Dame Antonia Susan Byatt, DBE, (born August 24, 1936, Sheffield, England) has been hailed by some as one of the great postmodern novelists in Britain. She is usually known as A. S. Byatt. Commanders Badge of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions, in order of seniority: Knight or Dame Grand Cross... August 24 is the 236th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (237th in leap years), with 129 days remaining. ... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... For other uses, see Sheffield (disambiguation). ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location (dark green) within the British Isles Languages None official English de facto Capital None official London de facto Largest city London Area – Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population – Total (mid-2004) – Total (2001... Postmodernity (also called post-modernity or the postmodern condition) is a term used by philosophers, social scientists, art critics and social critics to refer to aspects of contemporary art, culture, economics and social conditions that are the result of the unique features of late 20th century and early 21st century... A novel is an extended work of written, narrative, prose fiction, usually in story form; the writer of a novel is a novelist. ...

Life and career

Byatt was educated at the Newnham College, University of Cambridge, Bryn Mawr in Pennsylvania, USA and Somerville College, University of Oxford, though her research grant to the latter institution (dependent on single status) ended with her first marriage. She lectured at London University extra-murally, the Central School of Art and Design and from 1972 to 1981 at University College London. Since becoming a full-time writer, Byatt has published several novels, most notably Possession, which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 1990. Two of her works have been adapted into motion pictures: Possession and Angels & Insects. Full name Newnham College Motto - Named after Its location in the village of Newnham Previous names Newnham Hall Established 1871 Sister College(s) Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford Principal The Lady ONeill of Bengarve Location Sidgwick Avenue Undergraduates 396 Postgraduates 120 Homepage Boatclub A view of the Clough and Kennedy... Bryn Mawr is also the name of an official neighborhood of the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota. ... Official language(s) None Capital Harrisburg Largest city Philadelphia Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 33rd 119,283 km² 255 km 455 km 2. ... Full name Somerville College Motto Donec rursus impleat orbem Named after Mary Somerville Previous Names Somerville Hall Established 1879 Sister College Girton College Principal Dame Fiona Caldicott JCR President Simon Bruegger MCR President Allen Middlebro Location Woodstock Road, Oxford Undergraduates 396 Graduates 88 Homepage Boat Club Somerville College is one... Central Saint Martins at Holborn Central Saint Martins (ex-St Martins) in Charing Cross Road. ... University College London, commonly known as UCL, is one of the colleges that make up the University of London. ... The Man Booker Prize for Fiction, also known as the Man Booker Prize, or simply the Man Booker, is one of the worlds most important literary prizes, and awarded each year for the best original novel written by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland in... See also: 1989 in literature, other events of 1990, 1991 in literature, list of years in literature. ... For other uses see film (disambiguation) Film refers to the celluliod media on which movies are printed Film — also called movies, the cinema, the silver screen, moving pictures, photoplays, picture shows, flicks, or motion pictures, — is a field that encompasses motion pictures as an art form or as part of... Possession is the title of several movies, including: 2002 movie Possession is a 2002 motion picture. ... Angels & Insects is a 1996 U.S. romance and drama film directed by Philip Haas. ...

Also well-known for her short stories, Byatt is allegedly influenced by Henry James and George Eliot as well as Emily Dickinson, T. S. Eliot, and Robert Browning, as she merges realism and naturalism with the fantasies of Victorian literature. Byatt prefers to offer fantasy not as an escape, but as an alternative to, everyday life, creating what is often termed a "hybrid genre", a combination of experimental and realistic work. For other uses of this name, see Henry James (disambiguation). ... George Eliot Mary Ann Evans, better known by the pen name George Eliot (22 November 1819 - 22 December 1880), was an English novelist. ... A young Emily Dickinson, sometime around 1846-1847, for a long time the only known photograph of her . Emily Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. ... T.S. Eliot (by E.O. Hoppe, 1919) Thomas Stearns Eliot, OM (September 26, 1888 – January 4, 1965) was an American-born poet, dramatist, and literary critic, whose works, such as The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, The Waste Land, and Four Quartets, are considered defining achievements of twentieth... Robert Browning Robert Browning (May 7, 1812 – December 12, 1889) was an English poet and playwright. ... Realism is commonly defined as a concern for fact or reality and rejection of the impractical and visionary. ... For other meanings see Naturalism. ... Charles Dickens is still one of the best known English writers of any era. ... Escapism is mental diversion by means of entertainment or recreation, as an escape from the perceived unpleasant aspects of daily reality. ... A genre is a division of a particular form of art according to criteria particular to that form. ...

