Margaret Forster, who has died aged 77, was a prolific British writer whose work included 25 novels, among them Georgy Girl, made into a film in 1966, 14 biographies, social history, memoir and journalism.
If she had one constant preoccupation, it was the role of women in society, and in one of her most moving books, Hidden Lives (1995), she took herself and her family as prime examples of social mobility in Britain in the 20th century.
Her grandmother was in service and led a life of pitiful drudgery. Her mother was bright, got a place in a high school and a job as a clerk – a job she had to give up as soon as she married. Third-generation Margaret went to Somerville College, Oxford, where she read history.
She and her husband, Hunter Davies, became established writers and members of the London literary set – something for which she did not really care.
Always slightly wary of the upper-middle-class milieu she found herself in, she was intensely proud of her roots. She was born in Carlisle.
Her father, Arthur Forster, was a fitter in a factory, her mother, Lilian (née Hind), a housewife, and Margaret grew up in a council house, sharing a bed with her sister in an alcove in her parents’ bedroom and longing for a room of her own.
At 17 she fell in love with Davies, relieved to find that they shared a similar humble background, even though his mother did have a piano in the parlour. They married in 1960.
The couple had three children: Caitlin, Jake and Flora. Forster revelled in being a mother, as she did in all things domestic; journalists coming to interview the distinguished author could well find her mopping the kitchen floor.
Her reputation as a writer had grown rapidly. She wrote intensely and her output was prodigious, but it was with Georgy Girl in 1965 that her reputation was secured.
The story of a lumpy and lachrymose girl in search of love had immense popular appeal and was made into a successful film the following year with Lynn Redgrave in the title role.The title song was a hit for the Seekers.
Problem novels
Fact adapted into fiction became her forte, with novels based on social problems such as single motherhood, youth crime, and, most poignantly, the care of old people: having seen her much-loved mother in law descend into Alzheimer’s disease and watched the treatment she received, she wrote with outrage what must be one of her most memorable novels,
Have the Men Had Enough?
.
Her last novel, How to Measure a Cow, is due to be published next month.
She is survived by Davies and their children.