Sep 11, 2026 · 56 min · 13 segments
A.S.Byatt wrote Possession as a completely self-indulgent project, with no thought of commercial or critical consequence. It sold millions and won the Booker Prize in 1990, introducing her to a mass…
Charlie FordhamHost
Rupert FordhamHost
So she was born Antonia Drabble and is now, or was when she died rather, Antonia Susan Duffy.
She was born in 1936, which puts her as a direct contemporary of quite a few writers we've done recently, notably for this play.
She's also Margaret Drabble's sister, who's another very famous contemporary novelist, and the media described in depth, particularly in gossip columns, as an extended fallout, but the two writers themselves both downplayed this when asked.
Byatt, in an interview I heard, remembered three colouring books that she was given at the age of four, and each had a page of poetry beside a picture.
And the poems were The Pied Piper, Tennyson's Lady of Shalott, and Mort d'Arthur.
She quickly learnt all three by heart, which, apart from everything else, provided her with a foundation for for much of what she was going to do in her adult life, which was very influenced by the Victorian age.
So there's this highly competitive element in the family, which I guess is possibly what you see between the sisters.
And the younger siblings, Helen and Richard, became respectively an art historian and a King's counsel.
She, as in A.S. Byatt, wrote her first novel while she was at Cambridge University.
She said it was no good, though, and she left it in a drawer when she was finished.
So she was born Antonia Drabble and is now, or was when she died rather, Antonia Susan Duffy.
She was born in 1936, which puts her as a direct contemporary of quite a few writers we've done recently, notably for this play.
She's also Margaret Drabble's sister, who's another very famous contemporary novelist, and the media described in depth, particularly in gossip columns, as an extended fallout, but the two writers themselves both downplayed this when asked.
Byatt, in an interview I heard, remembered three colouring books that she was given at the age of four, and each had a page of poetry beside a picture.
And the poems were The Pied Piper, Tennyson's Lady of Shalott, and Mort d'Arthur.
She quickly learnt all three by heart, which, apart from everything else, provided her with a foundation for for much of what she was going to do in her adult life, which was very influenced by the Victorian age.
So there's this highly competitive element in the family, which I guess is possibly what you see between the sisters.
And the younger siblings, Helen and Richard, became respectively an art historian and a King's counsel.
She, as in A.S. Byatt, wrote her first novel while she was at Cambridge University.
She said it was no good, though, and she left it in a drawer when she was finished.
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