Editing Margaret Drabble

{{Short description|English biographer, novelist and short story writer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2012}}
{{Infobox writer
 | image             = Margaret Drabble (2011).jpg
 | image_upright        = 1.23
 | caption           = Drabble in 2011
 | honorific_prefix  = Dame
 | name              = Margaret Drabble
 | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|DBE|FRSL}}
 | birth_date        = {{birth date and age|1939|6|5|df=yes}}
 | birth_place       = [[Sheffield]], West Riding of Yorkshire, England
 | education         = [[Newnham College]], [[University of Cambridge]]
 | occupation        = {{flatlist|
* Biographer
* novelist
* short story writer
 }}
 | yearsactive       = 1963–
 | notableworks = {{unbulleted list|''[[A Summer Bird-Cage]]''|''[[The Garrick Year]]''|''[[The Millstone (novel)|The Millstone]]''|''[[Jerusalem the Golden]]''|''[[The Needle's Eye (novel)|The Needle's Eye]]''}}
 | awards       = {{awards|[[John Llewellyn Rhys Prize|John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize]]|1966}} {{awards|[[James Tait Black Memorial Prize]]|1967}} {{awards|''[[The Yorkshire Post]]'' Book Award (Finest Fiction)|1972}} {{awards|[[American Academy of Arts and Letters]] [[E. M. Forster Award]]|1973}} {{awards|[[Golden PEN Award]]|2011}}
 | spouses           = {{ubl
 | {{marriage|[[Clive Swift]]|1960|1975|reason=divorced}}
 | {{marriage|[[Michael Holroyd]]|1982}}
 }}
 | relatives  = [[A. S. Byatt]] (sister)
 | children          = {{ubl
 | [[Adam Swift]]
 | [[Rebecca Swift]]
 | [[Joe Swift]]
 }}
}}
'''Dame Margaret Drabble, Lady Holroyd''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|DBE|FRSL}} (born 5 June 1939)<ref name="British Council: Literature"/> is an English biographer, novelist and short story writer.

Drabble's books include ''[[The Millstone (novel)|The Millstone]]'' (1965), which won the following year's [[John Llewellyn Rhys Prize|John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize]], and ''[[Jerusalem the Golden]]'', which won the 1967 [[James Tait Black Memorial Prize]]. She was honoured by the [[University of Cambridge]] in 2006, having earlier received awards from numerous [[Red brick university|redbrick]] (e.g. [[University of Sheffield|Sheffield]], [[University of Hull|Hull]], [[University of Manchester|Manchester]],) and [[Plate glass university|plateglass universities]] (such as [[University of Bradford|Bradford]], [[Keele University|Keele]], [[University of East Anglia|East Anglia]] and [[University of York|York]]). She received the [[American Academy of Arts and Letters]] [[E. M. Forster Award]] in 1973.

Drabble also wrote biographies of [[Arnold Bennett]] and [[Angus Wilson]] and edited two editions of ''[[The Oxford Companion to English Literature]]'' and a book on [[Thomas Hardy]].

==Early life==
Drabble was born in [[Sheffield]], the second daughter of the County Court judge and novelist [[John Drabble|John Frederick Drabble]] and the teacher Kathleen Marie (''née'' Bloor). Her elder sister was the novelist and critic [[A. S. Byatt]];<ref name="British Council: Literature"/> the youngest sister is [[art historian]] Helen Langdon, and their brother is the barrister Richard Drabble, [[King's Counsel|KC]]. Drabble's father participated in [[Jewish refugees from German-occupied Europe in the United Kingdom|the placement of Jewish refugees]] in Sheffield during the 1930s.<ref name="Art Thou Contented">{{cite news|url=https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/art-thou-contented-jew|title=Art Thou Contented, Jew? The British novelist on England, the Jews, and anti-Semitism today|work=[[Tablet (magazine)|Tablet]]|first=Margaret|last=Drabble|date=20 April 2010}}</ref> Her mother was a [[George Bernard Shaw|Shavian]] and her father a [[Quakers|Quaker]].<ref name="Art Thou Contented"/>

