Margaret Forster
| Margaret Forster | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
25 May 1938 Carlisle, England |
| Died | 8 February 2016 (aged 77) London, England |
| Occupation | Novelist, biographer, literary critic |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Spouse | Hunter Davies |
Margaret Forster (25 May 1938 – 8 February 2016) was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, historian and literary critic. She is best known for her 1965 novel Georgy Girl, which was made into a successful film of the same name and inspired a hit song by The Seekers, as well as her 2003 novel Diary of an Ordinary Woman; her biographies of Daphne du Maurier and Elizabeth Barrett Browning; and her memoirs Hidden Lives and Precious Lives.
Forster was born in the Raffles council estate in Carlisle, England. She came from a working-class background. Her father, Arthur Forster, was a mechanic or factory fitter; her mother, Lilian (née Hind), was a housewife who had worked as a clerk or secretary before her marriage.
Forster attended Carlisle and County High School for Girls (1949–1956), a grammar school. She won an Open Scholarship to read history at Somerville College, Oxford, graduating in 1960.
Her first job was teaching English at Barnsbury Girls' School in Islington, north London, for two years (1961–63). During this time she started to write, but her first draft novel was rejected.
Forster's first published novel, Dames' Delight, loosely based on her experiences in Oxford, came out in 1964, and launched her writing career. Her second novel, published in 1965, was a bestseller; Georgy Girl describes the choices open to a young working-class woman in London during the Swinging Sixties. It was adapted into a successful 1966 film starring Lynn Redgrave as Georgy, with Charlotte Rampling, Alan Bates and James Mason. Forster co-wrote the screenplay with Peter Nichols. The film features a song by The Seekers which was a contemporary hit, and later featured in the top fifty of Rolling Stone magazine's "500 Greatest Pop Songs of all time". The book was also adapted for a short-lived Broadway musical, Georgy, in 1970.
...
Wikipedia