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Margaret Forster, award-winning author dies at 77 Margaret Forster, award-winning author dies at 77
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The award-winning novelist Margaret Forster, whose novel Georgy Girl inspired one of the hit songs of the late 1960s, has died at the age of 77.The award-winning novelist Margaret Forster, whose novel Georgy Girl inspired one of the hit songs of the late 1960s, has died at the age of 77.
Her husband, the writer and journalist Hunter Davies, said the writer died this morning at a hospice near her north London home.Her husband, the writer and journalist Hunter Davies, said the writer died this morning at a hospice near her north London home.
Forster, a former teacher, was one of the UK’s most prolific novelists, producing more than 20 works of fiction and a host of nonfiction titles after the success of her 1965 novel about a young woman adrift in swinging London.Forster, a former teacher, was one of the UK’s most prolific novelists, producing more than 20 works of fiction and a host of nonfiction titles after the success of her 1965 novel about a young woman adrift in swinging London.
Georgy Girl was made into a film starring Lynn Redgrave as Georgy, Charlotte Rampling, Alan Bates and James Mason, and featuring a song by the Australian group The Seekers, which became an international chart-topper. It hit number one in Australia, no 3 in the UK , reached second place on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, and was listed at number 36 on Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Pop Songs of all time” issued in 2002. Georgy Girl was made into a film starring Lynn Redgrave as Georgy, alongside Charlotte Rampling, Alan Bates and James Mason, and featuring a song by the Australian group the Seekers, which became an international chart-topper. It hit number one in Australia, no 3 in the UK , reached second place on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, and was listed at number 36 on Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Pop Songs of all time”.
Davies said Forster, who had a mastectomy 40 years ago, had died of cancer of the back.Davies said Forster, who had a mastectomy 40 years ago, had died of cancer of the back.
The Carlisle-born author, who won a scholarship to Oxford, trod a delicate line between literary and commercial literature, and had a beady eye for a good story. It was her 1993 biography of Daphne du Maurier that first revealed the novelist’s complicated sexuality, and her obsessions for women, notably the actress Gertrude Lawrence. In a Sunday Times column at the weekend, Davies revealed that she was terminally ill, writing: “My wife, who has generally gone through life fitter, stronger and healthier than me, has gone into a hospice for respite care. So for the past four weeks I have been on my own, feeling dazed and disoriented.”
Her latest novel, How to Measure a Cow, returns to the Lake District, where she and Davies had a home, is due out on 3 March from Chatto & Windus. The Carlisle-born author, who won a scholarship to Oxford, trod a delicate line between literary and commercial literature, and had a beady eye for a good story. It was her 1993 biography of Daphne du Maurier that first revealed the novelist’s complicated sexuality, and her obsessions with women, notably the actress Gertrude Lawrence.
That book is still a source of reference for Du Maurier researchers, prompting a tweet from novelist Joanna Briscoe in response to Forster’s daughter Caitlin Davies’s announcement of her mother’s death:
@CaitlinDavies2 I am so so sorry.By pure chance I am reading her du Maurier biog right now and totally entranced and addicted. Big sympathyX
One key to Du Maurier, wrote Forster, was her love of houses - a passion the novelist shared, going on to publish her own house-by-house autobiography in 2014.
My Life in Houses opened: “I was born on May 25, 1938, in the front bedroom of a house in Orton Road, on the outer edges of Raffles, a council estate. I was a lucky girl.” It went on to chart her journey from that council house, to her London house, via Oxford, Hampstead, the Lake District and the Mediterranean.
One of the people to tweet their condolences was another Carlisle-born success, the wine writer Jancis Robinson, who wrote “My great respect to a heroine, & fellow head girl of Carlisle & County High School, Margaret Forster. Bet she never tweeted. RIP”
In an interview for the Guardian’s Writer’s Rooms series, she gave a rare glimpse into her writing routine: “I don’t have a computer. Everything I write is handwritten. The A4 paper lies in the middle of the desk with my fountain pen on it. I’m endlessly told how much time and effort it would save if I used a computer, and could delete and add as I wished, but I believe the whole process of using a pen is part of how I think and I’m more careful with the words when changing or erasing them would not be simple. And the handwriting gives me pleasure.
Her latest novel, How to Measure a Cow, returns to the Lake District, where she and Davies have a home. It is due out on 3 March from Chatto & Windus.