After attending [[The Mount School, York|The Mount School]], a Quaker boarding school at [[York]] where her mother was employed, Drabble received a scholarship to [[Newnham College, Cambridge]].<ref name="British Council: Literature"/> She studied English Literature whilst attending Cambridge.<ref name="The Paris Review"/> She joined the [[Royal Shakespeare Company]] at [[Stratford-upon-Avon]] in 1960, and, before leaving to pursue a career in literary studies and writing, served as an [[understudy]] for [[Vanessa Redgrave]] and [[Diana Rigg]].<ref name="British Council: Literature"/><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/sep/11/margaret-drabble-diana-rigg-understudy-royal-shakespeare-company|title=As Diana Rigg's understudy, I never tired of watching her — she was splendid|work=The Guardian|language=en|first=Margaret|last=Drabble|date=11 September 2020|access-date=5 November 2021}}</ref>

==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>

==Writing==
Drabble's early novels were published by [[Weidenfeld & Nicolson]] (1963–87), while the publishers of her later works were [[Penguin Books|Penguin]], [[Viking Press|Viking]] and [[Canongate Books|Canongate]], and a recurring theme is the correlation between contemporary England's society and its people. Most of her [[protagonist]]s are women<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ttu-ir.tdl.org/bitstream/handle/2346/59758/31295006056070.pdf|title=Margaret Drabble's reams of gall: the feminist writer who dislikes women|year=1991}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://theshortstory.co.uk/smiling-women-an-exploration-of-margaret-drabbles-short-stories-by-kate-jones/|title='Smiling Women: An Exploration Of Margaret Drabble's Short Stories'|publisher=TSS Publishing|first=Kate|last=Jones|date=16 January 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321681556|title='The sap began to flow': Nature and the quest for the female self in margaret drabble's [short story] 'the merry widow'|first=I. M. A.|last=Cuevas|date=January 2017|quote=Through her invariably female protagonists, Margaret Drabble frequently imprints her narratives with the concerns of women from very different contexts and at various stages in their lives in their quest for identity.}}</ref> 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, while ''[[The Witch of Exmoor]]'', published in 1996, shows the withdrawn existence of an elderly writer. As [[Hilary 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".<ref name="Mantel 1989"/> Her characters' tragic faults reflect their political and economic situation. Drabble wrote novels, she claimed in 2011, "to keep myself company".<ref name="The Millstone 2011"/>

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".<ref name="The Paris Review"/> With it she found her "informal first-person narrative voice", which she said was an unexpected discovery.<ref name="The Millstone 2011"/> 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.<ref name="The Millstone 2011"/>

Her second novel ''[[The Garrick Year]]'', published in 1964, drew upon her theatrical experience.<ref name="British Council: Literature"/> Her third novel, ''[[The Millstone (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.<ref name="The Millstone 2011"/> She used the personal experience of one of her own children's diagnosis with a [[lesion]] (a [[hole in the heart]]) to inform her writing on the illness she gave the child.<ref name="The Millstone 2011"/> Indeed, Drabble herself wrote ''The Millstone'' whilst pregnant with her own child, that is, her third.<ref name="The Millstone 2011">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/mar/19/book-club-margaret-drabble-millstone|title=The Millstone by Margaret Drabble|work=The Guardian|first=Margaret|last=Drabble|date=19 March 2011}}</ref> On the book's fiftieth anniversary in 2015, [[Tessa Hadley]] described it as "the seminal 60s feminist novel that [[Doris Lessing]]'s ''[[The Golden Notebook]]'' is always supposed to be".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/15/the-millstone-the-crucial-1960s-feminist-novel|title=The Millstone – the crucial 1960s feminist novel|work=The Guardian|first=Tessa|last=Hadley|date=15 May 2015}}</ref> Drabble admitted, years after writing ''The Millstone'': "I didn't realise until many years later that some of the medical details I invented were way off the mark".<ref name="The Millstone 2011"/>

