Dorothy Dunnett
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Dorothy Dunnett (August 25, 1923 – November 9, 2001) was a Scottish historical novelist. She is best known for her six-part series about Francis Crawford of Lymond, The Lymond Chronicles, which she followed with the eight-part prequel The House of Niccolò. She considered the two to form a single fourteen-volume series. She also wrote a novel about the real Macbeth called King Hereafter (1982), and a series of mystery novels centred around Johnson Johnson, a portrait painter/spy.
Dunnett was born Dorothy Halliday in Dunfermline in Fife. She was educated at James Gillespie's High School for Girls in Edinburgh. She started her career as a press officer in the civil service, where she met her husband.
She was a leading light in the Scottish arts world and a renaissance woman. She was a professional portrait painter and exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy on many occasions. She had portraits commissioned by a number of prominent public figures in Scotland. She had a keen interest in opera, was a trustee of the National Library of Scotland, a board member of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, a trustee of the Scottish War Memorial, and a non-executive director of Scottish Television. In 1992 she was created an Office of the OBE for her services to literature.
Dorothy Dunnett was married in 1946 to Sir Alastair Dunnett, editor of The Scotsman newspaper.
She died in Edinburgh.
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[edit] The Lymond Chronicles
The manuscript for this series was rejected by five British publishers before being published by Putnam in 1961. It was written in response to her husband's suggestion that she write something herself, when she complained of having run out of reading material.
This series, set in sixteenth-century Scotland, features the Scottish nobleman Francis Crawford of Lymond. The meticulously researched series takes place in a wide variety of locations, including France, the Ottoman Empire, Malta, England, Scotland and Russia.
The volumes are as follows:
- The Game of Kings (1961)
- Queen's Play (1964)
- The Disorderly Knights (1966)
- Pawn in Frankincense (1969)
- The Ringed Castle (1971)
- Checkmate (1975)
[edit] The House of Niccolò
Set in mid-fifteenth century Europe, the protagonist of this series is Nicholas de Fleury (Niccolò). The story of Nicholas's rise takes place during the European Renaissance. In addition to taking place in many of the locations of the Lymond Chronicles, The House of Niccolò also takes place notably in Bruges, Venice, Trebizond, Cyprus and West Africa. As with Dunnett's earlier series, it features a number of real historical characters.
The volumes are as follows:
- Niccolò Rising (1986)
- Spring of the Ram (1987)
- Race of Scorpions (1989)
- Scales of Gold (1991)
- The Unicorn Hunt (1993)
- To Lie with Lions (1995)
- Caprice and Rondo (1997)
- Gemini (2000)
[edit] The Johnson Johnson series
This series was written interspersed between the Lymond series. In the Johnson Johnson series, the date of publication is not the same as the order in the series. Each book is set in the time it is written.
The Dolly of the titles refers to Johnson Johnson's yacht.
- Dolly & the Bird of Paradise (later retitled Tropical Issue) (1983)
- Dolly & the Singing Bird (later retitled Rum Affair) (aka The Photogenic Soprano) (1968)
- Dolly & the Cookie Bird (later retitled Ibiza Surprise) (aka Murder in the Round) (1970)
- Dolly & the Doctor Bird (later retitled Operation Nassau) (aka Match for a Murderer) (1971)
- Dolly & the Starry Bird (later retitled Roman Nights) (aka Murder in Focus) (1973)
- Dolly & the Nanny Bird (later retitled Split Code) (1976)
- Send a Fax to the Kasbah (published in the UK as Moroccan Traffic) (1992)
[edit] Fans and gatherings
Dorothy Dunnett has a devoted and active fan base, with gatherings held in Edinburgh in 1990, 1994, and 2000, with over 300 people in attendance. Similar events were held in Boston and in Philadelphia. Since her death smaller international gatherings of between 50 and 100 people have been held in Dublin (Nov 2001) and New Orleans (Nov 2003) and Malta (Oct 2005), and another is planned for Saddell in South West Scotland in April 2007.
There are several meetings of fans in the UK each year, in locations such as Rye, Lincoln, Oxford, Essex, Bath, London, and York. Also the formal meeting annual of the Dorothy Dunnett Readers' Association is held each spring in Scotland.
Occasional meetings are held in Australia and Canada, as well, with one held in Vancouver in April 2006.
Several internet e-mail discussion groups exist, the largest of which is the Marzipan group on Yahoogroups.
[edit] Memorial
On April 22, 2006, a memorial stone to Lady Dunnett was laid by her grandchildren, Hal and Bella Dunnett, alongside those for Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott in the Makars' Court in Lady Stair's Close on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. The Lord Provost of Edinburgh was in attendance, and gave a speech, as did the Edinburgh Makar (Valeries Gillies), the Ross Herald (Charles Burnett). The initiative to lay the stone, and the main funding for it, came from the members of the Dorothy Dunnett Readers' Association. The Stone contains Dorothy Dunnett's name, her coat of arms, and a brief quote from one of her books "Where are the links of the chain ... joining us to the past".
