Hunter Davies & Margaret Forster

Hunter Davies was born in Renfrew in 1936, brought up in Carlisle, educated at Durham University and now lives half the year in London and half in the Lake District.

As a journalist he worked on the Sunday Times, where he was chief features writer and later editor of the magazine. He wrote regular columns for Punch and currently writes for the New Statesman, The Sunday Times and The Daily Mail. For three years he presented Bookshelf on BBC Radio 4.

He is the author of over thirty books, including biographies, novels, children's novels (Flossie Teacake) and several books about Lakeland. He publishes his own best selling guide 'The Good Guide to the Lakes'.

Hunter Davies is President of the Cumbria Wildlife Trust and founder of the Lakeland Book of the Year Awards which are administered by Cumbria Tourist Board.

He is married to the novelist and biographer Margaret Forster.

Margaret Forster was born in Carlisle in 1938 and educated at the Carlisle and County High School for Girls. From here she won an Open Scholarship to Somerville College, Oxford where in 1960 she was awarded an honours degree in History. The day after she finished her final exams, she married Hunter Davies, whom she met and fell in love with at the age of 17.

Since 1963 Margaret Forster worked as a novelist, biographer and freelance literary critic, contributing regularly to book programmes on television, Radio 4 and various newspapers and magazines.

Her recent best selling works include the biography of Daphne du Maurier, a memoir of her own family 'Hidden Lives' and the novel 'The Memory Box'. Sadly Margaret passed away in 2016.