Hello, I'm Krestey Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive.

For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

The program was originally broadcast in 1994, and the presenter was Sue Lawley. My cost away this week is a writer, successful and prolific she leads a life far removed from the glamour and

babble of the literary scene. Her second novel Georgie Girl published in the 60s was

made into a popular film. Since then she's written another 20 books, some of them

non-fiction. Her recent biography of Daphne Dumurier for instance was highly praised.

For years a house-proud working mother at the heart of a strong family she says she's always

hated the cult of the author she is Margaret Forster what is it that you hate about

the cult of the author market is it the sort of literary fests that go on or the public

performance that's required or just the people?

No, I don't think it's any of those things. I think what it is is that what I want to do

is sit in my little room and write full stop. That's where I want to do is sit in my little room and write, full stop.

That's what I want to do.

But of course publishers, as they tell you frequently,

we're not charities, darling.

And this is true, they're not charities.

They're in the tough old commercial world out there and they have to sell these books.

And if you are going to have them published by the publisher, then you have to do a little something to help them but I don't like the helping I don't want to be a performer and yet at the same time I realize that I can't be totally unhelpful because the whole thing wouldn't work.

They'd be entitled to turn around and say, well chum if that's how you feel, why don't you leave

your books just in their handwritten, you know, manuscript and forget about...

You don't much care for other authors either, you don't much care for other authors either you don't like

the book festival groupings no no my favorite kind of reading is always the proof and

...