Margaret Forster

Margaret Forster (born May 25, 1938, Carlisle, Cumberland, England—died February 8, 2016, London) was a British novelist and biographer whose books are known for their detailed characterizations.

Forster studied at Somerville College, Oxford (B.A., 1960). Her novels generally feature ordinary heroines struggling with issues of love and family. Her first novel, Dames’ Delight, was published in 1964. The following year she released her best-known work, Georgy Girl, the title character of which is a warmhearted ugly duckling looking for love in “Swinging Sixties” London. Forster also cowrote the screenplay of the 1966 film adaptation, which starred Lynn Redgrave as the ungainly Georgy, who ultimately finds security as the wife of her parents’ wealthy employer and happiness as a mother to her hedonistic flatmate’s unwanted baby.

Among her later novels, Mother Can You Hear Me? (1979) and Have the Men Had Enough? (1989) are both about a family’s efforts to care for an elder member, while The Bride of Lowther Fell (1980) and Lady’s Maid (1990) are set in the Victorian era. Forster’s other novels include The Travels of Maudie Tipstaff (1967), Mr. Bone’s Retreat (1971), Marital Rites (1981), The Battle for Christabel (1991), Diary of an Ordinary Woman 1914–1995 (2003), and How to Measure a Cow (2016).

Significant Sisters: The Grassroots of Active Feminism 1839–1939 (1984) profiles a number of famous women. Forster also wrote biographies, such as Elizabeth Barrett Browning: A Biography (1988) and Daphne du Maurier: The Secret Life of the Renowned Storyteller (1993), and the autobiographical works Hidden Lives: A Family Memoir (1995), Precious Lives (1998), and My Life in Houses (2014).