View source for A. S. Byatt

{{Short description|British writer (1936–2023)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2013}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| honorific_prefix = Dame
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|DBE|HonFBA}}
| image            = AS Byatt Portrait (4x5 cropped).jpg
| caption          = Byatt in 2007
| pseudonym        = 
| birth_name       = Antonia Susan Drabble
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|1936|08|24|df=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Sheffield]], West Riding of Yorkshire, England
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|2023|11|16|1936|08|24|df=y}}
| death_place      = London, England
| occupation       = {{cslist|Critic|novelist|short-story writer|poet}}
| alma_mater       = {{plainlist|
* [[Newnham College, Cambridge]]
* [[Bryn Mawr College]]
* [[Somerville College, Oxford]]
}}
| period           = 1964–2016
| spouses          = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|[[Ian Byatt]]|1959|1969|end=div.}}
* {{marriage|Peter Duffy|1969}}
}}
| children         = 4
| relatives        = {{plainlist|
* [[Margaret Drabble]] (sister)
* [[Adam Swift]] (nephew)
* [[Rebecca Swift]] (niece)
* [[Joe Swift]] (nephew)
}}
| website          = {{Official URL}}
}}

'''Dame Antonia Susan Duffy''' ({{nee|'''Drabble'''}}; 24 August 1936 – 16 November 2023), known professionally by her former married name, '''A.{{nbsp}}S. Byatt''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|b|aɪ|.|ə|t}} {{respell|BY|ət}}),<ref name="Pronunciation">{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/09/how_to_say_3.shtml|title=How to Say: JM Coetzee and other Booker authors|work=BBC News|first=Catherine|last=Sangster|date=14 September 2009|access-date=1 October 2009}}</ref> was an English critic, novelist, poet and short-story writer. Her books have been translated into more than thirty languages.<ref name="The Paris Review"/><ref name="Honorary Fellows Newnham College, Cambridge">{{cite web |title=Honorary Fellows |url=https://newn.cam.ac.uk/about/people/honorary-fellows/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201021192646/https://newn.cam.ac.uk/about/people/honorary-fellows/ |archive-date=21 October 2020 |publisher=Newnham College}}</ref>

After attending the [[University of Cambridge]], she married in 1959 and moved to [[Durham, England|Durham]]. It was during Byatt's time at university that she began working on her first two novels, subsequently published by [[Chatto & Windus]] as ''Shadow of a Sun'' (1964; reprinted in 1991 with its originally intended title, ''The Shadow of the Sun'') and ''The Game'' (1967). Byatt took a teaching job in 1972 to help pay for the education of her son. In the same week she accepted, a [[drunk driver]] killed her son as he walked home from school. He was 11 years of age. Byatt spent a symbolic 11 years teaching, then began full-time writing in 1983. ''[[The Virgin in the Garden]]'' (1978) was the first of ''The Quartet'',<ref name="Newman-2003">{{cite journal|url=http://www.cercles.com/interviews/byatt.html|title=An interview with A. S. Byatt|journal=Cercles|first1=Jenny|last1=Newman|first2=James|last2=Friel|year=2003|access-date=11 September 2010}}</ref> a [[tetralogy]] of novels that continued with ''[[Still Life (Byatt novel)|Still Life]]'' (1985), ''[[Babel Tower]]'' (1996) and ''[[A Whistling Woman]]'' (2002).

Byatt's novel ''[[Possession: A Romance]]'' received the 1990 [[Booker Prize]], while her short story collection ''[[The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye]]'' (1994) received the 1995 [[Aga Khan Prize for Fiction]]. Her novel ''[[The Children's Book]]'' was shortlisted for the 2009 Booker Prize and won the 2010 [[James Tait Black Memorial Prize]]. Her critical work includes two studies of [[Dame Iris Murdoch]] (who was a friend and mentor), ''Degrees of Freedom: The Early Novels of Iris Murdoch'' (1965) and ''Iris Murdoch: A Critical Study'' (1976). Her other critical studies include ''Wordsworth and Coleridge in Their Time'' (1970) and ''Portraits in Fiction'' (2001).

Byatt was awarded the [[Shakespeare Prize]] in 2002, the [[Erasmus Prize]] in 2016, the [[Park Kyong-ni Prize]] in 2017 and the [[Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award]] in 2018. She was mentioned as a candidate for the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]].<ref name="Nobel 2012">{{cite news |year=2012 |title=Murakami Projected to Win the Nobel Prize |url=https://www.pw.org/content/murakami_projected_to_win_the_nobel_prize |website=Poets & Writers}}</ref>

==Early life==
Antonia Susan Drabble was born in [[Sheffield]], England, on 24 August 1936,<ref name="British Council: Literature"/> as the eldest child of [[John Drabble|John Frederick Drabble]], [[Queen's Counsel|QC]], later a County Court judge, and Kathleen Bloor, a scholar of [[Robert Browning|Browning]].<ref name="Leith 2009"/> Her sisters are the novelist [[Margaret Drabble]] and the art historian Helen Langdon. Her brother Richard Drabble [[King's Counsel|KC]] is a [[barrister]].<ref name=Gruber>{{cite news|url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/blend-life-to-thicken-the-plot/story-fn9n8gph-1226814714608|title=Blend life to thicken the plot|work=The Australian|first=Fiona|last=Gruber|date=1 February 2014|access-date=18 January 2015}}</ref> The Drabble father participated in [[Jewish refugees from German-occupied Europe in the United Kingdom|the placement of Jewish refugees]] in Sheffield during the 1930s.<ref name="Art Thou Contented">{{cite news|url=https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/art-thou-contented-jew|title=Art Thou Contented, Jew? The British novelist on England, the Jews, and anti-Semitism today|work=[[Tablet (magazine)|Tablet]]|first=Margaret|last=Drabble|date=20 April 2010}}</ref> Her mother was a [[George Bernard Shaw|Shavian]] and her father was a [[Quakers|Quaker]].<ref name="Art Thou Contented"/> As a result of the bombing of Sheffield during the [[Second World War]] the family moved to [[York]].<ref name="Newman-2003"/>

