Angela Carter (7th May 1940 – 16th February 1992) was an English novelist, writer and journalist best known for The Bloody Chamber and Nights at the Circus. During her career Carter was awarded with several awards including the Somerset Maugham Award, was named tenth in the 50 greatest British writers of all time by The Times and received various other accolades.
Born Angela Olive Stalker in Eastbourne during World War II, Carter was a child evacuee, heading to Yorkshire to live with her paternal grandmother. During her teenage years she battled anorexia, and after attending High School in South London she began to writer professionally for the first time, becoming a journalist for the Croydon Advertiser.
Angela Stalker would in 1960 marry Paul Carter, giving her the name we all know her by. It wasn’t a happy union though, and Carter famously used the proceeds of her Somerset Maugham Award to leave her husband and relocate to Tokyo.
Most know her as a prolific novelist, but Carter also contributed many articles to many well known sources including The Guardian, The New Statesman and the Independent. These are collected in Shaking a Leg and make for fine reading.
In 1992 Angela Carter died, very young, from lung cancer. At the time of her death Carter was working on a sequel to Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, based on the later life of Jane’s stepdaughter. This work remained unfinished and now on a synopsis survives.
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