Lady mary stewart author obituary

But her intuitive feel for the past and its re-creation in vivid, poetic detail lifted the best of her writing into the class of Dorothy Dunnett, Rosemary Sutcliff, Mary Renault and John Buchan. She felt the influence of Renault so strongly that she confessed to keeping away from her books while working on her own. Unusually for a romantic novelist, she was not afraid of male heroes and in the trilogy she retold the legend through the eyes of a Welsh Merlin, more prophet and engineer than magician.

Nor was she afraid of critics, a few of whom scorned her use of the discredited historian Geoffrey of Monmouth as a source. Despite her extensive research, she never claimed her books as works of serious scholarship. Instead, she wrote that she was content to take her place among those historians Gibbon damned as embellishers of fragments and fables.

Her father's meagre resources would not allow her to take up either of the places she won at Oxford and Cambridge, so she went instead to university in Durham. There she took a first in English literature in and was also president of the Women's Union. Her education continued on a bursary at Durham University after she had turned down places at Cambridge and Oxford because they were too costly.

She achieved a First in English and went on to teach in a Middlesbrough elementary school. In she returned to Durham to teach at the university and four years later met her future husband Frederick Stewart at a fancy-dress ball to celebrate the end of the war. They eventually moved to Edinburgh. But after the belated discovery of Lives remembered an ectopic pregnancy led to her being told she would remain childless Frederick gently urged his wife to try her hand at writing.

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. She also wrote children's books and poetry, but may be best known for her Merlin series , which straddles the boundary between the historical novel and fantasy.

Adaptations of her books include both The Moon-Spinners : a Walt Disney live-action movie , and The Little Broomstick which became an animated feature film titled Mary and the Witch's Flower , dir. Hiromasa Yonebayashi. She was a bright child and attended Eden Hall boarding school in Penrith , Cumbria, age eight. She was bullied there and stated that this had a lasting effect on her.

At ten, she won a scholarship to Skellfield School, Ripon , Yorkshire, where she excelled at sport. Offered places by Oxford, Cambridge, and Durham universities, she chose Durham as it offered the largest bursary and least travel. She graduated from Durham University in with first-class honours in English, was awarded a first-class Teaching Diploma in English with Art the following year and in gained her master's degree.

Stewart held a variety of posts during World War II, including primary school teaching, teaching at secondary level at a girls' boarding school, and working part-time at the sixth form of Durham School. She received an honorary D. She became known as Mary Stewart. In , the couple moved to Edinburgh. Madam, Will You Talk? Stewart was the best-selling author of many romantic suspense and historical fiction novels.

They were well received by critics, due especially to her skillful story-telling and elegant prose. Her novels are also known for their well-crafted settings, many in England but also in such locations as Damascus and the Greek islands , as well as Spain, France, Austria, etc. She was at the height of her popularity from the late s to the s, when many of her novels were translated into other languages.

The Moon-Spinners , one of her most popular novels, was also made into a Walt Disney live-action movie. Stewart was one of the most prominent writers of the romantic suspense subgenre, blending romance novels and mystery. Critically, her works are considered superior to those of other acclaimed romantic suspense novelists, such as Victoria Holt and Phyllis Whitney.

Lady mary stewart author obituary

In the late s a new generation of young readers revived a readership in T. White 's The Once and Future King published in full and The Lord of the Rings published in full , and as a consequence Arthurian and heroic legends regained popularity among a critical mass of readers. Mary Stewart added to this climate by publishing The Crystal Cave , the first in what was to become The Merlin Trilogy , later extended by two further novels.

The books placed Stewart on the best-seller list many times throughout the s and s. Mary Rainbow met and married her husband, Frederick Stewart , a young Scot lecturer in Geology, whilst they were both working at Durham University. They were married by her father in September after having met at a VE Day dance; [ 3 ] their engagement was announced in The Times only one month after they met.

In , they moved to Edinburgh , where he became professor of geology and mineralogy, and later chairman of the Geology Department at University of Edinburgh. In , Mary's husband Frederick Stewart was knighted and she became Lady Stewart, although she never used the title. Her husband died in In semi-retirement Stewart resided in Edinburgh as well as near Loch Awe.

An avid gardener, Mary and her husband shared a keen love of nature. She was also fond of her cat Tory, a black and white female, who lived to be eighteen. Mary Stewart died on 9 May Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects.