Dame Margaret Drabble, Lady Holroyd,DBE,FRSL (born 5 June 1939)^[1] is an English biographer, novelist and short story writer.

Dame Margaret Drabble DBEFRSL
Drabble in 2011
Born	(1939-06-05)5 June 1939 (age 85) Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Occupation	Biographer novelist short story writer
Education	Newnham College,University of Cambridge
Years active	1963–
Notable works	A Summer Bird-Cage The Garrick Year The Millstone Jerusalem the Golden The Needle's Eye
Notable awards	John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize 1966 James Tait Black Memorial Prize 1967 The Yorkshire Post Book Award (Finest Fiction) 1972 American Academy of Arts and LettersE. M. Forster Award 1973 Golden PEN Award 2011
Spouses	Clive Swift ​ ​ (m. 1960;div. 1975)​ Michael Holroyd ​ (m. 1982)​
Children	Adam Swift Rebecca Swift Joe Swift
Relatives	A. S. Byatt (sister)

Drabble's books includeThe Millstone (1965), which won the following year'sJohn Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize, andJerusalem the Golden, which won the 1967James Tait Black Memorial Prize. She was honoured by theUniversity of Cambridge in 2006, having earlier received awards from numerousredbrick (e.g.Sheffield,Hull,Manchester,) andplateglass universities (such asBradford,Keele,East Anglia andYork). She received theAmerican Academy of Arts and LettersE. M. Forster Award in 1973.

Drabble also wrote biographies ofArnold Bennett andAngus Wilson and edited two editions ofThe Oxford Companion to English Literature and a book onThomas Hardy.

Drabble was born inSheffield, the second daughter of the County Court judge and novelistJohn Frederick Drabble and the teacher Kathleen Marie (née Bloor). Her elder sister was the novelist and criticA. S. Byatt;^[1] the youngest sister isart historian Helen Langdon, and their brother is the barrister Richard Drabble,KC. Drabble's father participated inthe placement of Jewish refugees in Sheffield during the 1930s.^[2] Her mother was aShavian and her father aQuaker.^[2]

After attendingThe Mount School, a Quaker boarding school atYork where her mother was employed, Drabble received a scholarship toNewnham College, Cambridge.^[1] She studied English Literature whilst attending Cambridge.^[3] She joined theRoyal Shakespeare Company atStratford-upon-Avon in 1960, and, before leaving to pursue a career in literary studies and writing, served as anunderstudy forVanessa Redgrave andDiana Rigg.^[1][4]

Drabble was married to the actorClive Swift between 1960 and 1975. They had three children, the gardener and TV personalityJoe Swift; the academicAdam Swift; andRebecca Swift (d. 2017), who ranThe Literary Consultancy.^[5][6][7] In 1982, Drabble married the writer and biographerSir Michael Holroyd;^[8] they live in London andSomerset.^[1]

Drabble's relationship with her sisterA. S. Byatt was sometimes strained because of autobiographical elements in both their writing. While their relationship was not especially close and they did not read each other's books, Drabble described the situation as "normal sibling rivalry"^[9] and Byatt said it had been "terribly overstated by gossip columnists" and that the sisters "always have liked each other on the bottom line."^[10]

When sought out for interview byThe Paris Review's Barbara Milton in 1978, Drabble was described as "smaller than one might expect from looking at her photographs. Her face is finer, prettier and younger, surprisingly young for someone who has produced so many books in the past sixteen years. Her eyes are very clear and attentive and they soften when she is amused, as she often is, by the questions themselves and her own train of thought".^[3] In the same interview she admitted there were three writers for whom she felt an "immense admiration":Angus Wilson,Saul Bellow andDoris Lessing.^[3]

In the aftermath of the2003 invasion of Iraq, Drabble wrote of the anticipated wave ofanti-Americanism, saying: "My anti-Americanism has become almost uncontrollable. It has possessed me, like a disease. It rises up in my throat likeacid reflux, that fashionable American sickness. I now loathe the United States and what it has done to Iraq and the rest of the helpless world", despite "remembering the many Americans that I know and respect". She wrote of her distress at images of the war, her objections toJack Straw about theGuantanamo Bay detention camp and "American imperialism, American infantilism, and American triumphalism about victories it didn't even win". She recalledGeorge Orwell's words inNineteen Eighty-Four about "the intoxication of power" and "the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – for ever". She closed by saying, "I hate feeling this hatred. I have to keep reminding myself that ifBush hadn't been(so narrowly) elected, we wouldn't be here, and none of this would have happened. There is another America. Long live the other America, and may this one pass away soon".^[11]

