, Thailand Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...

, in this role from 1973 to 1974.

Career

Active in socialist and feminist politics (the Women's Liberation Movement) since the early 1970s, she formed a writers' collective with

Sara Maitland Sara Maitland (born 27 February 1950) is a British writer of religious fantasy. A novelist, she is also known for her short stories. Her work has a magic realist tendency. Life and career Sarah (later "Sara") Louise Maitland was born in London ...

Michelene Wandor Michelene Dinah Wandor (née Samuels; born 20 April 1940), known from 1963 to at least 1979 as Michelene Victor, is an English playwright, critic, broadcaster, poet, lecturer, and musician. Birth and education She was born Michelene Samuels i ...

and Zoe Fairbairns. At this time Roberts was the Poetry Editor (1975–77) at ''

Spare Rib ''Spare Rib'' was a second-wave feminist magazine, founded in 1972 in the United Kingdom, that emerged from the counter culture of the late 1960s as a consequence of meetings involving, among others, Rosie Boycott and Marsha Rowe. ''Spare Rib' ...

'', the feminist magazine, and later at '' City Limits'' (1981–83). Her first novel, ''A Piece of the Night'', was published in 1978. Her 1992 novel ''Daughters of the House'' was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and won the 1993

WH Smith Literary Award The WH Smith Literary Award was an award founded in 1959 by British high street retailer W H Smith. Its founding aim was stated to be to "encourage and bring international esteem to authors of the British Commonwealth"; originally open to all re ...

. ''Paper Houses'', a memoir of her life since 1970, was published in 2007: "Drawing on her diaries of the period, she brings back a more political, though also hedonistic era of radical feminism, communes and demonstrations. And the friendships she made and has kept ever since, notably with fellow feminist writers such as Sara Maitland, Micheline Wandor and Alison Fell. Roberts also self-analyzes the effects of her Anglo-French family’s Catholicism ('the nun in my head, that monstrous Mother Superior'), which have remained a fertile source, even as she reacted against its overt doctrines. Her exploration of London, the various areas and houses that she lived in, went alongside her development as a writer. For her, writing 'meant voyaging into the unknown and having adventures' though also 'bearing witness to other people’s stories as well as my own'." In her 2020 work, ''Negative Capability: A Diary of Surviving'', Roberts documents a period of crisis following the rejection of a novel she was writing by her publisher and agent. The title is taken from a quotation by

Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculos ...

. Roberts is an Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at 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 ...

and was Visiting Professor in Writing at Nottingham Trent University for several years.

Honours and recognition

Roberts was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1999. She is a

Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres The ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and Letters) is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is ...

, awarded by the French government, but turned down an OBE as a consequence of her republican views.

Publications

Essays

*''Food, Sex & God: on Inspiration and Writing'', 1988,

Virago Press Virago is a British publisher of women's writing and books on feminist topics. Started and run by women in the 1970s and bolstered by the success of the Women's Liberation Movement (WLM), Virago has been credited as one of several British femini ...

Novels

*'' A Piece of the Night'', 1978,

Women's Press The Women's Press was a feminist publishing company established in London in 1977. Throughout the late 1970s and the 1980s, the Women's Press was a highly visible presence, publishing feminist literature. Founding In 1977, Stephanie Dowrick cofou ...

*''The Visitation'', 1978, Women's Press *'' The Wild Girl'' (also known as ''The Secret Gospel of Mary Magdalene''), 1984, Methuen *''The Book of Mrs Noah'', 1987, Methuen *''In the Red Kitchen'', 1990, Methuen *''Daughters of the House'', 1992, Virago and Morrow (USA) *''During Mother's Absence'', 1992, Virago *''Flesh & Blood'', 1994, Virago *''Impossible Saints'', 1998, Ecco Press *''Fair Exchange'', 1999, Little, Brown *''The Looking Glass'', 2000, Little, Brown *''The Mistressclass'', 2002, Little, Brown *''Reader, I Married Him'', 2006, Little, Brown *''Ignorance'', 2012, Bloomsbury Publishing *''The Walworth Beauty'', 2017, Bloomsbury *''Cut Out'', 2021, Sandstone Press,

Poetry

*''Touch Papers: Three Women Poets'' (with

and

Judith Kazantzis Judith Elizabeth Kazantzis (''née'' Pakenham; 14 August 1940 – 18 September 2018) was a British poet and political and social activist. Life Kazantzis was born in Oxford and grew up in East Sussex, the fourth child and second daughter of th ...

), 1982,

Allison and Busby Allison & Busby (A & B) is a publishing house based in London established by Clive Allison and Margaret Busby in 1967. The company has built up a reputation as a leading independent publisher. Background Launching as a publishing company in May ...

*''The Mirror of the Mother'', 1986, Methuen *''Psyche and the Hurricane '', 1991, Methuen *''All the Selves I Was'', 1995, Virago

Short stories

*''Your Shoes'', 1991BBC English literature.
/ref> *''During Mother's Absence'', 1993, Virago *''Playing Sardines'', 2001, Virago *''Mud: Stories of Sex and Love'', 2010, Virago

Memoir

*''Paper Houses: A Memoir of the 70s and Beyond'', 2007, Virago, ; paperback 2008, *''Negative Capability: A Diary of Surviving'', 2020, Sandstone Press,

Bibliography

* Maria Soraya García-Sánchez: ''Travelling in Women's History with Michèle Roberts's Novels: Literature, Language and Culture''. Bern: Lang, 2011, * Susanne Gruss: ''The Pleasure of the Feminist Text: Reading Michèle Roberts and Angela Carter''. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2009, * Nick Rennison: ''Contemporary British Novelists''. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis, 2005, , p. 137–140.

References

External links

*
"Take risks"
''The Guardian'', 14 July 2007 – interview-based feature by Lucasta Miller * {{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Michele 1949 births 20th-century English women writers 20th-century English writers 21st-century English women writers Academics of Nottingham Trent University Academics of the University of East Anglia Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford Alumni of University College London British feminist writers British journalists British republicans British women academics British women short story writers English people of French descent English women novelists Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Former Roman Catholics Living people People from Bushey People from Edgware