Margaret Forster was born in Carlisle in 1938. She is the author of bestselling memoirs, Hidden Lives and Precious Lives, acclaimed biographies of Daphne du Maurier and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and of many successful novels, such as Lady's Maid, Private Papers & most recently Diary of an Ordinary Woman.
Margaret Forster has the gift of making you care deeply about what happens to her characters * Scotsman * This is Forster writing at her very best * Daily Mail * How does it feel to be the mother of a juvenile thug? Or the mother of that thug's hapless victim? It is the pain of such mothers that Margaret Forster explores most brilliantly in her dark, harrowing and extremely topical novel -- Val Hennessy * Daily Mail * Forster is remarkably honest, skilful and perceptive * Observer * Margaret Forster has a remarkable gift for taking huge social issues and welding them into minutely observed human dramas that are perfect portraits of the way we live now...The story grips and the heart bleeds for these good mothers who are, like all mothers, never good enough -- Polly Toynbee * Sunday Express *