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Margaret Drabble
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==Personal life== Drabble was married to the actor [[Clive Swift]] between 1960 and 1975. They had three children, the gardener and TV personality [[Joe Swift]]; the academic [[Adam Swift]]; and [[Rebecca Swift]] (d. 2017), who ran [[The Literary Consultancy]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2011/jun/17/life-writing-margaret-drabble-interview|title=A life in writing: Margaret Drabble|work=The Guardian|first=Lisa|last=Allardice|date=17 June 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.islingtontribune.com/reviews/features/2011/may/feature-interview-margaret-drabble-talks-andrew-johnson|title=Feature: Interview — Margaret Drabble talks to Andrew Johnson|work=[[Islington Tribune]]|first=Andrew|last=Johnson|date=19 May 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161112040937/http://www.islingtontribune.com/reviews/features/2011/may/feature-interview-margaret-drabble-talks-andrew-johnson|archive-date=12 November 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/apr/25/rebecca-swift-obituary|title=Rebecca Swift obituary|work=The Guardian|first=Melanie|last=Silgardo|date=25 April 2017|access-date=7 May 2017}}</ref> In 1982, Drabble married the writer and biographer [[Michael Holroyd|Sir Michael Holroyd]];<ref name="Randall Stevenson 2004"/> they live in London and [[Somerset]].<ref name="British Council: Literature"/> Drabble's relationship with her sister [[A. 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"<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mandrake/5062259/Why-Margaret-Drabble-is-not-A-S-Byatts-cup-of-tea.html|title=Why Margaret Drabble is not A. S. Byatt's cup of tea|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=27 March 2009}}</ref> and Byatt said it had been "terribly overstated by gossip columnists" and that the sisters "always have liked each other on the bottom line."<ref>''[[Desert Island Discs]]'', [[BBC Radio 4]], 16 June 1991.</ref> When sought out for interview by ''[[The 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".<ref name="The Paris Review">{{cite journal|url=http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/3440/the-art-of-fiction-no-70-margaret-drabble|title=Margaret Drabble, The Art of Fiction No. 70|journal=The Paris Review|first=Barbara|last=Milton|volume=Fall-Winter 1978|issue=74|date=Fall–Winter 1978}}</ref> In the same interview she admitted there were three writers for whom she felt an "immense admiration": [[Angus Wilson]], [[Saul Bellow]] and [[Doris Lessing]].<ref name="The Paris Review"/> ===Views on the 2003 invasion of Iraq=== In the aftermath of the [[2003 invasion of Iraq]], Drabble wrote of the anticipated wave of [[anti-Americanism]], saying: "My anti-Americanism has become almost uncontrollable. It has possessed me, like a disease. It rises up in my throat like [[acid 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 to [[Jack Straw]] about the [[Guantanamo Bay detention camp]] and "American imperialism, American infantilism, and American triumphalism about victories it didn't even win". She recalled [[George Orwell]]'s words in ''[[Nineteen 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 if [[George W. Bush|Bush]] hadn't been [[2000 United States presidential election|(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".<ref name="I loathe America">{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3591026/I-loathe-America-and-what-it-has-done-to-the-rest-of-the-world.html|title=I loathe America, and what it has done to the rest of the world|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|first=Margaret|last=Drabble|date=8 May 2003|access-date=28 April 2011}}</ref>
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