Byatt was educated at two independent boarding schools, [[Sheffield High School, South Yorkshire|Sheffield High School]] and [[The Mount School, York|The Mount School]], a Quaker boarding school at York.<ref name="Leith 2009"/>

An unhappy child, Byatt did not enjoy boarding school, citing her need to be alone and her difficulty in making friends.<ref name="Leith 2009"/> Severe asthma often kept her in bed where reading became an escape from a difficult household.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Chace |first=Rebecca |date=17 November 2023 |title=A. S. Byatt, Scholar Who Found Literary Fame With Fiction, Dies at 87 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/17/books/as-byatt-dead.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_20231117&instance_id=108059&nl=todaysheadlines&regi_id=27938949&segment_id=150392&user_id=80f038e96447a051fdc29f398e7ec42b |access-date=19 November 2023}}</ref> She attended [[Newnham College, Cambridge]], [[Bryn Mawr College]] (in the United States), and [[Somerville College, Oxford]].<ref name="British Council: Literature"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.watercommission.co.uk/view_Sir_Ian_Byatt.aspx|title=Sir Ian Byatt biography|publisher=watercommission.co.uk|access-date=1 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120220045044/http://www.watercommission.co.uk/view_Sir_Ian_Byatt.aspx|archive-date=20 February 2012}}</ref> Having studied French, German, Latin and English at school, she later studied Italian while attending Cambridge so that she could read [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]].<ref name="The Paris Review"/>

Byatt lectured in the [[Birkbeck, University of London#The School of Continuing Education|Department of Extra-Mural Studies]] of the [[University of London]] (1962–71),<ref name="British Council: Literature">{{cite web|url=https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/a-s-byatt|title=Dame A. S. Byatt|publisher=[[British Council]]: Literature|access-date=25 October 2022}}</ref> the [[Central School of Art and Design]] and from 1972 to 1983 at [[University College London]].<ref name="British Council: Literature"/> She began writing full-time in 1983.<ref name="2009 Booker Prize shortlist"/>

==Personal life and death==
Byatt married [[Ian Byatt|Ian Charles Rayner Byatt]] in 1959 and moved to [[Durham, England|Durham]].<ref name="The Paris Review"/> They had a daughter together,<ref name="The Saturday Profile"/> as well as a son, Charles, who was killed by a [[Drunk driving|drunk-driver]] at the age of 11 while walking home from school.<ref name="The Paris Review"/><ref name="Leith 2009"/><ref name="Newman-2003"/> She spoke of her son's death and its influence on her lecturing and subsequent career after publishing ''[[The Children's Book]]'', in which the image of a dead child features.<ref name="The Paris Review"/><ref name="Leith 2009"/> She came to regard her academic career symbolically.<ref name="The Paris Review"/> She later wrote the poem "Dead Boys".<ref name="Leith 2009"/> The marriage was dissolved in 1969. Later that year, Byatt married Peter Duffy, and they had two daughters.<ref name = Telegraph>{{cite news|url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2023/11/17/a-s-byatt-dame-antonia-duffy-novelist-possession-booker/|title = AS Byatt, ingenious and cerebral novelist who won the Booker Prize for Possession—obituary|newspaper = [[The Daily Telegraph]]|date = 17 November 2023|accessdate = 17 November 2023|url-access = subscription}}</ref><ref name="Leith 2009">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/apr/25/as-byatt-interview|title=Writing in terms of pleasure|newspaper=The Guardian|first=Sam|last=Leith|date=25 April 2009|access-date=18 January 2015}}</ref><ref name="The Saturday Profile"/>

Byatt's relationship with her sister [[Margaret Drabble]] was sometimes strained due to the presence of autobiographical elements in both their writing. While their relationship was no longer especially close and they did not read each other's books, Drabble described the situation as "normal sibling rivalry"<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mandrake/5062259/Why-Margaret-Drabble-is-not-A-S-Byatts-cup-of-tea.html|title=Why Margaret Drabble is not A. S. Byatt's cup of tea|newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|first=Tim|last=Walker|date=27 March 2009}}</ref> and Byatt said it had been "terribly overstated by gossip columnists."<ref>''[[Desert Island Discs]]'', [[BBC Radio 4]], 16 June 1991.</ref> Byatt was an agnostic, though she maintained an affinity for Quaker services.<ref name="Newman-2003"/><ref name = Telegraph/> She enjoyed watching [[snooker]], tennis, and [[association football|football]].<ref name = Telegraph/><ref name="That thinking feeling">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/1996/jun/09/fiction.asbyatt|title=That thinking feeling|work=The Observer|first=Marianne|last=Brace|date=9 June 1996}}</ref>

Byatt lived primarily in [[Putney]], and died at home on 16 November 2023, at the age of 87.<ref name = Telegraph/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2023/11/a-s-byatt-statement|title=A. S. Byatt (24 August 1936 – 16 November 2023). A statement from Chatto & Windus, Vintage Books, UK|date=17 November 2023 |publisher=Penguin}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url = https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/as-byatt-author-dead-possession-b2449232.html|title = Author of Possession and The Children's Book AS Byatt dies aged 87|last = Vassell|first = Nicole|date = 17 November 2023|accessdate = 17 November 2023|newspaper = [[The Independent]]}}</ref>

