A Room of One's Own

The studious young Margaret Forster makes it to Oxford, and a 'room of one's own'.

I was born on May 25, 1938, in the front bedroom of a house in Orton Road, on the outer edges of Raffles, a council estate. I was a lucky girl.'

So began Margaret Forster's journey through the houses she's lived in, from the sparkling new council house, built as part of a utopian vision by Carlisle City Council, to her beloved London house of today, via Oxford, Hampstead and the Lake District. Forster's houses aren't just bricks and mortar, but homes which have all meant something to her and which have all had a profound effect on her - from her writer's 'room of one's own', to the family hub and finally a sanctuary in times of illness. It is also a sideways look at the life of one of the greatest contemporary British novelists.

Read by Sian Thomas.

Writer: Margaret Forster
Abridger: Sally Marmion

Producer: Justine Willett

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2014.