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.<ref name="British Council: Literature"/> Her fifth novel, ''[[The Waterfall (novel)|The Waterfall]]'', was published in 1969. It is experimental.<ref name="British Council: Literature"/> Drabble's sixth novel, ''[[The Needle's Eye (novel)|The Needle's Eye]]'', was published in 1972.<ref name="Randall Stevenson 2004">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2q2m1alqgywC&pg=PA541|title=''The Oxford English Literary History: Volume 12: The Last of England''|publisher=Oxford University Press|first=Randall|last=Stevenson|year=2004|page=541|isbn=978-0-19-158884-6 }}</ref> It is about an [[heir]]ess who gives away her [[inheritance]].<ref name="British Council: Literature"/> Her seventh novel ''[[The Realms of Gold]]'', published in 1975, has a lady [[Archaeology|archaeologist]] as its central character.<ref name="British Council: Literature"/> Her eighth novel ''[[The Ice Age (novel)|The Ice Age]]'', published in 1977, is set in 1970s England and the social and economic conditions of that time.<ref name="British Council: Literature"/> Drabble's ninth novel ''[[The Middle Ground]]'', published in 1980, has a lady journalist as its central character.<ref name="British Council: Literature"/> [[Margaret Forster]], normally one of her kinder reviewers, called ''The Middle Ground'' "not a novel but a [[Sociology|sociological]] treatise".<ref name="Mantel 1989">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1989/11/23/england-whose-england/|title=England, Whose England?|magazine=The New York Review of Books|first=Hilary|last=Mantel|date=23 November 1989}}</ref>

Her eleventh novel, titled ''[[A Natural Curiosity]]'', published in 1989, continues the story of characters from her tenth novel, titled ''[[The Radiant Way]]'', which was published in 1987. Drabble apologised to her readers in a [[preface]] to ''A Natural Curiosity'' and said a sequel had been unintended.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-09-24-bk-133-story.html|title=Psychoanalyzing Britain: A NATURAL CURIOSITY by Margaret Drabble (Viking: $19.95; 309 pp.)|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US|issn=0458-3035|first=Hermione|last=Lee|date=24 September 1989|access-date=2016-03-23}}</ref> Her thirteenth novel ''[[The Witch of Exmoor]]'', published in 1996, treats of contemporary Britain.<ref name="British Council: Literature"/> Drabble's fourteenth novel ''[[The Peppered Moth]]'', published in 2001, treats of a young girl growing up in a mining town in [[South Yorkshire]] and spans four generations of her family.<ref name="British Council: Literature"/> Her fifteenth novel ''[[The Seven Sisters (novel)|The Seven Sisters]]'', published in 2002, is about a woman whose marriage has collapsed and off she goes to Italy.<ref name="British Council: Literature"/> ''[[The Observer]]'' referred to part of her sixteenth novel, ''[[The Red Queen (Drabble novel)|The Red Queen]]'' (published in 2004), as "[[Psychobabble|psychodrabble]]", noting her claim in the book's preface that she is seeking "universal transcultural human characteristics".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/aug/22/fiction.features|title=Seoul destroying|work=[[The Observer]]|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077|first=David|last=Jays|date=21 August 2004}}</ref> [[Ursula K. Le Guin]] compared Drabble's seventeenth novel, ''[[The Sea Lady (Drabble novel)|The Sea Lady]]'' (published in 2006), favourably with her earlier book ''The Needle's Eye''.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/jul/22/featuresreviews.guardianreview13|title=Mermaid on Dry Land|work=The Guardian|first=Ursula K.|last=Le Guin|authorlink=Ursula K. Le Guin|date=22 July 2006}}</ref> In 2009, Drabble announced she would cease to write fiction, for fear of "repeating herself".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/2013/10/20/225461025/margaret-drabble-spins-a-mother-daughter-yarn-into-gold|title=Margaret Drabble Spins A Mother-Daughter Yarn Into 'Gold'|publisher=[[NPR]]|first=Meg|last=Wolitzer|date=2 October 2013}}</ref> The same year, she published her memoir ''The Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History with Jigsaws''.<ref name="British Council: Literature"/> In addition, two further novels would in fact follow: ''[[The Pure Gold Baby]]'' (2013), and ''[[The Dark Flood Rises]]'' (2016). Speaking in Belfast in 2024, Drabble was clear that ''The 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.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/apr/14/day-smiling-woman-drabble-review|title=A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman: The Collected Stories by Margaret Drabble — review|work=The Guardian|first=Natasha|last=Tripney|date=14 April 2013|quote=This collection of 14 stories, assembled by the Spanish academic José Francisco Fernández, spans four decades of Margaret Drabble's writing career, from 1966 to 2000.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jun/30/margaret-drabble-smiling-woman-review|title=A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman by Margaret Drabble — review|work=The Guardian|first=Elaine|last=Showalter|authorlink=Elaine Showalter|date=30 June 2011}}</ref> Drabble's other writing includes several screenplays, plays and short stories, as well as non-fiction such as ''A Writer's Britain: Landscape and Literature'' and biographies of [[Arnold Bennett]] and [[Angus Wilson]].<ref name="Randall Stevenson 2004"/> Her critical works include studies of [[William Wordsworth]] and [[Thomas Hardy]]. She edited two editions of ''[[The Oxford Companion to English Literature]]'' in 1985 and 2000.<ref name="Randall Stevenson 2004"/>

