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Penguin books that reshaped love and relationships, with insight from Paloma Faith.

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The Penguin books that redefined love and relationships

The Collected Stories

A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman

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Brims with sharply observed life and the author's seemingly infinite sympathy for "ordinary women"

Drabble writes so penetratingly about the female condition that it is impossible not to laugh, wince and admire

Margaret Drabble was born in 1939 in Sheffield, Yorkshire, the daughter of barrister and novelist John F. Drabble, and sister of novelist A.S. Byatt. She is the author of eighteen novels and eight works of non-fiction, including biographies of Arnold Bennett and Angus Wilson. In 1980, Margaret Drabble was made a CBE and in 2008 she was made DBE. She is married to the biographer Michael Holroyd, and lives in London and Somerset.

Margaret Drabble is one of the major literary figures of her generation. In this collection of her complete short fiction from across four decades, she examines the intense private worlds and passions of everyday people. 
 
From one man's honeymooning epiphany in 'Hassan's Tower' to the journeying fantasies of 'A Voyage to Cythera', and from the sharp joy of 'The Merry Widow' to the bloody reality of the collection's title story, these are moving, witty and provocative tales, exploring cruel and loving relationships, social change and personal obsessions, and confirming her status as a leading practitioner of the art of the short story.

The Gifts of War

Margaret Drabble was born in Sheffield in 1939 and went to the Mount School, York; a Quaker boarding school. She won a major scholarship to Newnham College, Cambridge, where she read English. She was awarded the CBE in 1980. She has written several novels, including A Summer Bird-Cage (1963); The Millstone (1965), filmed as A Touch of Love in 1969; The Realms of Gold (1975); The Ice Age (1977); The Radiant Way (1987); The Witch of Exmoor (1996), The Peppered Moth (2001), and several others. She has also published many articles and critical works. She is married to the biographer Michael Holroyd and lives in London.

'Her feelings for the child redeemed her from bitterness, and shed some light on the dark industrial terraces and the waste lands of the city's rubble.' 
 
One of the most acclaimed novelists of her generation, Margaret Drabble is an unmatched observer of postwar English lives, portraying social change, sexual liberation, landscape, class and the messy complications of human relationships with intricacy and honesty. In these two stories of lives colliding, a mother buying a birthday gift has her dreams destroyed, and a honeymoon leads to an unexpected epiphany. 
 
This book contains The Gifts of War and Hassan's Tower.

The Sea Lady

The most recent novel by Margaret Drabble, The Sea Lady tells a story of first and last love, of evolution and the ebb and flow of time that gives shape to our lives. 
 
Humphrey and Ailsa meet as children by a grey, northern sea. Humphrey is quiet, serious - and will in time explore the sea's mysteries; Ailsa is angry, a freckled cobra ready to strike. Yet they fascinate one another and when they meet again years later they fall briefly - and disastrously - in love. 
 
Half a lifetime passes before Humphrey and Ailsa's paths finally re-cross. What will each make of their past? And of the future? 
 
'The Sea Lady proves [Drabble] remains one of the most thought-provoking and intellectually challenging writers around' FT Magazine 
 
'A pleasure to read . . . utterly engrossing' Guardian 
 
'Drabble excels at describing the minute detail of human behaviour . . . The Sea Lady is a potent tribute to lost dreams and harsh realities' Independent 
 
Margaret Drabble was born in 1939 in Sheffield, Yorkshire, the daughter of barrister and novelist John F. Drabble, and sister of novelist A.S. Byatt. She is the author of eighteen novels and eight works of non-fiction, including biographies of Arnold Bennett and Angus Wilson. Her many novels include The Radiant Way (1987), A Natural Curiosity (1989), The Gates of Ivory (1991), The Peppered Moth (2000), The Seven Sisters (2002) and The Red Queen (2004) all of which are published by Penguin. In 1980, Margaret Drabble was made a CBE and in 2008 she was made DBE. She is married to the biographer Michael Holroyd, and lives in London and Somerset.