==Influences==
Byatt was influenced by [[Henry James]]<ref name="The Paris Review"/> and [[George Eliot]]<ref name="Leith 2009"/><ref name="Newman-2003"/> as well as [[Emily Dickinson]],<ref name="Newman-2003"/> [[T. S. Eliot]], [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]],<ref name="Newman-2003"/> [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson|Tennyson]]<ref name="Leith 2009"/> and [[Robert Browning]],<ref name="Leith 2009"/> in merging [[Literary realism|realism]] and [[Naturalism (literature)|naturalism]] with fantasy. She was not an admirer of the [[Brontë family]],<ref name="The Paris Review"/> nor did she like [[Christina Rossetti]].<ref name="Newman-2003"/> She was ambivalent about [[D. H. Lawrence]].<ref name="The Paris Review"/> She knew [[Jane Austen]]'s work "off by heart" before her teens.<ref name="Newman-2003"/> In her books, Byatt alluded to, and built upon, themes from [[Romanticism|Romantic]] and [[Victorian literature]].<ref name="British Council: Literature"/> She cited art historian [[John Gage (art historian)|John Gage]]'s book on the theory of colour as one of her favourite books to reread.<ref name="The Paris Review"/>

==Writing==
===Fiction===
Byatt wrote a lot while attending boarding school but had most of it burnt before she left.<ref name="The Paris Review"/>

She began writing her first novel while at the [[University of Cambridge]], where she did not attend many lectures but when she did, she passed the time attempting to write a novel, which—given her limited experience of life—involved a young woman at university trying to write a novel, a novel, her novel, which—she knew—was "no good".<ref name="The Paris Review"/> She left it in a drawer when she was finished.<ref name="The Paris Review"/> After departing Cambridge, she spent one year as a postgraduate student in the United States and began her second novel, ''The Game'', continuing to write it at Oxford when she returned to England.<ref name="The Paris Review"/> After getting married in 1959 and moving to [[Durham, England|Durham]], she left ''The Game'' aside and resumed work on her earlier novel.<ref name="The Paris Review"/> She sent it to literary critic [[John Beer]], whom she had befriended while at Cambridge.<ref name="The Paris Review"/> Beer sent Byatt's novel to the independent book publishing company [[Chatto & Windus]].<ref name="The Paris Review"/> From there [[Cecil Day-Lewis]] wrote her a response and invited her to lunch at [[Athenaeum Club, London|The Athenaeum]].<ref name="The Paris Review"/> Day-Lewis was Byatt's first editor; [[D. J. Enright]] would succeed him.<ref name="Newman-2003"/>

''Shadow of a Sun'', Byatt's first novel, is about a girl and her father and was published in 1964.<ref name="British Council: Literature"/> It was reprinted in 1991 with its originally intended title, ''The Shadow of the Sun'', intact.<ref name="The Paris Review"/> ''The Game'', published in 1967, concerned the dynamics between two sisters.<ref name="British Council: Literature"/> The reception for Byatt's first books became confused with [[Margaret Drabble|her sister]]'s  writing; her sister had a quicker rate of publication.<ref name="The Paris Review"/>

The family theme is continued in ''The Quartet'',<ref name="Newman-2003"/> Byatt's [[tetralogy]] of novels, which begins with ''[[The Virgin in the Garden]]'' (1978) and continues with ''[[Still Life (Byatt novel)|Still Life]]'' (1985), ''[[Babel Tower]]'' (1996) and ''[[A Whistling Woman]]'' (2002).<ref name="British Council: Literature"/> Her quartet is inspired by [[D. H. Lawrence]], particularly ''[[The Rainbow]]'' and ''[[Women in Love]]''. The family portrayed in the quartet are from [[Yorkshire]].<ref name="British Council: Literature"/> Byatt said the idea for ''The Virgin in the Garden'' came in part from an {{linktext|extramural}} class she taught in which she had read [[Leo Tolstoy|Tolstoy]] and [[Fyodor Dostoevsky|Dostoevsky]] and in part from her time living in Durham in 1961, the year in which her son was born.<ref name="The Paris Review"/> The book was an attempt to understand what could be achieved if ''[[Middlemarch]]'' were written in the middle of the twentieth century.<ref name="The Paris Review"/> Byatt's book features a powerful death scene, which she invented in 1961 (inspired by Byatt's reading of [[Angus Wilson]]'s book ''[[The Middle Age of Mrs Eliot]]'' and the accident in its opening), a death scene that has drawn complaints from numerous readers for its vividness.<ref name="The Paris Review"/> Describing mid-20th-century Britain, the books follow the life of Frederica Potter, a young intellectual studying at Cambridge at a time when women were heavily outnumbered by men at that university, and then tracing her journey as a [[Divorce|divorcée]] with a young son as he makes a new life in London. Byatt says some of the characters in her fiction represent her "greatest terror which is simple domesticity."<ref name="Leith 2009"/> Like ''Babel Tower'', ''A Whistling Woman'' touches on the [[utopia]]n and revolutionary dreams of the 1960s.<ref name="Leith 2009"/>

Also an accomplished short story writer, Byatt's first published collection was ''Sugar and Other Stories'' (1987).<ref name="British Council: Literature"/> ''The Matisse Stories'' (1993) features three pieces, each describing a painting by [[Henri Matisse|the eponymous painter]]; each is the tale of an initially smaller crisis that shows the long-present unravelling in the protagonists' lives.<ref name="British Council: Literature"/> ''[[The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye]]'', published in 1994, is a collection of [[fairy tale]]s.<ref name="British Council: Literature"/> Byatt's other short story collections are ''Elementals: Stories of Fire and Ice'', published in 1998, and ''Little Black Book of Stories'', published in 2003.<ref name="British Council: Literature"/> Her books reflect a continuous interest in [[zoology]], [[entomology]], geology,<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/10/13/031013fi_fiction|title=A Stone Woman|magazine=The New Yorker|first=A. S.|last=Byatt|date=13 October 2003}}</ref> and [[Darwinism]]<ref name="The Paris Review"/> among other repeated themes. She is also interested in [[linguistics]] and takes a keen interest in the translation of her books.<ref name="The Paris Review"/> Byatt said: "I can't say how important it was to me when [[Angela Carter]] said 'I grew up on fairy stories—they're much more important to me than realist narratives'. I hadn't had the nerve to think that until she said it, and I owe her a great deal".<ref name="Leith 2009"/> Carter, in an earlier (first) meeting with Byatt after a [[Stevie Smith]] poetry reading, had dismissed Byatt's work, so this change of heart vindicated Byatt's approach to writing and Byatt readily acknowledged it.<ref name="The Paris Review"/>