A. S. Byatt's first novel, Shadow of a Sun, the story of a young girl growing up in the shadow of a dominant father, was published in 1964 and was followed by The Game (1967), a study of the relationship between two sisters. The Virgin in the Garden (1978) is the first book in a quartet about the members of a Yorkshire family. The story continues in Still Life (1985), which won the PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award, and Babel Tower (1996). The fourth (and final) novel in the quartet is A Whistling Woman (2002). The quartet describes mid-20th-century Britain and Frederica's life as the quintessential bluestocking -- one of the first women to study at Cambridge and, later, a divorcée with a young son making a new life in London. Like Babel Tower, A Whistling Woman covers the '60s and dips into the utopian and revolutionary dreams of the time. The Game may mean: // Games The Game (treasure hunt), a giant treasure hunt played on several college campuses The Game (college football), an annual football game between Harvard and Yale Universities The Game , which is played by attempting to forget that one is playing this game for as long as... A still life is a work of art which represents a subject composed of inanimate objects. ...

Byatt's younger sister, Margaret Drabble, is also a successful novelist, and the rivalry between the two is legendary, although of uncertain origin. It has been suggested by some that, before becoming successful in her own right, Byatt resented her sister because Drabble gained a starred double-first over her own mere double-first. Drabble herself suggests that part of the rift is due, after the death of Byatt's son in a car accident, to the guilt she felt that her own children survived (this reported by Suzie Mackenzie of the UK's Guardian Unlimited.) Byatt has stated publicly that Drabble's depiction of their mother in Drabble's book The Peppered Moth angered her. Margaret Drabble (born June 5, 1939) is an English novelist. ... Front page of Guardian Unlimited from August 16, 2005 Guardian Unlimited is a British website owned by the Guardian Media Group. ...

The Harry Potter controversy

More recently, A. S. Byatt caused controversy by suggesting that the popularity of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series of books is because they are "written for people whose imaginative lives are confined to TV cartoons, and the exaggerated (more exciting, not threatening) mirror-worlds of soaps, reality TV and celebrity gossip." In her editorial column in the New York Times newspaper, she scathingly attacked adult readers of the series as uncultured, claiming that "they don't have the skills to tell ersatz magic from the real thing, for as children they daily invested the ersatz with what imagination they had." J. K. Rowling Joanne Jo Rowling, OBE (born 31 July 1965) is an English fiction writer who writes under the pen name of J. K. Rowling (see below). ... The official Harry Potter film logo This article is about the Harry Potter series. ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ...

After the column appeared in the newspaper, her editorial was described by Salon.com contributing writer Charles Taylor as "upfront in its snobbishness." He also suggested that Byatt's claims may be due to jealousy towards Rowling's commercial success, though given her vigorous defence of the novels of Terry Pratchett against mid-brow pundits this criticism seems particularly ill-founded. Screenshot of Salon. ... Terence David John Pratchett OBE is an English fantasy author (born April 28, 1948, in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England), best known for his Discworld series. ...

In an article in the Guardian, the author Fay Weldon defended A. S. Byatt in this controversy over Harry Potter, and praised her courage for speaking out. "She is absolutely right that it is not what the poets hoped for, but this is not poetry, it is readable, saleable, everyday, useful prose," Weldon said. She said she found the sight of adults reading the Potter series troubling, adding: "Byatt does have a point in everything she says but at the same time she sounds like a bit of a spoilsport. She is being a party pooper but then the party pooper is often right." Fay Weldon (born September 22, 1931) is a British novelist, short story writer, playwright and essayist whose work has been associated with the cause of feminism. ...

