Precious Lives
by Margaret Forster
On This Page
Description
A brilliant follow-up to HIDDEN LIVES, this account takes up the story of her gritty, northern father, Arthur. Margaret's father was not a man to answer questions - least of all questions about life and death. So she attempts to answer them for herself, as she looks back at his life and indomitable character - from the perspective of his ninth decade - evoking incidents from her childhood, his working life and stubborn old age, trying to make sense of their largely unspoken relationship, and show more of his tenacious hold on life, and on his family. His life, and that of her sister-in-law, Marion, were ordinary, and apparently unremarkable, but when faced with death lives like these become strangely precious, Margaret Forster marvels at the tenacity of the human spirit, at its capacity to fight to the bitter end. PRECIOUS LIVES is her most personal book yet- an intimate, true and wonderful memoir about living and dying. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
An account of the deaths of her 96 year old father and of her 50-something sister in law. She's an interesting, observant writer and muses on how precious life was to each of these dear ones, even as it became more and more difficult.
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Author Information
41+ Works 4,639 Members
Margaret Forster was born in Carlisle, England on May 25, 1938. She read history at Somerville College, Oxford. Before her writing career took off, she was a teacher at a girls' school. She is the author of over 40 books of fiction and non-fiction. Her novel include Mother, Can You Hear Me?, Have the Men Had Enough?, Lady's Maid, Private Papers, show more Diary of an Ordinary Woman, Over, Isa and May, The Unknown Bridesmaid, and How to Measure a Cow. Georgy Girl, published in 1965, was made into a film starring Lynn Redgrave in 1966. She has written several memoirs including Hidden Lives, Precious Lives, and My Life in Houses. Her biography Elizabeth Barrett Browning won the Heinemann award and her 1993 biography of Daphne du Maurier won the Fawcett book prize and was filmed for the BBC as Daphne in 2007. She also wrote a history of feminism entitled Significant Sisters in 1984. She died of cancer on February 8, 2016 at the age of 77. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Awards
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1998
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 94
- Popularity
- 340,594
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (4.15)
- Languages
- English, German
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 11
- ASINs
- 2
