A life of crime

16 April 2026, The Tablet

The author Margaret Drabble now considers the writing life to be “a life of crime” and states that “the writing of fiction is an act of aggression”.

ALAMY, COLIN MCPHERSON

With this small book, a collection of essays and stories, some previously published, others not, Margaret Drabble both entices and pre-empts her future biographers. Part memoir, part family history, part reflection on memory and the ageing process, it is both frank and cagey, informal and calculated, blunt and delicate. Above all, it proves encouragingly that at 86 she is thinking and writing as well as ever.

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