[This entry was updated by Nora Foster Stovel (University of Alberta) with the entry by Barbara C. Millard (La Salle University) in the Concise Dictionary of British Literary Biography, volume 8, pp. 60--78.]

Margaret Drabble's rise as one of the most important and well-known British novelists writing today has been steady and sure. She has received serious attention in Great Britain since the appearance of her first novel, and since the publication of The Needle's Eye (1972) she has established an impressive reputation in America as well. Behind her is a solid body of work including several volumes of criticism and biography, television and film scripts, and numerous pieces of short fiction and journalism, in addition to the nine novels which have brought her both popularity and critical acclaim. She is a traditionalist in form and a pioneer in subject. From her first novel, written immediately after graduation from Cambridge...