Family stories

Other people's lives, fictional or biographical, are fascinating. Memoirs, it seems, blur the boundaries between fiction and biography and although not always completely truthful are still insightful.

This is certainly the case with Hidden lives by Margaret Forster, a writer whom I greatly admire. Knowing very little about the early life of her mother and grandmother, Forster researched, imagined and embellished their social and family circumstances. It is a compelling story. I remember when I read her earlier book The diary of an ordinary woman I was unsure whether it was fact or fiction - but that didn't really matter. It was true to time and place and was an excellent story.

Another prolific writer, Joyce Carol Oates, whose novels I have enjoyed, has recently written a memoir called A widow's story. The book is about becoming a widow and all the heartache and difficulties that come with the new status but it also explores, the unknown to her, parts of her husband's life by poignantly analysing the content of a novel that he had been writing for most of his life.

I found the combination of reality and imagination in these two memoirs perceptive and revealing.