My Life in Houses
Published on 6. November 2014
Book
Hardback
272 pages
978-0-7011-8910-5 (ISBN)
Description
**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.
'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.
Reviews / Votes
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 *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Dimensions
Height: 204 mm
Width: 137 mm
Thickness: 24 mm
Weight
353 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7011-8910-5 (9780701189105)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Margaret Forster
My Life in Houses
E-Book
11/2014
1st Edition
Vintage Digital
€10.99
Available for download
Person
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.