Forster, Margaret – The Bell Bookshop

Diary of an ordinary woman

Emma — Thu, 03 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Here is twentieth-century woman in close-up, coping with the tragedies and upheavals of women’s lives from the First World War to Greenham Common and beyond.

This is the ‘edited’ diary of an individual woman, born in 1901, and a story of the twentieth century. On the eve of the Great War, Millicent King begins keeping her journal, vividly recording the drama of everyday life. From bohemian London to Rome in the 1920s, through social work and the build-up to another war, in which she drives ambulances through the bombed streets of London, this is a story both fictional and true. Full of the texture of life, beautifully observed and evocative, it tells the story of an ordinary woman’s life against the huge canvas of the last century.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THE AUTHOR

This series of war novels from Vintage Classics presents eight powerful stories about the horror and waste of war – each a passionate plea to prevent its repetition.

Ladys Maid

Emma — Thu, 07 Apr 2005 00:00:00 +0000

London 1844, and a shy young woman has arrived to take up a new position in the grandeur of No. 50, Wimpole Street. Subtly and compellingly, Lady’s Maid gives voice to Elizabeth Wilson’s untold story, her complex relationship with her mistress, Elizabeth Barrett, and her dramatic role in the most famous elopement in history.

Diary Of An Ordinary Woman

Emma — Thu, 04 Mar 2004 00:00:00 +0000

Margaret Forster presents the ‘edited’ diary of a woman, born in 1901, whose life spans the twentieth century. On the eve of the Great War, Millicent King begins to keep her journal and vividly records the dramas of everyday life in a family touched by war, tragedy, and money troubles. From bohemian London to Rome in the 1920s her story moves on to social work and the build-up to another war, in which she drives ambulances through the bombed streets of London.

Here is twentieth-century woman in close-up coping with the tragedies and upheavals of women’s lives from WWI to Greenham Common and beyond. A triumph of resolution and evocation, this is a beautifully observed story of an ordinary woman’s life – a narrative where every word rings true.

Daphne Du Maurier

Emma — Thu, 05 May 1994 00:00:00 +0000

The definitive biography of Daphne Du Maurier, one of history’s greatest psychological thriller novelists

Rebecca, published in 1938, brought its author instant international acclaim, capturing the popular imagination with its haunting atmosphere of suspense and mystery. Du Maurier was immediately established as the queen of the psychological thriller. But the more fame this and her other books encouraged, the more reclusive Daphne du Maurier became.

Margaret Forster’s award-winning biography could hardly be more worthy of its subject. Drawing on private letters and papers, and with the unflinching co-operation of Daphne du Maurier’s family, Margaret Forster explores the secret drama of her life – the stifling relationship with her father, actor-manager Gerald du Maurier; her troubled marriage to war hero and royal aide, ‘Boy’ Browning; her wartime love affair; her passion for Cornwall and her deep friendships with the last of her father’s actress loves, Gertrude Lawrence, and with an aristocratic American woman.

Most significant of all, Margaret Forster ingeniously strips away the relaxed and charming facade to lay bare the true workings of a complex and emotional character whose passionate and often violent stories mirrored her own fantasy life more than anyone could ever have imagined.