LONDON (AP) 鈥� British author A.S. Byatt, who wove history, myth and a sharp eye for human foibles into books that included the Booker Prize-winning novel 鈥淧ossession,鈥� has died at the age of 87.
Byatt鈥檚 publisher, Chatto & Windus, said Friday that the author, whose full name was Antonia Byatt, died 鈥減eacefully at home surrounded by close family" on Thursday.
Byatt wrote two dozen books, starting with her first novel, 鈥淭he Shadow of the Sun,鈥� in 1964. Her work was translated into 38 languages.
鈥淧ossession,鈥� published in 1990, follows two young academics investigating the lives of a pair of imaginary Victorian poets. The novel, a double romance which skillfully layers a modern story with mock-Victorian letters and poems, was a huge bestseller and won the prestigious Booker Prize.
Accepting the prize, Byatt said 鈥淧ossession鈥� was about the joy of reading.
鈥淢y book was written on a kind of high about the pleasures of reading,鈥� she said.
鈥淧ossession鈥� was adapted into a 2002 film starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart. It was one of several Byatt books to get the film treatment. 鈥淢orpho Eugenia,鈥� a gothic Victorian novella included in the 1992 book 鈥淎ngels and Insects,鈥� became a 1995 movie of the same name, starring Mark Rylance and Kristin Scott Thomas.
Her short story 鈥淭he Djinn in the Nightingale鈥檚 Eye,鈥� which won the 1995 Aga Khan Prize for Fiction, inspired the 2022 fantasy film 鈥淭hree Thousand Years of Longing.鈥� Directed by 鈥淢ad Max鈥� filmmaker George Miller, it starred Idris Elba as a genie who spins tales for an academic played by Tilda Swinton.
Byatt's other books include four novels set in 1950s and '60s Britain that together are known as the Frederica Quartet: 鈥淭he Virgin in the Garden,鈥� published in 1978, followed by 鈥淪till Life,鈥� "Babel Tower鈥� and 鈥淎 Whistling Woman.鈥� She also wrote the 2009 Booker Prize finalist 鈥淭he Children鈥檚 Book,鈥� a sweeping story of Edwardian England centered on a writer of fairy tales.
Her most recent book was 鈥淢edusa鈥檚 Ankles,鈥� a volume of short stories published in 2021.
Byatt's literary agent, Zoe Waldie, said the author 鈥渉eld readers spellbound鈥� with writing that was 鈥渕ulti-layered, endlessly varied and deeply intellectual, threaded through with myths and metaphysics."
Clara Farmer, Byatt鈥檚 publisher at Chatto & Windus 鈥� part of Penguin Random House 鈥� said the author鈥檚 books were 鈥渢he most wonderful jewel-boxes of stories and ideas.鈥�
鈥淲e mourn her loss, but it鈥檚 a comfort to know that her penetrating works will dazzle, shine and refract in the minds of readers for generations to come,鈥� Farmer said.
Born Antonia Susan Drabble in Sheffield, northern England, in 1936 鈥� her sister is novelist Margaret Drabble 鈥� Byatt grew up in a Quaker family, attended Cambridge University and worked for a time as a university lecturer.
She married economist Ian Byatt in 1959 and they had a daughter and a son before divorcing. In 1972, her 11-year-old son, Charles, was struck and killed by a car while walking home from school.
Charles died shortly after Byatt had taken a teaching post at University College London to pay for his private school fees. After his death, she told The Guardian in 2009, she stayed in the job 鈥渁s long as he had lived, which was 11 years.鈥� In 1983, she quit to become a full-time writer.
Byatt lived in London with her second husband, Peter Duffy, with whom she had two daughters.
Queen Elizabeth II made Byatt a dame, the female equivalent of a knight, in 1999 for services to literature, and in 2003 she was made a chevalier (knight) of France's Order of Arts and Letters.
In 2014, a species of iridescent beetle was named for her 鈥� Euhylaeogena byattae Hespenheide 鈥� in honor of her depiction of naturalists in 鈥淢orpho Eugenia.鈥�
Jill Lawless, The Associated Press