{{external media|width=210px|float=right|audio1=[https://freshairarchive.org/segments/english-writer-byatt Listen to an interview] with A. S. Byatt given to ''[[Fresh Air]]'' on [[WHYY-FM]], 21 November 1991 (following publication of ''Possession''; {{c.}} 15 minutes)<ref name="Frair">{{cite web|url=https://freshairarchive.org/segments/english-writer-byatt|title=English Writer A.S. Byatt|work=[[Fresh Air]]|publisher=[[WHYY-FM]]|date=21 November 1991|access-date=25 September 2019}}</ref>}}
''[[Possession (Byatt novel)|Possession]]'' (1990) parallels the emerging relationship of two contemporary academics with the lives of two (fictional) 19th-century poets whom they are researching.<ref name="British Council: Literature"/> Possession is a historical fiction. It won the 1990 [[Booker Prize]] and was [[Possession (2002 film)|adapted for a film]] released in 2002.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/possession-2002|title=Reviews: Possession|publisher=[[RogerEbert.com]]|first=Roger|last=Ebert|authorlink=Roger Ebert|date=16 August 2002|access-date=16 October 2022}}</ref>

Byatt's novella ''[[Morpho Eugenia]]'' was included in ''Angels & Insects'' (1992), which was turned into [[Angels & Insects|the eponymous 1995 film]]; that film received an [[Academy Award for Best Costume Design]] [[69th Academy Awards|in 1997]].<ref name="British Council: Literature"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1997/S|title=The 69th Academy Awards|year=1997}}</ref>

Byatt's novel ''[[The Biographer's Tale]]'', published in 2000, she originally intended as a short story titled "The Biography of a Biographer", based on her notion of a biographer's life in a library investigating another person's life.<ref name="The Paris Review"/> This she developed into writing about a character called Phineas G. Nanson, who is attempting to learn about a biographer for a book he intends to write, but who can only locate fragments of his three unwritten biographies, which are on [[Francis Galton|Galton]], [[Henrik Ibsen|Ibsen]] and [[Carl Linnaeus|Linnaeus]].<ref name="The Paris Review"/> Phineas Gilbert Nanson is named after an insect and is almost an [[anagram]] of Galton, Ibsen and Linnaeus, though Byatt said this was an uncanny coincidence that she did not realise until afterwards.<ref name="The Paris Review"/>

''[[The Children's Book]]'', published in 2009, is a novel spanning from 1895 until the end of the [[First World War]], centring on the fictional writer Olive Wellwood.<ref name="2009 Booker Prize shortlist"/> She is based upon [[E. Nesbit]].<ref name="The Saturday Profile"/> Another character—Herbert Methley—is a combination of [[H. G. Wells]] and [[D. H. Lawrence]], according to Byatt.<ref name="The Saturday Profile"/> The novel also features [[Rupert Brooke]], [[Emma Goldman]], [[Auguste Rodin]], [[George Bernard Shaw]], [[Virginia Woolf]] and [[Oscar Wilde]], all appearing as themselves.<ref name="The Saturday Profile">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/10/world/europe/10byatt.html|title=The Saturday Profile: A Novelist Whose Fiction Comes From Real Lives|work=The New York Times|first=Charles|last=McGrath|date=9 October 2009}}</ref> Byatt initially intended to title the book ''The Hedgehog, the White Goose and the Mad March Hare''.<ref name="The Saturday Profile"/>

She wrote at her home in [[Putney]], West London, and at another house in the [[Cévennes]] in [[Southern France]], where she spent her summers.<ref name = Telegraph/><ref name="The Paris Review">{{cite journal|url=http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/481/the-art-of-fiction-no-168-a-s-byatt|title=A. S. Byatt, The Art of Fiction No. 168|journal=The Paris Review|first=Philip|last=Hensher|date=Fall 2001|volume=Fall 2001|issue=159}}</ref><ref name="Newman-2003"/> She did not write her fiction on a computer, she did so by hand, though she had deployed a computer for non-fiction articles.<ref name="The Paris Review" /> According to a 1991 unpublished interview with the ''[[Los Angeles Times Book Review]]'', Byatt said she began her writing day at around 10 a.m., prompting herself by reading something easy and then something harder: "And then after a bit if I read something difficult that's really interesting I get this itch to start writing. So what I like to do is to write from about half past twelve, one, through to about four". At this point, she said, she would begin reading again.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://bradspurgeon.com/writing-on-writers-and-writing/long-lost-1991-interview-with-a-s-byatt-mainly-about-prolificity/|title=A. S. Byatt Interview from 1991—on Prolificacy|first=Brad|last=Spurgeon|year=1991|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201229080311/https://bradspurgeon.com/writing-on-writers-and-writing/long-lost-1991-interview-with-a-s-byatt-mainly-about-prolificity/|archive-date=29 December 2020}}</ref>

===Criticism===
Byatt wrote two critical studies of [[Iris Murdoch|Dame Iris Murdoch]], who was a friend, mentor and another significant influence on her own writing.<ref name="Newman-2003"/> They were titled ''Degrees of Freedom: The Early Novels of Iris Murdoch'' (1965) and ''Iris Murdoch: A Critical Study'' (1976).<ref name="British Council: Literature"/> Byatt also described Murdoch's husband [[John Bayley (writer)|John Bayley]]'s decision to publish a memoir of his time with her as "wicked" and "unforgivable", saying: "I knew her enough to know that she would have hated it... it's had a horrible effect on how people feel about her and see her and think about her."<ref name="Leith 2009"/>

