01.12.11 | Benedicte Page - The BooksellerThe award is given each year by English PEN to a writer whose body of work has had a profound impact on readers and who is held "in high regard" by the literary community.
A golden pen and cheque for £1,000 will be presented to Drabble by English PEN's former president Lisa Appignanesi, at the PEN Christmas party held on 5th December.
Gillian Slovo, English PEN's current president, said: "I am absolutely delighted that Margaret Drabble is going to join the list of wonderful writers to be awarded the Golden PEN. We awarded it to her for two of the best reasons: her work on behalf of other writers and for PEN, and her brilliant career as a novelist. She is our perfect combination of art and conscience—a role model whom we can all aspire to match."
Previous winners of the award include Salman Rushdie, J G Ballard, Josephine Pullein-Thompson, Michael Holroyd, Doris Lessing and Harold Pinter.
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