(1939– )
an English writer, famous for novels about life in England and its political, economic and social changes. Her first novel, A Summer Birdcage , was published in 1964 and her most recent was The Seven Sisters (2002). She also writes non-fiction (books about real facts, people and events), drama and short stories and has won several awards and literary prizes. She is the editor of the Oxford Companion to English Literature . She is married to the writer and biographer Michael Holroyd and her older sister is the writer A S Byatt .