Byatt's other critical studies include ''Wordsworth and Coleridge in Their Time'' (1970).<ref name="British Council: Literature"/> 2001's ''Portraits in Fiction'' is about painting in novels, and features references to [[Emile Zola]], [[Marcel Proust]] and Iris Murdoch; Byatt had earlier touched upon this subject in a 2000 lecture she delivered at the [[National Portrait Gallery, London|National Portrait Gallery]] in London.<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>

Byatt had been a public encourager of the new young generation of British writers, including [[Philip Hensher]] (''Kitchen Venom''),<ref name="Leith 2009"/><ref name="Newman-2003"/> [[Robert Irwin (writer)|Robert Irwin]] (''Exquisite Corpse''),<ref name="Newman-2003"/> [[A. L. Kennedy]],<ref name="Newman-2003"/> [[Lawrence Norfolk]],<ref name="Leith 2009"/><ref name="Newman-2003"/> [[David Mitchell (author)|David Mitchell]] (''[[Ghostwritten (novel)|Ghostwritten]]''),<ref name="Leith 2009"/><ref name="Newman-2003"/> [[Ali Smith]] (''[[Hotel World]]''),<ref name="Leith 2009"/><ref name="Newman-2003"/> [[Zadie Smith]] (''[[White Teeth]]'')<ref name="Newman-2003"/> and [[Adam Thirlwell]],<ref name="Leith 2009"/> saying in 2009 that she was "not entirely disinterested, because I wish there to be a literary world in which people are not writing books only about people's feelings&nbsp;... all the ones I like write also about ideas".<ref name="Leith 2009"/> She contrasted some of those preferences with the work of [[Martin Amis]], [[Julian Barnes]], [[Ian McEwan]] and [[Graham Swift]]—then added, "In fact I admire all four of those writers... they don't only do people's feelings... nevertheless it's become [[Ossification|ossified]]".<ref name="Leith 2009"/> Norfolk she described in 2003 as "the best of the young novelists now writing".<ref name="Newman-2003"/> She also spoke of her admiration for American writer [[Helen DeWitt]]'s book ''[[The Last Samurai (novel)|The Last Samurai]]''.<ref name="Newman-2003"/> Hensher, who counts Byatt as a friend, said: "She's very unusual for an English person, in that she's quite suspicious of comedy. With most people, sooner or later, every intellectual position comes down to a joke—it never does with her."<ref name="Leith 2009"/>

Byatt was a judge on many literary award panels, including the [[Betty Trask Award]], the [[David Higham Prize for Fiction]],<ref>{{cite news|url=https://literaryreview.co.uk/a-s-byatt-first-novels|title=Judging the David Higham Award|work=[[Literary Review]]|first=A. S.|last=Byatt|date=November 1979}}</ref> the [[Hawthornden Prize]] and the Booker.<ref name="British Council: Literature"/> She also wrote for the media, including for ''[[The Times Literary Supplement]]'', British journal ''[[Prospect (magazine)|Prospect]]'' and newspapers ''[[The Guardian]]'', ''[[The Independent]]'' and ''[[The Sunday Times]]''.<ref name="British Council: Literature"/><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/author/as-byatt|title=A. S. Byatt's articles in ''Prospect''|work=[[Prospect (magazine)|Prospect]]|access-date=25 October 2022|archive-date=20 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210420010816/https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/author/AS-Byatt|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/profile/asbyatt|title=A. S. Byatt's articles in ''The Guardian''|website=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=25 October 2022}}</ref>

==Awards and honours==
[[File:A.S.Byatt2011.jpg|thumb|Byatt, pictured in [[Amsterdam]] in 2011]]

Byatt was mentioned as a candidate for the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]].<ref name="Nobel 2012" />

=== Honours ===
Byatt was appointed [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] (CBE) in the [[1990 New Year Honours#Commanders (CBE)|1990 New Year Honours]],<ref>{{London Gazette
| issue = 51981
| date = 29 December 1989
| page = 7
| supp = y
}}</ref> and was promoted to [[Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] (DBE), "for services to Literature", in [[Elizabeth II]]'s [[1999 Birthday Honours#Dame Commander (DBE)|1999 Birthday Honours]].<ref>{{London Gazette
| issue = 55513
| date = 12 June 1999
| page = 7
| supp = y
}}</ref><ref name="2009 Booker Prize shortlist" />

She was also awarded:

