author
Margaret Cole
1893–1980
A lively British socialist writer and public thinker, she helped shape Labour and Fabian ideas while also turning out detective fiction, poetry, and sharp political commentary. Her life joined activism, education, and writing in a way that makes her work feel both historical and intensely human.
1 Audiobook
The man from the river : A Wilson Story
by G. D. H. (George Douglas Howard) Cole, Margaret Cole
About the author
Born Margaret Postgate in Cambridge on May 6, 1893, she was educated at Roedean and Girton College, Cambridge. She became known as an English socialist politician, writer, and poet, and later married the political theorist and historian G. D. H. Cole, with whom she wrote several detective novels.
Cole played an important part in British socialist life across the first half of the twentieth century. She worked with the Labour Research Department, helped found the Society for Socialist Inquiry and Propaganda and the New Fabian Research Bureau, and later served the Fabian Society in a leading role. After the Second World War, she also held significant posts in London local government.
Alongside her political work, she wrote widely on socialism, labour history, and education, and published poetry as well as fiction. She died on May 7, 1980, leaving behind a career that connected ideas, public service, and popular writing with unusual energy.