Drabble served as chairman<!-- THE SOURCE USES CHAIRMAN --> of the National Book League (now [[Booktrust Early Years Award|Booktrust]]) from 1980 until 1982.<ref name="British Council: Literature">{{cite web|url=https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/margaret-drabble|title=Margaret Drabble|publisher=[[British Council]]: Literature|accessdate=25 October 2022}}</ref>

==Awards and honours==
Drabble was appointed [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] (CBE) in [[Elizabeth II]]'s [[1980 Birthday Honours#Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)|1980 Birthday Honours]],<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=48212|supp=y|page=8|date=13 June 1980}}</ref> and was promoted to [[Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] (DBE) in the [[2008 Birthday Honours]].<ref name="British Council: Literature"/><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=58729|supp=y|page=6|date=14 June 2008}}</ref>

*1966: [[John Llewellyn Rhys Prize|John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize]], for ''[[The Millstone (novel)|The Millstone]]''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://facstaff.unca.edu/moseley/rhys.html|title=The Mail on Sunday/John Llewllyn Rhys Prize|access-date=9 July 2009|archive-date=4 December 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051204020406/http://facstaff.unca.edu/moseley/rhys.html}}</ref>
*1967: [[James Tait Black Memorial Prize]], for ''[[Jerusalem the Golden]]''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ed.ac.uk/news/events/tait-black/winners|title=Previous winners|publisher=James Tait Black Memorial Prize|access-date=26 August 2013}}</ref>
*1972: ''[[The Yorkshire Post]]'' Book Award (Finest Fiction), for ''[[The Needle's Eye (novel)|The Needle's Eye]]''<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
*1973: [[American Academy of Arts and Letters]] [[E. M. Forster Award]]<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
*1976: [[Honorary degree|Honorary]] doctorate from the [[University of Sheffield]]<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
*1987: Honorary doctorate from the [[University of Manchester]]<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
*1988: Honorary doctorate from the [[Keele University]]<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
*1988: Honorary doctorate from the [[University of Bradford]]<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
*1992: Honorary doctorate from the [[University of Hull]]<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
*1994: Honorary doctorate from the [[University of East Anglia]]<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
*1995: Honorary doctorate from the [[University of York]]<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
*2003: [[St. Louis Literary Award]], given by the [[Saint Louis University]] Library Associates<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.slu.edu/libraries/associates/award.html|title=Website of St. Louis Literary Award|access-date=25 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160823003924/http://www.slu.edu/libraries/associates/award.html|archive-date=23 August 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://lib.slu.edu/about/associates/literary-award/drabble|title=Saint Louis University Library Associates Announce Winner of 2003 Literary Award|publisher=Saint Louis University Library Associates|access-date=25 July 2016}}</ref>
*2006: [[Honorary degree|Honorary]] [[Doctor of Letters|Doctorate in Letters]] from the [[University of Cambridge]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cam.ac.uk/news/honorary-degrees-2006|title=Honorary Degrees 2006|publisher=University of Cambridge|date=3 July 2006}}</ref>
*2011: [[Golden PEN Award]] by [[English PEN]], for "a Lifetime's Distinguished Service to Literature"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.englishpen.org/prizes/golden-pen-award-for-a-lifetimes-distinguished-service-to-literature|title=Golden Pen Award, official website|publisher=[[English PEN]]|access-date=3 December 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.thebookseller.com/news/drabble-wins-golden-pen.html|title=Drabble wins Golden PEN|work=[[The Bookseller]]|first=Benedicte|last=Page|date=1 December 2011|access-date=3 December 2012}}</ref>

