Fiction Pick of the Week: A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman

A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman by Margaret Drabble 2011

To the many fans and followers of Margaret Drabble this collection of short stories is pure pleasure.

These 14 tales venture into the past four decades of her writing career to explore the complex psyche of independent women as they reveal their love affairs, their shattered marriages, their class origins, and their jobs. Her dry British humour is part of the joy of reading this collection. The stories showcase Drabble’s keen literary talent and present her complete short fiction for the first time in one volume. This may be the last new fiction we will read from the 72-year-old Dame Margaret Drabble as she retired from writing in 2009 to prevent as she says “repeating myself without knowing it which is what old people do endlessly.” These stories are a fitting end to a brilliant career.