My Life in Houses - Hardcover

Forster, Margaret

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 070118910X ISBN 13: 9780701189105

Publisher: Random House UK, 2014

Synopsis

**As heard on BBC Radio 4**

‘I was born on May 25, 1938, in the front bedroom of a house in Orton Road, on the outer edges of Raffles, a council estate. I was a lucky girl.’

So begins Margaret Forster’s journey through the houses she’s lived in, from that sparkling new council house, built as part of a utopian vision by Carlisle City Council, to her beloved London house of today, via Oxford, Hampstead, the Lake District and a spell in the Mediterranean.

This is not a book about bricks and mortar, or about how a house becomes a home with the right scatter of cushions.

This is a book about what houses are to us, the effect they have on the way we live our lives. It is also a wonderful backwards glace at the changing nature of our accommodation: from blacking grates and outside privies; to cities dominated by bedsits and lodgings; to houses today being converted back into single dwellings, all open-plan spaces and bringing the outside in.

Finally, it is a gently insistent, personal inquiry into the meaning of home.

About this title

About the Author

Born in Carlisle, Margaret Forster was the author of many successful and acclaimed novels, including Have the Men Had Enough?, Lady's Maid, Diary of an Ordinary Woman, Is There Anything You Want? , Keeping the World Away, Over and The Unknown Bridesmaid. She also wrote bestselling memoirs – Hidden Lives, Precious Lives and, most recently, My Life in Houses – and biographies. She was married to writer and journalist Hunter Davies and lived in London and the Lake District. She died in February 2016, just before her last novel, How to Measure a Cow, was published.

Review

"I was truly moved by Margaret Forster's ingeniously structured and beautifully written memoir... A really wonderful book" -- Juliet Nicolson Evening Standard BOOKS OF THE YEAR "A beautiful exploration of her life in relation to the homes she has made'" -- Rachel Joyce Observer BOOKS OF THE YEAR "Such a clever idea. It's a memoir sited in bricks and mortar... social and personal history spliced together" -- Penelope Lively Guardian BOOKS OF THE YEAR "Until its shocking, throat-catching end, this latest book is a deceptively simple trek evoking everywhere [Margaret Forster] has lived" -- Melanie Reid The Times "Reads like one of Forster's well-loved novels: full of sharp observation and gentle wit" -- Bel Mooney Daily Mail "In both books and homes, we find wry humour and a great deal of poignancy" -- Sarah Franklin Sunday Express "Like sitting down for tea with a highly intelligent woman and chatting, not so much about "a room of one's own" as "a home of one's own"... fascinating and touching" Spectator "This is a lovely and touching evocation of what home means to one woman, and within this is a universality that many will connect with" -- Shirley Whiteside Herald "A meditation on our emotional connection with houses, it is also a perceptive portrayal of changing domestic life in 20th and 21st-century Britain" -- Juanita Coulson Lady "Lovely, insightful memoir" Simple Things "A wonderful, and affecting book about what makes a home, and the effect where we live has on how we live our lives" Bookseller, Editor's Pick "An enthralling account of her relationship with the houses she has loved... I think many people reading it will respond -- as I did -- to her very personal bond with the houses she has occupied, changed and drawn comfort from... and it is so movingly honest" -- Virginia Nicholson, author of SINGLED OUT "Even if you're not familiar with Forster's novels, you'll love the nostalgic trawl through seven houses over 70-odd years" -- Sophie King Sidmouth Herald

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House UK
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 070118910X
• ISBN 13: 9780701189105
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272