A.S. Byatt (1936-2023) was a novelist, short-story writer and critic of international renown. Her novels include Possession (winner of the Booker Prize 1990), the Frederica Quartet and The Children's Book, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction. She was appointed CBE in 1990 and DBE in 1999, and was awarded the Erasmus Prize 2016 for her 'inspiring contribution to life writing' and the Pak Kyongni Prize 2017. In 2018 she received the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award.
[AS Byatt’s] exhilarating genius came into its own with Possession -- Guardian * Harriet Harvey Wood, * A literary blockbuster -- Lisa Allardice * Guardian * Possession perfectly demonstrated that she was more than capable of humour and of spinning the sort of yarn that would keep her readers feverishly turning the pages * The Times * An entire and enchanted universe -- Elif Shafak A novel in which Byatt’s heady talent triumphantly comes into its own -- Peter Kemp * The Times *