Dame Margaret Drabble was born in Sheffield in 1939 and was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge. She is the author of eighteen highly acclaimed novels including The Millstone, The Peppered Moth and most recently The Pure Gold Baby. A Natural Curiosity is the second in a trilogy, preceded by The Radiant Way and followed by The Gates of Ivory. 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. She was also awarded the 2011 Golden PEN Award for a Lifetime's Distinguished Service to Literature. She is married to the biographer Michael Holroyd.

I have learned so much from Margaret Drabble's work. Her prose is very beautiful, very funny, and at the same time very serious