* 1991: Honorary [[Doctor of Letters|DLitt]] from the [[Durham University]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Honorary DLitt |url=https://www.durham.ac.uk/about-us/governance/governance-documentation/statutes-and-regulations/honorary-degrees/#DLitt |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221031000834/https://www.durham.ac.uk/about-us/governance/governance-documentation/statutes-and-regulations/honorary-degrees/ |archive-date=31 October 2022 |publisher=University of Durham}}</ref>
*1993: Honorary [[Doctor of Letters|LittD]] from the [[University of Liverpool]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Honorary Graduates of the University |url=https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/media/livacuk/cgso/committees/Honorary,Graduates,of,the,University.pdf |access-date=25 October 2022 |publisher=University of Liverpool}}</ref>
*1994: Honorary Doctorate from the [[University of Portsmouth]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Honorary degree recipients: 1994 |url=https://www.port.ac.uk/about-us/alumni/honorary-degree-recipients |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221031001941/https://www.port.ac.uk/about-us/alumni/honorary-degree-recipients |archive-date=31 October 2022 |publisher=University of Portsmouth}}</ref>
*1995: Honorary Doctorate from the [[University of London]]<ref>{{cite news |title=Previous honorary graduates and fellows |work=University of London |url=https://www.london.ac.uk/honorary-awards-university-london |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221031002227/https://www.london.ac.uk/honorary-awards-university-london |archive-date=31 October 2022 |publisher=University of London}}</ref>
*1999: Honorary DLitt from the [[University of Cambridge]]<ref>{{cite web |date=22 February 2013 |title=Selected Honorands: Arts and Humanities and Economics |url=https://www.cam.ac.uk/about-the-university/how-the-university-and-colleges-work/processes/honorary-degrees/selected-honorands |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180103124821/https://www.cam.ac.uk/about-the-university/how-the-university-and-colleges-work/processes/honorary-degrees/selected-honorands |archive-date=3 January 2018 |publisher=University of Cambridge}}</ref>
*1999: Honorary Fellow, [[Newnham College, Cambridge]]<ref name="Honorary Fellows Newnham College, Cambridge" /><ref>{{cite web |title=Honorary Fellows by year of election |url=https://newn.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/List-of-Honorary-Fellows-by-year-of-election.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220617044903/https://newn.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/List-of-Honorary-Fellows-by-year-of-election.pdf |archive-date=17 June 2022 |publisher=Newnham College}}</ref>
*2004: Honorary [[Doctor of Letters]] from the [[University of Kent]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Honorary Graduates: 2004–11 |url=https://www.kent.ac.uk/congregations/honorary-graduates/archive |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200814093709/https://www.kent.ac.uk/congregations/honorary-graduates/archive |archive-date=14 August 2020 |publisher=University of Kent}}</ref>
*2004: Honorary Fellow, [[University College London]]<ref>{{cite web |date=22 December 2020 |title=List of Honorary Fellows |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/governance-compliance/honorary-awards/list-honorary-fellows |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220806144204/https://www.ucl.ac.uk/governance-compliance/honorary-awards/list-honorary-fellows |archive-date=6 August 2022 |publisher=University College London}}</ref>
*2008: ''[[The Times]]'' named her on its list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945<ref>{{cite news |date=5 January 2008 |title=The 50 greatest British writers since 1945 |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/the-50-greatest-british-writers-since-1945-ws3g69xrf90 |access-date=10 January 2016 |work=[[The Times]]}}</ref>
*2010: Honorary doctorate from [[Leiden University]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Honorary doctorates: 2000 to the present day |url=https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/about-us/facts-and-figures/laureates#2000-to-the-present-day |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201020010455/https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/about-us/facts-and-figures/laureates |archive-date=20 October 2020 |publisher=Leiden University}}</ref>
*2017: [[Honorary Fellow|Fellow of the British Academy]] of the [[British Academy]]<ref>{{cite web |date=21 July 2017 |title=Elections to the British Academy celebrate the diversity of UK research |url=https://www.britac.ac.uk/news/elections-british-academy-celebrate-diversity-uk-research |publisher=The British Academy}}</ref>
*2017: Golden Plate Award of the [[Academy of Achievement|American Academy of Achievement]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement |url=https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/ |website=achievement.org |publisher=[[American Academy of Achievement]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=2017 Summit Highlights Photo |url=https://achievement.org/summit/2017/}}</ref>

