Angela Olive Pearce (formerly Carter, née Stalker; 7 May 1940 – 16 February 1992), who published under the name Angela Carter, was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picaresque works. Carter was in kinship care as a child when she was evacuated to live in Yorkshire, with her maternal grandmother, where she suffered from anorexia for the majority of her teenage years. Nights at the Circus (1984), winner of the 1984 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. The novel focuses on the life and exploits of orphan Sophie Fevvers, a woman who is – or so she would have people believe – a Cockney virgin, hatched from an egg laid by unknown parents and ready to develop fully fledged wings. At the time of the story, she has become a celebrated aerialiste, and she captivates the young journalist Jack Walser, who runs away with the circus and falls into a world that his journalistic exploits had not prepared him to encounter. Nights at the Circus was the first to bring Angela Carter widespread acclaim.