Miranda Duffy News Today

Tragedy struck in the early 1970s, when her only son, Charles, who had just turned 11, was killed by a drunken driver

Possession, an unexpected best-seller, was in 2002 adapted into a feature film directed by Neil LaBute and starring Gwyneth Paltrow. Her profile as an author who broadened the breadth of modern British fiction was enhanced by both film adaptations. AS Byatt Dies at Her Home in London; Award-Winning Author Was Known for Bestselling Novel Possession.

A.S. Byatt, one of the most ambitious writers of her generation, whose dazzling 1990 novel, “Possession,” won the Booker Prize and brought her international fame as a novelist and unapologetic intellectual, died Thursday at her home in London. She was 87.