Georgy Girl novelist Margaret Forster dies aged 77

Acclaimed novelist Margaret Forster has died, her husband Hunter Davies has announced.

Margaret Forster passed away after a battle with cancer

The award-winning author, who wrote many successful books including Georgy Girl and Diary Of An Ordinary Woman, died this morning at the Marie Curie Hospice in Hampstead, north London. She was 77 and had been suffering from cancer in her back.

Mr Davies, also a writer and journalist, said: “She had a double mastectomy 40 years so she’s had a remarkable life considering she had it for so long.”

Born in Carlisle, Ms Forster was a teacher at a girls’ school in Islington, north London, before her writing career took off.

Her big break came with Georgy Girl, the story of a young woman in 1960s London who is romantically pursued by her father’s older employer and the young lover of her promiscuous and pregnant flatmate.

The book was turned into a successful film starring Lynn Redgrave as Georgy, Charlotte Rampling, Alan Bates and James Mason. It also featured a song of the same name by The Seekers.

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