Drabble's early novels were published byWeidenfeld & Nicolson (1963–87), while the publishers of her later works werePenguin,Viking andCanongate, and a recurring theme is the correlation between contemporary England's society and its people. Most of herprotagonists are women^[12][13][14] and the realistic descriptions of her figures often derive from Drabble's personal experiences; thus, her first novels describe the life of young women during the 1960s and 1970s, for whom the conflict between motherhood and intellectual challenges is being brought into focus, whileThe Witch of Exmoor, published in 1996, shows the withdrawn existence of an elderly writer. AsHilary Mantel wrote in 1989: "Drabble's heroines have aged with her, becoming solid and sour, more prone to drink and swear; yet with each successive book their earnest, moral nature blossoms".^[15] Her characters' tragic faults reflect their political and economic situation. Drabble wrote novels, she claimed in 2011, "to keep myself company".^[16]

Her first novel,A Summer Bird-Cage, was published in 1963. She wrote it, she said, because she had just got married and "the children—I had one and was expecting another—and writing was such a convenient career to combine with having a family".^[3] With it she found her "informal first-person narrative voice", which she said was an unexpected discovery.^[16] She maintained this approach for her first three books, having "liberated myself from the neutral critical prose of the university essay", which she nevertheless admitted she had enjoyed writing.^[16]

Her second novelThe Garrick Year, published in 1964, drew upon her theatrical experience.^[1] Her third novel,The Millstone, was published in 1965. About a woman with a baby, Drabble made her character unmarried so as to avoid having to write about marriage or the baby's father.^[16] She used the personal experience of one of her own children's diagnosis with alesion (ahole in the heart) to inform her writing on the illness she gave the child.^[16] Indeed, Drabble herself wroteThe Millstone whilst pregnant with her own child, that is, her third.^[16] On the book's fiftieth anniversary in 2015,Tessa Hadley described it as "the seminal 60s feminist novel thatDoris Lessing'sThe Golden Notebook is always supposed to be".^[17] Drabble admitted, years after writingThe Millstone: "I didn't realise until many years later that some of the medical details I invented were way off the mark".^[16]

Drabble's fourth novel,Jerusalem the Golden, was published in 1967. It is also about an English woman who, not unlike Drabble, is from the north of the country and is attending university in London.^[1] Her fifth novel,The Waterfall, was published in 1969. It is experimental.^[1] Drabble's sixth novel,The Needle's Eye, was published in 1972.^[8] It is about anheiress who gives away herinheritance.^[1] Her seventh novelThe Realms of Gold, published in 1975, has a ladyarchaeologist as its central character.^[1] Her eighth novelThe Ice Age, published in 1977, is set in 1970s England and the social and economic conditions of that time.^[1] Drabble's ninth novelThe Middle Ground, published in 1980, has a lady journalist as its central character.^[1]Margaret Forster, normally one of her kinder reviewers, calledThe Middle Ground "not a novel but asociological treatise".^[15]

Her eleventh novel, titledA Natural Curiosity, published in 1989, continues the story of characters from her tenth novel, titledThe Radiant Way, which was published in 1987. Drabble apologised to her readers in apreface toA Natural Curiosity and said a sequel had been unintended.^[18] Her thirteenth novelThe Witch of Exmoor, published in 1996, treats of contemporary Britain.^[1] Drabble's fourteenth novelThe Peppered Moth, published in 2001, treats of a young girl growing up in a mining town inSouth Yorkshire and spans four generations of her family.^[1] Her fifteenth novelThe Seven Sisters, published in 2002, is about a woman whose marriage has collapsed and off she goes to Italy.^[1]The Observer referred to part of her sixteenth novel,The Red Queen (published in 2004), as "psychodrabble", noting her claim in the book's preface that she is seeking "universal transcultural human characteristics".^[19]Ursula K. Le Guin compared Drabble's seventeenth novel,The Sea Lady (published in 2006), favourably with her earlier bookThe Needle's Eye.^[20] In 2009, Drabble announced she would cease to write fiction, for fear of "repeating herself".^[21] The same year, she published her memoirThe Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History with Jigsaws.^[1] In addition, two further novels would in fact follow:The Pure Gold Baby (2013), andThe Dark Flood Rises (2016). Speaking in Belfast in 2024, Drabble was clear thatThe Dark Flood Rises was her final novel.

