Margaret Forster

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Margaret Forster 's tally of books, which began to appear in the later twentieth century, neared forty. They run the gamut from novels at one end to history and biography at the other, emphasising the complex relation of fiction to fact. Primarily a novelist, she also published remarkable works of family memoir, several biographies (some of them incorporating literary criticism), and recollections of Thackeray written as if by himself. She also edited and commented on literary works, and published a volume of poetry.
  • BirthName: Margaret Forster

Milestones

25 May 1938

MF was born in the front bedroom of her parents' house at 44 Orton Road, Carlisle, after a labour of only an hour. She was the middle one of three children.
Forster, Margaret. Hidden Lives. Viking, 1995.
120
Forster, Margaret. My Life in Houses. Chatto and Windus, 2014.
3

January 1965

MF 's two works published this year were Georgy Girl (the most popular of her earlier novels, probably because of the film made from it and its swinging London background) and The Bogeyman, rewritten from a rejected manuscript.
Whitaker’s Books in Print. J. Whitaker and Sons, 1988–2003.
(1988)
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.

By September 1995

MF published Hidden Lives, A Family Memoir, with family photos, a map of central Carlisle (accurate any time up to the 1950s), and endpapers of Carlisle Central Market about 1910.
Dated from the Bodleian Library acquisition stamp.
Solo: Search Oxford University Libraries Online. 18 July 2011, http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=OXVU1&fromLogin=true&reset_config=true.

8 February 2016

MF died of cancer.
Gorb, Ruth. “Margaret Forster obituary”. theguardian.com, 8 Feb. 2016.

3 March 2016

MF 's final novel, How to Measure a Cow, appeared in print without any mention on the volume of her recent death.
Blackwell’s Online Bookshop. http://Bookshop.Blackwell.co.uk.

Biography

Birth and Family

25 May 1938

MF was born in the front bedroom of her parents' house at 44 Orton Road, Carlisle, after a labour of only an hour. She was the middle one of three children.
Forster, Margaret. Hidden Lives. Viking, 1995.
120
Forster, Margaret. My Life in Houses. Chatto and Windus, 2014.
3