=== Literary ===
*1986: PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award, for ''Still Life''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.librarything.com/bookaward/PEN/Macmillan%20Silver%20Pen%20Award|title=PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award|publisher=LibraryThing|access-date=20 March 2012}}</ref>
<!-- *1987: Honorary Doctorate from the [[University of Bradford]]{{cn|date=October 2022}} -->
*1990: [[Booker Prize|Booker Prize for Fiction]], for ''Possession: A Romance''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.littleinfinite.com/romance-book-pick-possession/|title=A Booker Prize Winner to Celebrate National Poetry Month|website=littleinfinite.com|first=Leah|last=Rex|date=25 April 2022 }}</ref>
*1990: [[Irish Times International Fiction Prize]], for ''Possession: A Romance''<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/06/books/2-novelists-awarded-fiction-prizes-in-ireland.html|title=2 Novelists Awarded Fiction Prizes in Ireland|work=The New York Times|date=6 October 1990}}</ref>
*<!-- *1991: Honorary Doctorate from the [[University of York]]{{cn|date=October 2022}} -->1991: [[Commonwealth Foundation prizes|Commonwealth Writers Prize]] (Eurasia Region, Best Book), for  ''Possession: A Romance''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.commonwealthfoundation.com/uploads/documents/Regional%20Winners%201987-20071.pdf|title=Commonwealth Writers' Prize Regional Winners 1987–2007|publisher=Commonwealth Foundation|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071023223729/http://www.commonwealthfoundation.com/uploads/documents/Regional%20Winners%201987-20071.pdf|archive-date=23 October 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref>
*1995: [[Premio Malaparte]] (Italy)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.premiomalaparte.it/antonia-susan-byatt|title=Il Malaparte 1995 ad Antonia Susan Byatt|publisher=Premio Malaparte|access-date=25 October 2022}}</ref>
*1995: [[Aga Khan Prize for Fiction]], for ''The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theparisreview.org/about/prizes|title=Winners of The Aga Khan Prize|work=The Paris Review|access-date=25 October 2022}}</ref>
*1998: Mythopoeic Award for Adult Literature, for ''The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mythsoc.org/awards/awards-winners.htm|title=Winners|publisher=Mythopoeic Awards|access-date=25 October 2022}}</ref>
*2002: [[Shakespeare Prize]] (Germany)<ref name="British Council: Literature" />
*2009: [[Blue Metropolis]] International Literary Grand Prix<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bluemetropolis.org/uploads/BMET%20Grand%20Prix%2009%20English%20Final.doc|title=A. S. Byatt Recipient of the 2009 Blue Metropolis Literary Grand Prix|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090327004751/http://www.bluemetropolis.org/uploads/BMET%20Grand%20Prix%2009%20English%20Final.doc|archive-date=27 March 2009}}</ref>
*2009: [[Booker Prize]] shortlist, for ''The Children's Book''<ref name="2009 Booker Prize shortlist">{{cite news|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8244022.stm|title=At-a-glance: Booker shortlist 2009|work=BBC News|date=8 September 2009}}</ref>
*2010: [[James Tait Black Memorial Prize]], for ''The Children's Book''<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.ed.ac.uk/news/all-news/james-tait-black-200810|title=Book prize winners revealed|work=The University of Edinburgh |date=14 April 2016}}</ref>
*2016: [[Erasmus Prize]] (Netherlands), for "exceptional contribution to literature"<ref>{{cite news|url=http://nos.nl/artikel/2080985-britse-schrijfster-a-s-byatt-krijgt-erasmusprijs.html|title=Britse schrijfster A.S. Byatt krijgt Erasmusprijs|date=17 January 2016|publisher=NOS|language=nl|access-date=17 January 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.erasmusprijs.org/?lang=en&page=Nieuws&mode=detail&item=Press+release+Erasmus+Prize+2016+awarded+to+A.S.+Byatt|title=Press release: Erasmus Prize 2016 awarded to A.S. Byatt|date=17 January 2016|access-date=17 January 2016|archive-date=24 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180324102036/http://www.erasmusprijs.org/?lang=en&page=Nieuws&mode=detail&item=Press+release+Erasmus+Prize+2016+awarded+to+A.S.+Byatt|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/18/as-byatt-wins-erasmus-prize-award-contribution-culture|title=AS Byatt wins €150,000 Erasmus prize for 'exceptional contribution to culture'|newspaper=The Guardian|first=Alison|last=Flood|date=18 January 2016|access-date=18 January 2016}}</ref>
*2017: [[Park Kyong-ni Prize]] (South Korea)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://english.donga.com/List/3/all/26/1076118/1|title=A.S. Byatt to be awarded 2017 Park Kyong-ni Literature Prize|work=The Dong-a Ilbo|date=28 September 2017|access-date=28 September 2017}}</ref>
*2018: [[Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award]] (Denmark)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cphpost.dk/news/as-byatt-scoops-prestigious-danish-literary-prize.html|title=AS Byatt scoops prestigious Danish literary prize|work=[[The Copenhagen Post]]|first=Stephen|last=Gadd|date=11 September 2017|access-date=12 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200109033318/http://cphpost.dk/news/as-byatt-scoops-prestigious-danish-literary-prize.html|archive-date=9 January 2020|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Memberships==
<!-- * 1974–1977: Social Effects of Television Advisory Group, BBC{{cn|date=October 2022}} -->
<!-- * 1977–1982: Associate of [[Newnham College, Cambridge]]{{cn|date=October 2022}} -->
<!-- * 1978–1984: Board of Communications and Cultural Studies, [[Council for National Academic Awards]] (CNAA){{cn|date=October 2022}} -->
<!-- * 1985–1987: Board of Creative and Performing Arts, CNAA{{cn|date=October 2022}} -->
* 1987–1988: Kingman Committee of Inquiry into the teaching of English Language, (Department of Education and Science)<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
* 1984–1988: Management Committee, [[Society of Authors]] (Deputy chairman, 1986, Chairman, 1986–1988)<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
* 1993–1998: Board, [[British Council]] (Member of Literature Advisory Panel, 1990–1998)<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
* 2014: [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]], Foreign Honorary Member<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.amacad.org/multimedia/pdfs/classlist2014.pdf|title=American Academy of Arts and Sciences—Newly Elected Members|date=April 2014}}</ref>

==Works==
===Novels===
The following books form a [[tetralogy]] known as ''The Quartet'': ''[[The Virgin in the Garden]]'' (1978), ''[[Still Life (Byatt novel)|Still Life]]'' (1985), ''[[Babel Tower]]'' (1996) and ''[[A Whistling Woman]]'' (2002).<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>

* 1964: ''Shadow of a Sun'', [[Chatto & Windus]]<ref name="British Council: Literature"/> reprinted in 1991 with originally intended title ''The Shadow of the Sun''<ref name="The Paris Review"/>
* 1967: ''The Game'', Chatto & Windus<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
* 1978: ''[[The Virgin in the Garden]]'', Chatto & Windus<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
* 1985: ''[[Still Life (Byatt novel)|Still Life]]'', Chatto & Windus<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
* 1990: ''[[Possession (Byatt novel)|Possession: A Romance]]'', Chatto & Windus<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
* 1996: ''[[Babel Tower]]'', Chatto & Windus<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
* 2000: ''[[The Biographer's Tale]]'', Chatto & Windus<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
* 2002: ''[[A Whistling Woman]]'', Chatto & Windus<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
* 2009: ''[[The Children's Book]]'', Chatto & Windus<ref name="Leith 2009"/>
* 2011: ''[[Ragnarok: The End of the Gods]]'', [[Canongate Books|Canongate]] {{ISBN|9780802120847}}<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>

===Short story collections===
* 1987: ''Sugar and Other Stories'', [[Chatto & Windus]]<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
* 1993: ''The Matisse Stories'', Chatto & Windus<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
* 1994: ''[[The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye]]'', Chatto & Windus<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
* 1998: ''Elementals: Stories of Fire and Ice'', Chatto & Windus<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
* 2003: ''Little Black Book of Stories'', Chatto & Windus<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
* 2021: ''Medusa's Ankles: Selected Stories'', Chatto & Windus<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>

===Novellas===
* 1992: ''Angels and Insects'', [[Chatto & Windus]]; comprises a pair of novellas:<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
** ''[[Morpho Eugenia]]''<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
** ''The Conjugial Angel''<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>