A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman, a collection of the 14 short stories that Drabble published between 1966 and 2000, appeared in 2011.^[22][23] Drabble's other writing includes several screenplays, plays and short stories, as well as non-fiction such asA Writer's Britain: Landscape and Literature and biographies ofArnold Bennett andAngus Wilson.^[8] Her critical works include studies ofWilliam Wordsworth andThomas Hardy. She edited two editions ofThe Oxford Companion to English Literature in 1985 and 2000.^[8]

Drabble served as chairman of the National Book League (nowBooktrust) from 1980 until 1982.^[1]

Drabble was appointedCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) inElizabeth II's1980 Birthday Honours,^[24] and was promoted toDame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the2008 Birthday Honours.^[1][25]

• 1966:John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize, forThe Millstone^[26]
• 1967:James Tait Black Memorial Prize, forJerusalem the Golden^[27]
• 1972:The Yorkshire Post Book Award (Finest Fiction), forThe Needle's Eye^[1]
• 1973:American Academy of Arts and LettersE. M. Forster Award^[1]
• 1976:Honorary doctorate from theUniversity of Sheffield^[1]
• 1987: Honorary doctorate from theUniversity of Manchester^[1]
• 1988: Honorary doctorate from theKeele University^[1]
• 1988: Honorary doctorate from theUniversity of Bradford^[1]
• 1992: Honorary doctorate from theUniversity of Hull^[1]
• 1994: Honorary doctorate from theUniversity of East Anglia^[1]
• 1995: Honorary doctorate from theUniversity of York^[1]
• 2003:St. Louis Literary Award, given by theSaint Louis University Library Associates^[28][29]
• 2006:HonoraryDoctorate in Letters from theUniversity of Cambridge^[30]
• 2011:Golden PEN Award byEnglish PEN, for "a Lifetime's Distinguished Service to Literature"^[31][32]

• A Summer Bird-Cage,Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1963)ISBN 978-0140026344
• The Garrick Year, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1964)ISBN 978-0140025491
• The Millstone, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1965)ISBN 978-0297178811
• Jerusalem the Golden, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1967)ISBN 978-0297748106
• The Waterfall, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1969)ISBN 978-0452260177
• The Needle's Eye, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1972)ISBN 978-0156029353
• The Realms of Gold, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1975)ISBN 978-0140043600
• The Ice Age, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1977)ISBN 978-0140048049
• The Middle Ground, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1980)ISBN 978-0140057454
• The Radiant Way, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1987)ISBN 978-0140101683
• A Natural Curiosity,Viking (1989)ISBN 978-0140122282
• The Gates of Ivory, Viking (1991)ISBN 978-0140166033
• The Witch of Exmoor, Viking (1996)ISBN 978-0140261943
• The Peppered Moth, Viking (2001)ISBN 978-0140297164
• The Seven Sisters, Viking (2002)ISBN 978-0670913350
• The Red Queen, Viking (2004)ISBN 978-0141018164
• The Sea Lady,Penguin (2006)ISBN 978-0141027456
• The Pure Gold Baby,Canongate (2013)ISBN 978-1782111122
• The Dark Flood Rises, Canongate (2016)ISBN 978-1782118336

• The Gifts of War (1969), title story republished (alongside "Hassan's Tower") byPenguin Modern Classics on 24 February 2011ISBN 978-0141195957^[33]
• "Hassan's Tower" (1980), published bySylvester & OrphanosISBN 978-0297769798
• A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman: Complete Short Stories (2011)ISBN 978-0547737355

• Wordsworth (Literature in Perspective series) (1966)ISBN 978-0668019439
• Arnold Bennett: A Biography (1974)ISBN 978-0571255092
• For Queen and Country: Britain in the Victorian Age (1978) from the 'Mirror of Britain' seriesAndré DeutschISBN 978-0233969398
• A Writer's Britain: Landscape in Literature (1979)ISBN 978-0500514931
• Stratford Revisited: A Legacy of the Sixties (1989) from the Gareth Lloyd Evans Shakespeare Lecture
• Angus Wilson: A Biography (1995)Secker & WarburgISBN 978-0436200380
• The Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History with Jigsaws (2009)ISBN 978-0547241449

• London Consequences (1972) – also co-editorISBN 978-0950244709
• The Genius of Thomas Hardy (1976)ISBN 978-0394495569
• The Oxford Companion to English Literature (5th and 6th editions)^[1] (1985, 2000)ISBN 978-0198614531

• Rubenstein, Roberta (Spring 1994). "Fragmented bodies/selves/narratives: Margaret Drabble's postmodern turn".Contemporary Literature.35 (1). University of Wisconsin Press:136–155.doi:10.2307/1208739.JSTOR 1208739. (20 pages)^[34]
• Glenda Leeming.Margaret Drabble (Liverpool University Press; 2004, 2020)ISBN 9781786946546

• Margaret Drabble atBritish Council: Literature
• Margaret Drabble atIMDb
• One Pair of Eyes: Margaret Drabble, BBC2, 9 March 1968, BBC Archive site
• Margaret Drabble's research files for her 1995 biography of novelist Sir Angus Wilson are housed at the University of Iowa Special Collections & University Archives.