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 ...

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'', which won the 1967 James Tait Black Memorial Prize. 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 (e.g.

Sheffield Sheffield is a 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 historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire ...

Hull Hull may refer to: Structures * Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship * Submarine hull Mathematics * Affine hull, in affi ...

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 ...

,) 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,

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

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 ...

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 o ...

and edited two editions of '' The Oxford Companion to English Literature'' and a book on Thomas Hardy.

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 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 and her father a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...

. 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 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 Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millic ...

. 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 inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols. Writing systems do not themselves constitute h ...

, served as an understudy 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, tw ...

and Diana Rigg.

Personal life

Drabble was married to the actor Clive Swift 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 Soc ...

, the academic

Adam Swift Adam Swift (born 1961) is a British political philosopher and sociologist who specialises in debates surrounding liberal egalitarianism. He has published books on communitarianism, on the philosophical aspects of school choice, on social j ...

, and Rebecca Swift (d. 2017), who ran The Literary Consultancy. 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 , lor ...

. 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, Phi ...

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 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 ...

, Drabble wrote of the anticipated wave of anti-Americanism, 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 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 Gua ...

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 totalit ...

's words in '' Nineteen Eighty-Four'' 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 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 (1963–87), while the publishers of her later works were

Penguin Penguins (order Sphenisciformes , family Spheniscidae ) are a group of aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is found north of the Equator. Highly adap ...

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, 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 relea ...

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'', 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'', 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 classif ...

(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 Ribosomal particles are denoted according to their sedimentation coefficients in Svedberg units. The 60S subunit is the large subunit of eukaryotic 80S ribosomes. It is structurally and functionally related to the 50S subunit of 70S prokaryotic ...

feminist novel that

's '' The Golden Notebook'' 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, '' Jerusalem the Golden'', 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. Offic ...

ess who gives away her

inheritance 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. Of ...

. 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 landsca ...

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, normally one of her kinder reviewers, called ''The Middle Ground'' "not a novel but a sociological treatise". Her eleventh novel, titled '' A Natural Curiosity'', published in 1989, continues the story of characters from her tenth novel, titled '' The Radiant Way'', 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 close ...

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. ...

and spans four generations of her family. Her fifteenth novel '' The Seven Sisters'', 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 ...

'' 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 inspi ...

'' (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 ''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 Thomas Hardy. She edited two editions of '' The Oxford Companion to English Literature'' 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 ...

(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 durin ...

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 ...

(DBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours. *1966: John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize, for '' The Millstone'' *1967: James Tait Black Memorial Prize, for '' Jerusalem the Golden'' *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: American Academy of Arts and Letters

*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 The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The university owns and operates majo ...

*1988: Honorary doctorate from the Keele University *1988: Honorary doctorate from the

University of Bradford The University of Bradford is a 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 created in Britain, but ...

*1992: Honorary doctorate from the

University of Hull , mottoeng = Bearing the Torch f learning, established = 1927 – University College Hull1954 – university status , type = Public , endowment = £18.8 million (2016) , budget = £190 million ...

*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 *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 Arundhat ...

, given by the

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

Library Associates *2006: Honorary Doctorate in Letters from the

*2011: Golden PEN Award by English PEN, for "a Lifetime's Distinguished Service to Literature"

Bibliography

Novels

*'' A Summer Bird-Cage'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1963) *'' The Garrick Year'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1964) *'' The Millstone'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1965) *'' Jerusalem the Golden'', 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) *'' The Radiant Way'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1987) *'' A Natural Curiosity'',

(1989) *'' The Gates of Ivory'', Viking (1991) *'' The Witch of Exmoor'', Viking (1996) *'' The Peppered Moth'', Viking (2001) *'' The Seven Sisters'', Viking (2002) *'' The Red Queen'', Viking (2004) *''

'',

(2006) *'' The Pure Gold Baby'', Canongate (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 *''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) *'' The Oxford Companion to English Literature'' (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