Angela Carter

Born: 07/05/1940 Died: 16/02/1992 Gender: Female Occupation: Novelist and Journalist

Angela Carter is one of the boldest and most original writers of the 20th century. Her work draws on an eclectic range of themes and influences, from Gothic fantasy, traditional fairy tales, Shakespeare and music hall, through to Surrealism and cinema. Carter breaks many long-established taboos and mores, not least in her forthright realigning of women as central to, and in control of, their own narratives. She is the author of the novels Shadow Dance (1966), Several Perceptions (1968, Somerset Maugham Award), The Bloody Chamber (1979), Nights at the Circus (1984) and Wise Children (1991). The British Library is guardian to a rich collection of Angela Carter’s manuscripts, notebooks and research papers.

Image source: Angela Carter by Fay Godwin © British Library Board