ACCLAIMED novelist Margaret Forster who was born and brought up in Carlisle, has died.

Her death earlier today was announced by her author and journalist husband Hunter Davies, also from Carlisle.

The award-winning author, who wrote many successful books including Georgy Girl and Diary Of An Ordinary Woman, died at the Marie Curie Hospice in Hampstead, north London. 

She was 77 and had been suffering from cancer in her back. 

Mr Davies said: “She had a double mastectomy 40 years so she’s had a remarkable life considering she had it for so long.” 

Born in Carlisle, Ms Forster was a teacher at a girls’ school in Islington, north London, before her writing career took off. 

Her big break came with Georgy Girl, the story of a young woman in 1960s London who is romantically pursued by her father’s older employer and the young lover of her promiscuous and pregnant flatmate. 

The book was turned into a successful film starring Lynn Redgrave as Georgy, Charlotte Rampling, Alan Bates and James Mason. It also featured a song of the same name by The Seekers.