Author: Margaret Forster
Honouring author Margaret Forster, who died on Monday, aged 77.
Award-winning author Margaret Forster wrote a great many well-loved novels and biographies. Her earliest success was Georgy Girl, published in 1965, which was turned into a film the following year.
Margaret Forster was born in Carlisle to a working-class family and won a scholarship to Oxford University, graduating in 1960.
She had looked to get her writing published while in her first job, teaching English at Bansbury Girls' School in Islington (1961-63); but it was in 1964 that her first novel, Dames' Delight, was released.
Forster also had success in non-fiction - two of her best-known works being the biographies of novelists Daphne du Maurier and William Makepeace Thackeray.
Forster had been suffering from cancer in her back, and died in Marie Curie Hospice in north London on Monday 8th Feb 2016.
She was not keen on pushing publicity, but this Desert Island Discs appearance lets us get to know her a little more.
And for those curious about a few of the things she penned, here's a run down of the books by Margaret Forster that we have in our library catalogue:
Diary of an Ordinary Woman
Margaret Forster presents the 'edited' diary of a woman, born in 1901, whose life spans the twentieth century. On the eve of the Great War, Millicent King begins to keep her journal and vividly records the dramas of everyday life in a family touched by war, tragedy, and money troubles. From bohemian London to Rome in the 1920s, her story moves on to social work and the build-up to another war, in which she drives ambulances through the bombed streets of London.
Diary of an Ordinary Woman is available for Listening Books members to borrow on MP3 CD, Listening Books number 00905.
Over
Don and Louise's 18-year-old daughter Miranda has died in a sailing accident. While Louise takes steps to move on with her life, Don cannot come to terms with the chain of events that led to the death. Instead, he is determined to bring someone to account.
Over is available for Listening Books members to borrow on MP3 CD, Listening Books number 01611.
Mothers' Boys
The attack on fifteen-year-old Joe Kennedy was particularly squalid and vicious. Sheila Armstrong's grandson Leo, usually a quiet, well-behaved boy, was found holding a knife. Harriet Kennedy cannot cope with her son's continuing pain; Sheila, who reared Leo, cannot bear the lasting guilt. In a powerful and moving tale of suffering and forgiveness, the two women confront the complex range of emotions that motherhood entails.
Mothers' Boys is available for Listening Books members to borrow on MP3 CD, Listening Books number 05395.
The Battle for Christabel
Rowena wants a baby. What she doesn't want is the baby's father. Yet five years after the birth of Christabel, Rowena is dead, tragically killed in a climbing accident. The battle for Christabel had begun.
The Battle for Christabel is available for Listening Books members to borrow on MP3 CD, Listening Books number 01252.
The Travels of Maudie Tipstaff
Plagued all her life by her boisterous husband, strait-laced, outspoken, domineering Maudie Tipstafff is now on her own. Invited by her two daughters and her son to spend four months with each of them, she leaves Glasgow for the very first time, uncertain of what awaits her. But what she finds in the very different homes of her children is not what she expects, causing her to reassess her own life.
The Travels of Maudie Tipstaff is available for Listening Books members to borrow on on download, Listening Books number 13077
This post was written by Holly Newson.