===Essays and biographies===
* 1965: ''Degrees of Freedom: The Early Novels of Iris Murdoch'', [[Chatto & Windus]]<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
* 1970: ''Wordsworth and Coleridge in their Time'', [[Thomas Nelson (publisher)|Nelson]]<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
* 1976: ''Iris Murdoch: A Critical Study'', [[Longman]]<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
* 1989: ''Unruly Times: Wordsworth and Coleridge, Poetry and Life'', [[Hogarth Press]]<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
* 1991: ''Passions of the Mind: Selected Writings'', Chatto & Windus<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
* 1995: ''Imagining Characters: Six Conversations about Women Writers'' (with Ignes Sodre), Chatto & Windus<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
* 2000: ''On Histories and Stories: Selected Essays'', Chatto & Windus<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
* 2001: ''Portraits in Fiction'', Chatto & Windus<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
* 2016: ''Peacock & Vine: On William Morris and Mariano Fortuny'', [[Alfred A. Knopf|Knopf]] {{ISBN|978-1101947470}}<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
* 2020: ''The Women Writers Handbook'', Aurora Metro Books

===Texts edited===
* 1989: ''George Eliot: Selected Essays, Poems and Other Writings'' (editor with Nicholas Warren), [[Penguin Books|Penguin]]<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
* 1995: ''New Writing Volume 4'' (editor with [[Alan Hollinghurst]]), [[Vintage (publisher)|Vintage]]<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
* 1997: ''New Writing Volume 6'' (editor with [[Peter Porter (poet)|Peter Porter]]), Vintage<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
* 1998: ''Oxford Book of English Short Stories'' (editor), [[Oxford University Press]]<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>
* 2001: ''The Bird Hand Book'' (with photographs by Victor Schrager), [[Graphis Inc.]] (New York)<ref name="British Council: Literature"/>

==See also==
{{Portal bar|Biography|Books|Children's literature|Entomology|Geology|Literature|London|Myths|Novels|Poetry|Victorian era|Visual arts|Writing|Yorkshire|Zoology}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* Gorski, Hedwig (2018). ''The Riddle of Correspondences in A. S. Byatt's Possession: A Romance with H. D.'s Trilogy''. New Orleans: Jadzia Books. {{ISBN|978-1725926462}}.
* Hicks, Elizabeth (2010). ''The Still Life in the Fiction of A. S. Byatt''. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. {{ISBN|978-1-4438-2385-2}}.
* Mundler, Helen E. (2003). Intertextualité dans l'œuvre d'A. S. Byatt (Intertextuality in the work of A. S. Byatt). Paris: Harmattan.  {{ISBN|2-7475-4084-7}}.
* Mundler, Helen E. (2007–2008). [https://www.academia.edu/14496364/_Time_to_murder_and_create_The_Bible_as_intertext_in_A_S_Byatt_s_Elementals_Stories_of_Fire_and_Ice_By_Helen_E_Mundler {{"'}}Time to Murder and Create?' The Bible as Intertext in A. S. Byatt's ''Elementals: Stories of Fire and Ice''{{-"}}] {{registration required}}. FAAAM, no. IV "Text & Genesis": 65–77.

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{Official website}}
* {{British council|id=a-s-byatt|name=Dame A. S. Byatt}}
* {{IBList|type=author|id=1351|name=A. S. Byatt}}
* {{ISFDB name |name=A. S. Byatt}}
* {{OL author}}

'''Audio interviews and readings'''
* {{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0093z2k|title=A. S. Byatt|work=[[Desert Island Discs]]|publisher=[[BBC Radio 4]]|first=Sue|last=Lawley|authorlink=Sue Lawley|date=10 January 1992}}
* {{Cite web|url=http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/bw/bw920309a_s_byatt|title=A. S. Byatt|work=[[Bookworm (radio show)|Bookworm]]|publisher=[[KCRW]]|first=Michael|last=Silverblatt|authorlink=Michael Silverblatt|date=9 March 1992}}
* Download: {{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/99/04/11/ra/byatt.ram|title=A. S. Byatt reads from her book ''Elementals''|website=[[The New York Times]] |date=11 April 1999}}
* {{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/documentaries/2009/05/090511_theforum_100509.shtml|title=Audio: including A. S. Byatt in conversation|work=[[The Forum (radio programme)|The Forum]]|publisher=[[BBC World Service]]|date=10 May 2009}}
* {{Cite web|url=http://cle.ens-lyon.fr/57663180/0/fiche___pagelibre/%26RH%3DCDL_ANG000000 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100928013815/http://cle.ens-lyon.fr/57663180/0/fiche___pagelibre/%26RH%3DCDL_ANG000000 |archive-date=28 September 2010 |title=A. S. Byatt reading from ''The Children's Book''/An interview with A. S. Byatt|date=May 2010}}

{{Booker Prize}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Byatt, A. S.}}
[[Category:1936 births]]
[[Category:2023 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century British short story writers]]
[[Category:20th-century English novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century English women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century pseudonymous writers]]
[[Category:21st-century British short story writers]]
[[Category:21st-century English novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century English women writers]]
[[Category:21st-century pseudonymous writers]]
[[Category:Academics of the Central School of Art and Design]]
[[Category:Academics of University College London]]
[[Category:Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Booker Prize winners]]
[[Category:British women short story writers]]
[[Category:Bryn Mawr College alumni]]
[[Category:Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:English agnostics]]
[[Category:English short story writers]]
[[Category:English women novelists]]
[[Category:Fellows of Newnham College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Fellows of Somerville College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature]]
[[Category:Former Quakers]]
[[Category:The Guardian people]]
[[Category:Honorary Fellows of the British Academy]]
[[Category:The Independent people]]
[[Category:James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients]]
[[Category:O. Henry Award winners]]
[[Category:People educated at Sheffield High School, South Yorkshire]]
[[Category:People educated at The Mount School, York]]
[[Category:People from Putney]]
[[Category:Pseudonymous women writers]]
[[Category:The Sunday Times people]]
[[Category:Writers from Sheffield]]
[[Category:20th-century British women novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century British women novelists]]