A pleasure to read . . . utterly engrossing

Drabble excels at describing the minute detail of human behaviour&hellip;The Sea Lady is a potent tribute to lost dreams and harsh realities.

An intelligent, full-bodied, big-hearted book

Margaret Drabble was born in Sheffield in 1939 and educated at Cambridge. She was awarded a CBE in 1980. Her many novels include The Radiant Way (1987), A Natural Curiosity (1989), The Gates of Ivory (1991), The Peppered Moth (2000), The Seven Sisters (2002) and The Red Queen (2004) all of which are published by Penguin. Margaret Drabble is married to the biographer Michael Holroyd and lives in London.

Humphrey and Ailsa meet as children by a grey, northern sea. Humphrey is quiet, serious - and will in time explore the sea's mysteries; Ailsa is angry, a freckled cobra ready to strike. Yet they fascinate one another and when they meet again years later they fall briefly - and disastrously - in love. 
 
Half a lifetime passes before Humphrey and Ailsa's paths finally re-cross. What will each make of their past? And of the future? 
 
The Sea Lady tells the a story of first and last love, of evolution and the ebb and flow of time that gives shape to our lives.

The Red Queen

Wonderfully rich, fabulously romantic, this is Margaret Drabble's most commercial novel to date.

Set in 18th century Korea and the present day, Margaret Drabble's The Red Queen is a rich and atmospheric novel about love, and what it means to be remembered. 
 
200 years after being plucked from obscurity to marry the Crown Prince of Korea, the Red Queen's ghost decides to set the record straight about her extraordinary existence - and Dr Babs Halliwell, with her own complicated past, is the perfect envoy. Why does the Red Queen pick Babs to keep her story alive, and what else does she want from her? A terrific novel set in 18th century Korea and the present day, The Red Queen is a rich and atmospheric novel about love, and what it means to be remembered 
 
'Elegant . . . a seductive beguiling narrator . . . delicious history' Daily Express 
 
'One of our foremost women writers' Guardian 
 
'Carefully wrought and beautifully written The Red Queen is another fine addition to the Drabble oeuvre' Literary Review 
 
 
Margaret Drabble was born in 1939 in Sheffield, Yorkshire, the daughter of barrister and novelist John F. Drabble, and sister of novelist A.S. Byatt. She is the author of eighteen novels and eight works of non-fiction, including biographies of Arnold Bennett and Angus Wilson. Her many novels include The Radiant Way (1987), A Natural Curiosity (1989), The Gates of Ivory (1991), The Peppered Moth (2000), The Seven Sisters (2002) and The Red Queen (2004) all of which are published by Penguin. In 1980, Margaret Drabble was made a CBE and in 2008 she was made DBE. She is married to the biographer Michael Holroyd, and lives in London and Somerset.

Margaret Drabble was born in Sheffield in 1939 and educated at Cambridge. She was awarded a CBE in 1980. Her many novels include The Radiant Way (1987), A Natural Curiosity (1989) and The Gates of Ivory(1991), The Peppered Moth (2000) and The Seven Sisters (2002) all of which are published by Penguin. Margaret Drabble is married to the biographer Michael Holroyd and lives in London W10.

200 years after being plucked from obscurity to marry the Crown Prince of Korea, the Red Queen's ghost decides to set the record straight about her extraordinary existence - and Dr Babs Halliwell, with her own complicated past, is the perfect envoy. Why does the Red Queen pick Babs to keep her story alive, and what else does she want from her? A terrific novel set in 18th century Korea and the present day, The Red Queen is a rich and atmospheric novel about love, and what it means to be remembered

Margaret Drabble

Margaret Drabble's The Millstone was first published in 1965. Set in a London not yet quite swinging, where sexual liberation is still on its way, this prize-winning novel follows the progress of Rosamund Stacey, who becomes pregnant as a result of a one night stand, and must adapt to life as a single mother - finding herself transformed in the process.

Margaret Drabble

Books by Margaret Drabble

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The Penguin books that redefined love and relationships

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