Twist in the tale for love life of Drabble’s man
CELEBRATED novelist Margaret Drabble has said her lifelong feud with her sister and fellow literary dame A.S. Byatt is ‘beyond repair’. Now her marriage appears to have become complicated as well.
I hear that Drabble’s husband, the distinguished biographer Sir Michael Holroyd, 79, has formed an attachment to sparky theatre critic Susannah Clapp, who is 13 years his junior.
‘I am very fond of her,’ admits the amiable Sir Michael, who is famous for delving into the personal lives of his subjects such as playwright George Bernard Shaw.
‘Susannah is an old friend; we are close and she travels across London to see me and dine with me in Notting Hill. I suppose we’ve been spotted out together numerous times — I’m not hiding anything. We often have supper together.
‘I know you can have a romantic relationship without sex, but I think I’ve said enough. As I’m on medication following my illnesses there can be no question of sex.’
One of London’s leading literary couples, Drabble, 75, and Holroyd have long had complicated living arrangements: she likes to stay at their country home in Somerset while he prefers to be at their London property. Recently, however, Drabble, whose books include The Millstone and The Witch Of Exmoor, has been spending time in Oxford, where her son Adam teaches. ‘My wife is away a lot now in Oxford and I like to eat out locally so I can have a drink,’ Sir Michael says. ‘Susannah comes across to Notting Hill from her home in a funny square because
it’s easier — I don’t have to drive. Susannah and I enjoy talking a lot together.’
He insists that he and Drabble will not divorce. ‘Margaret will be coming over later this week. There is no fighting or splitting up.’
Sir Michael wed Drabble in 1982. She has three children from her previous marriage, to the actor Clive Swift, who is best known as Richard Bucket in BBC sitcom Keeping Up Appearances.
She fell out with Byatt, who won the Booker Prize for her novel Possession, when they were children because of their highly competitive natures and they have barely spoken since.
‘It’s irresoluble now,’ Drabble said in 2011. ‘It’s sad, but beyond repair, and I don’t think about it much any more.’