==Bibliography==
===Novels===
*''[[A Summer Bird-Cage]]'', [[Weidenfeld & Nicolson]] (1963) {{ISBN|978-0140026344}}
*''[[The Garrick Year]]'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1964) {{ISBN|978-0140025491}}
*''[[The Millstone (novel)|The Millstone]]'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1965) {{ISBN|978-0297178811}}
*''[[Jerusalem the Golden]]'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1967) {{ISBN|978-0297748106}}
*''[[The Waterfall (novel)|The Waterfall]]'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1969) {{ISBN|978-0452260177}}
*''[[The Needle's Eye (novel)|The Needle's Eye]]'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1972) {{ISBN|978-0156029353}}
*''[[The Realms of Gold]]'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1975) {{ISBN|978-0140043600}}
*''[[The Ice Age (novel)|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 Press|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 (novel)|The Seven Sisters]]'', Viking (2002) {{ISBN|978-0670913350}}
*''[[The Red Queen (Drabble novel)|The Red Queen]]'', Viking (2004) {{ISBN|978-0141018164}}
*''[[The Sea Lady (Drabble novel)|The Sea Lady]]'', [[Penguin Books|Penguin]] (2006) {{ISBN|978-0141027456}}
*''[[The Pure Gold Baby]]'', [[Canongate Books|Canongate]] (2013) {{ISBN|978-1782111122}}
*''[[The Dark Flood Rises]]'', Canongate (2016) {{ISBN|978-1782118336}}

===Short fiction===
*''The Gifts of War'' (1969), title story republished (alongside "Hassan's Tower") by [[Penguin Classics|Penguin Modern Classics]] on 24 February 2011 {{ISBN|978-0141195957}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bookdepository.com/Gifts-War-Margaret-Drabble/9780141195957|title=The Gifts of War}}</ref>
*"Hassan's Tower" (1980), published by [[Sylvester & Orphanos]] {{ISBN|978-0297769798}}
*''A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman: Complete Short Stories'' (2011) {{ISBN|978-0547737355}}

===Non-fiction===
*''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' series [[André Deutsch]] {{ISBN|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 & Warburg]] {{ISBN|978-0436200380}}
*''The Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History with Jigsaws'' (2009) {{ISBN|978-0547241449}}

===As editor===
*''[[London Consequences]]'' (1972) – also co-editor {{ISBN|978-0950244709}}
*''The Genius of Thomas Hardy'' (1976) {{ISBN|978-0394495569}}
*''[[The Oxford Companion to English Literature]]'' (5th and 6th editions)<ref name="British Council: Literature"/> (1985, 2000) {{ISBN|978-0198614531}}

===Critical studies and reviews of Drabble's work===
*{{cite journal|title=Fragmented bodies/selves/narratives: Margaret Drabble's postmodern turn|journal=Contemporary Literature|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press|first=Roberta|last=Rubenstein|date=Spring 1994|volume=35|issue=1|pages=136–155|doi=10.2307/1208739 |jstor=1208739 }} (20 pages)<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1208739|title=Fragmented Bodies/Selves/Narratives: Margaret Drabble's Postmodern Turn|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press|first=Roberta|last=Rubenstein|journal=Contemporary Literature |date=Spring 1994|volume=35|issue=1|pages=136–155 |doi=10.2307/1208739 |jstor=1208739 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>
*Glenda Leeming. ''Margaret Drabble'' (Liverpool University Press; 2004, 2020) {{isbn|9781786946546}}

==See also==
{{Portal bar|Biography|Books|Conservatism|Economics|Iraq|Literature|London|Novels|Politics|Society|Somerset|Theatre|Writing|Yorkshire}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* {{British council|id=margaret-drabble}}
* {{IMDb name|236578}}
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/writers/12209.shtml ''One Pair of Eyes: Margaret Drabble''], BBC2, 9 March 1968, BBC Archive site
* [https://aspace.lib.uiowa.edu/repositories/2/resources/213 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.

{{Margaret Drabble}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drabble, Margaret}}
[[Category:1939 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:English women biographers]]
[[Category:English women short story writers]]
[[Category:Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:English book editors]]
[[Category:English women dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:English women novelists]]
[[Category:English female screenwriters]]
[[Category:English screenwriters]]
[[Category:English short story writers]]
[[Category:English women non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature]]
[[Category:James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients]]
[[Category:John Llewellyn Rhys Prize winners]]
[[Category:People educated at Sheffield High School, South Yorkshire]]
[[Category:People educated at The Mount School, York]]
[[Category:Swift family]]
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[[Category:Writers from Sheffield]]
[[Category:20th-century English biographers]]
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[[Category:21st-century English novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century English women writers]]