She was awarded a CBE in 1990, then advanced a DBE in 1999. Commanders Badge of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions; in decreasing order of seniority, these... Commanders Badge of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions, in order of seniority: Knight or Dame Grand Cross...

Bibliography

• Shadow of a Sun Chatto & Windus, 1964
• Degrees of Freedom: The Early Novels of Iris Murdoch Chatto & Windus, 1965
• The Game Chatto & Windus, 1967
• Wordsworth and Coleridge in Their Time Nelson, 1970
• Iris Murdoch: A Critical Study Longman, 1976
• The Virgin in the Garden Chatto & Windus, 1978
• Still Life Chatto & Windus, 1985
• Sugar and Other Stories Chatto & Windus, 1987
• Unruly Times: Wordsworth and Coleridge, Poetry and Life Hogarth Press, 1989
• George Eliot: Selected Essays, Poems and Other Writings (editor with Nicholas Warren) Penguin, 1990
• Possession: A Romance Chatto & Windus, 1990
• Passions of the Mind: Selected Writings Chatto & Windus, 1991
• Angels & Insects Chatto & Windus, 1992
• The Matisse Stories Chatto & Windus, 1993
• The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye Chatto & Windus, 1994
• Imagining Characters: Six Conversations about Women Writers (with Ignes Sodre) Chatto & Windus, 1995
• New Writing Volume 4 (editor with Alan Hollinghurst) Vintage, 1995
• Babel Tower Chatto & Windus, 1996
• New Writing Volume 6 (editor with Peter Porter) Vintage, 1997
• Elementals: Stories of Fire and Ice Chatto & Windus, 1998
• Oxford Book of English Short Stories (editor) Oxford University Press, 1998
• On Histories and Stories: Selected Essays Chatto & Windus, 2000
• The Biographer's Tale Chatto & Windus, 2000
• Portraits in Fiction Chatto & Windus, 2001
• The Bird Hand Book (with photographs by Victor Schrager) Graphis (New York), 2001
• A Whistling Woman Chatto & Windus, 2002
• Little Black Book of Stories Chatto & Windus, 2003

The Game may mean: // Games The Game (treasure hunt), a giant treasure hunt played on several college campuses The Game (college football), an annual football game between Harvard and Yale Universities The Game , which is played by attempting to forget that one is playing this game for as long as... Still Life is the name of the following works: Still Life (Opeth), an album by Opeth. ... Angels & Insects is a 1996 U.S. romance and drama film directed by Philip Haas. ...

Prizes and awards

• 1986 PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award Still Life
• 1990 Booker Prize for Fiction Possession: A Romance
• 1990 CBE
• 1990 Irish Times International Fiction Prize Possession: A Romance
• 1991 Commonwealth Writers Prize (Eurasia Region, Best Book) Possession: A Romance
• 1995 Premio Malaparte (Italy)
• 1998 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye
• 1999 DBE
• 2002 Shakespeare Prize (Germany)

She has been granted the title of "Duchess of Morpho Eugenia" by the Spanish writer Javier Marías, claimant to the micronational title of king of Redonda. The Man Booker Prize for Fiction, also known as the Man Booker Prize, or simply the Man Booker, is one of the worlds most important literary prizes, and awarded each year for the best original novel written by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland in... Commanders Badge of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions; in decreasing order of seniority, these... Commanders Badge of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions, in order of seniority: Knight or Dame Grand Cross... Javier Marías, (born September 20, 1951), is a Spanish novelist, translator and columnist. ... Micronations – sometimes also referred to as cybernations, fantasy countries, model countries, and new country projects – are entities that resemble independent nations or states, but which are unrecognized by them, and for the most part exist only on paper, on the Internet, or in the minds of their creators. ... Redonda is a Caribbean micronation founded in 1865. ...

External links

• A. S. Byatt at www.contemporarywriters.com
• A. S. Byatt at the Internet Book List
• Interview (2003)