The British Library has acquired 68 boxes of papers belonging to AS Byatt, the Booker Prize-winning author of Possession, offering insight into how she developed her celebrated fiction.
The archive contains notebooks, letters and diaries spanning her writing life. Byatt, born Antonia Susan Byatt, was known for exhaustive research that fed directly into her novels.
The collection reveals early doubts about her abilities. In September 1956, at age 20, Byatt wrote in her diary questioning whether she took herself seriously as a writer, noting "No, I think not." Yet the same period shows her determination crystallising. On her 20th birthday that year, she wrote: "Today, I know I can do anything. But not yet."
Byatt went on to publish Possession in 1990, a novel combining literary criticism with gothic romance that won the Booker Prize. The work became her signature achievement and established her among Britain's most celebrated contemporary writers.
The archive documenting her creative process and intellectual development is now publicly accessible through the British Library.