An Evening with Margaret Drabble: Hosted by Wendy Erskine

The Belfast Book Festival is honoured to welcome Dame Margaret Drabble to a special event at The Crescent to celebrate her prolific and significant career.

The author of eighteen novels including The Millstone, A Summer Bird-Cage, The Peppered Moth, The Pure Gold Baby and most recently The Dark Flood Rises (Canongate) come along to hear Margarets insights, advice and delve into the expanses of her creative output. 

Join us for what is sure to be a memorable evening with Margaret in conversation with Wendy Erskine.

Dame Margaret Drabble was born in Sheffield in 1939 and was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge. She is the author of eighteen novels including A Summer Bird-Cage, The Millstone, The Peppered Moth, The Red Queen, The Sea Lady and the highly acclaimed The Pure Gold Baby. 

She has also written biographies, screenplays and was the editor of the Oxford Companion to English Literature. She was appointed CBE in 1980, and made DBE in the 2008 Honours list and was awarded the 2011 Golden PEN Award for a Lifetime’s Distinguished Service to Literature. 

Margaret is married to the biographer Michael Holroyd and lives in London and Somerset.

Wendy Erskine is a Belfast-based writer. Her debut short story collection, Sweet Home, was published by The Stinging Fly Press and Picador. It was shortlisted for The Republic of Consciousness Prize and The Edge Hill Prize, and was longlisted for The Gordon Burn Prize. It won the Butler Literary Prize and was optioned for TV. Her second collection, Dance Move, was published in February 2022 by Stinging Fly and Picador.