Beyond the Book: Background information when reading The Red Queen

Beyond the Book

This article relates to The Red Queen

Margaret Drabble was born in 1939 in Sheffield, England. Her father was a barrister, county court judge and a novelist, and her sister is the author A.S. Byatt. She attended the Mount School in York from where she won a scholarship to Newnham College, Cambridge to read English. She received a double first. After graduating from Cambridge she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford where she understudied for Vanessa Redgrave. She married the actor Clive Swift in 1960 and had three children. Following a divorce in 1975 she married Michael Holroyd in the early 1980s. The live in London and Somerset (South-East England).

She is the author of at least 16 novels and a range of non-fiction. Browse her complete bibliography at the excellent website: fantasticfiction.co.uk.

Trivia: Drabble's first husband, Clive Swift, plays the role of Richard, the long-suffering husband to Hyacinth Bucket (or should we say 'Bouquet') in the British comedy, 'Keeping Up Appearances'.

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This article relates to The Red Queen. It first ran in the October 19, 2005 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.