Letters to Margaret: Confessions to my Late Wife

by Hunter Davies

At the end of almost every day of their fifty-five years of married life, the publicity-shy author Margaret Forster would ask her naturally gregarious and outgoing husband Hunter Davies to describe to her the highlights of his working day spent in the worlds of journalism and publishing. In the six years that have elapsed since Margaret's death, Hunter has continued these conversations with his wife, regaling her with accounts of the events and developments in his life – domestic, social, romantic, book-related, health-related and others – through a sequence of 'Letters to Margaret'.

Whether recounting adventures in online dating, the pleasures and pitfalls of buying a new house by the seaside, the trauma of major operations on his heart and gall bladder, a chance encounter at a book-signing session that led to a new romantic attachment, or a visit to A&E when he was supposed to be watching the World Cup final, these twenty-three letters weave together strands of confession, self-mockery, anecdote and touching remembrance of married happiness with Margaret.

Letters to Margaret reveals Hunter Davies raging happily against the dying of the light in his late eighties, and seeking consolation for life's frustrations and disappointments through a sustained conversation with the woman he shared his life with for more than half a century.

256 pages, Hardcover

Published February 11, 2025

About the author

Edward Hunter Davies OBE is an author, journalist and broadcaster, and a former editor for the Sunday Times of London. He is the author of numerous books, including The Glory Game and the only authorised biography of the Beatles. He was born in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, to Scottish parents. For four years his family lived in Dumfries until Davies was aged 11.

His family moved to Carlisle in northern England when Davies was 11 and he attended the Creighton School in the city. Davies lived in Carlisle until he moved to study at university. During this time his father, who was a former Royal Air Force pay clerk, developed multiple sclerosis and had to retire on medical grounds from a civil service career.

Davies joined the sixth form at Carlisle Grammar School and was awarded a place at University College, Durham to read for an honours degree in History, but after his first year he switched to a general arts course. He gained his first writing experience as a student, contributing to the university newspaper, Palatinate, where one of his fellow student journalists was the future fashion writer Colin McDowell. After completing his degree course he stayed on at Durham for another year to gain a teaching diploma and avoid National Service.

He lives in London.

Reviews

[Ann Baxter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Find reading

A wonderful book, filled with great stories but essentially a love story . I love Hunter

Davies books . Long may he continue to wrie

[Mr John W Palmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

great writer

Hunter Davies wrote one of the greatest obituaries for his wife , Margaret Foster , in the ST in 2016 . He continues this theme of writing to his dead wife in a series of amusing and poignant letters to her on his progress since her death