Patricia Robins
Patricia Robins | |
---|---|
Born |
Patricia Denise Robins 1 February 1921 Hove, Sussex, England |
Died |
3 December 2016 95) Kent, England | (aged
Pen name |
Patricia Robins, Claire Lorrimer, Susan Patrick[1] |
Occupation | Novelist |
Nationality | British |
Genre | romance, gothic |
Spouse | Donald Clark |
Partner | Mel Hack |
Children | 3 |
Relatives |
Denise Robins (mother), Kathleen Clarice Louise Cornwell (grandmother), Adrian Bernard Klein (uncle) |
Website | |
www |
Patricia Robins[1] (1 February 1921 – 4 December 2016) was a British writer of short stories and more than 80 romance novels, also known as Claire Lorrimer, she had sold more than ten million copies. She also served as Women's Auxiliary Air Force officer during World War II tracking Nazi bombers.[2]
Robins came from an artistic family. Her maternal grandfather was Herman Klein, a musician and her maternal grandmother was the writer Kathleen Clarice Groom. Her mother was the popular romance writer Denise Robins, who was the first president of the Romantic Novelists' Association (1960–1966). Her maternal uncle was Adrian Cornwell-Clyne, who wrote books on photography and cinematography, another uncle was an artist, as is her daughter.[3]
Biography
Patricia Denise Robins was born on 1 February 1921 in Hove, Sussex, England, the second daughter of Arthur Robins, a corn broker on the Baltic Exchange and Denise Robins, an prolific author, who sold more than one hundred million copies, and the first president of the Romantic Novelists' Association (1960–1966). She had two sisters, Eve Louise and Anne Eleanor. She was educated at Parents' National Educational Union at Burgess Hill, Sussex[4], and also in Switzerland and Germany.
Her mother encouraged her to write, and at 12 she published her first children's novellas. She worked as junior editor in a a woman's magazine editorial.
Thanks to her knowledge of German, she served as Women's Auxiliary Air Force officer during World War II. She tracking Nazi bombers with the fledgling British radar system. Not until 2013 she received recognition, because of the confidential nature of her work.
During the war she also went on to write romance novels like her mother. In the 1967 she started to use the pseudonym Claire Lorrimer to write Gothic romances, and later family sagas.
In 1947, she married former RAF pilot Donald Clark, they had three children, Ian, Nicky and Graeme. Because her husband's job, the family lived in many countries, including Lybia. After their divorce, she startd a relation with Mel Hack and moved to 400-year-old former barn in rural Kent.
In her late years, she devoted more time to her eight grandchildren, Emily, Jemma, Polly, Charlotte, Thomas, Arthur, Max and Tilly, but she continued writing until her death.[3][5]
“ | Yes, after every book is finished I decide it is the last one, and then I get an idea in my head and it germinates and before I know it I've started typing and we are off again. | ” |
On March 2016, she was given the Outstanding Achievement Award at the Romantic Novelists' Association. She passed away on 4 December 2016 in Hove.
Bibliography
As Patricia Robins
Children's Books
- The Adventures of the Three Baby Bunnies (1934)
- Tree Fairies (1945)
- Sea Magic (1946)
- The Heart of a Rose (1947)
- The One Hundred Pound Reward (1966)
Romance Novels
- To the Stars (1944)
- See No Evil (1945)
- Three Loves (1949)
- Awake My Heart (1950)
- Beneath the Moon (1951)
- Leave My Heart Alone (1951)
- The Fair Deal (1952)
- So This Is Love (1953)
- Heart's Desire (1953)
- Heaven in Our Hearts (1954)
- One Who Cares (1954)
- Love Cannot Die (1955)
- The Foolish Heart (1956)
- Give All to Love (1956)
- Where Duty Lies (1957)
- He Is Mine (1957)
- Love Must Wait (1958)
- Lonely Quest (1959)
- Lady Chatterley's Daughter (1961)
- The Last Chance (1961)
- Seven Loves (1962)
- The Long Wait (1962)
- The Runaways (1962)
- With All My Love (1963)
- The Constant Heart (1964)
- Any Time At All (1964)
- The Night Is Thine (1964)
- Second Love (1964)
- No More Loving (1965)
- Topaz Island (1965)
- There Is But One (1965)
- The Uncertain Joy (1966)
- Love Me Tomorrow (1966)
- The Man Behind the Mask (1967)
- Sapphire in the sand (1967)
- Forbidden (1967)
- Return to Love (1968)
- No Stone Unturned (1969)
- Laugh on Friday (1969)
- Under the Sky (1970)
- Cinnabar House (1970)
- The Crimson Tapestry (1971) aka The Woven Thread
- Play Fair with Love (1972)
- None But He (1973)
- Forever (1991)
- Fulfilment (1993)
- Forsaken (1993)
- The Legend (1997)
As Claire Lorrimer
Women of Fire Saga
- Mavreen (1976) aka Scarlett
- Tamarisk (1978) aka Antoinette
- Chantal (1980)
Mavreen (Audio)
- The Full Moon (1995)
- Harvest Moon (1995)
- The New Moon (1995)
Tamarisk (Audio)
- The Fledgling (1996)
- The Skylark (1996)
Rochford Trilogy
- The Chatelaine (1978)
- The Wilderling (1982)
- Fool's Curtain (1994)
Ortolans
- Ortolans (1990)
- Eleanor (1994)
- Sophia (1994)
- Emma (1994)
Bainbury Saga
- The Reunion (1997)
- The Reckoning (1998)
Single novels
Gothic Romance
- A Voice in the Dark (1967)
- The Secret of Quarry House (1976)
- The Shadow Falls (1974)
- Relentless Storm (1979)
Historical Novels
- Last Year's Nightingale (1984)
- Frost in the Sun (1986)
- The Spinning Wheel (1991)
- The Silver Link (1993)
- Deception (2003)
- Truth to Tell (2007)
Light Romances
- Connie's Daughter (1995)
- Beneath the Sun (1996)
- The Woven Thread (1997)
- Second Chance (1998)
- An Open Door (1999)
- Never Say Goodbye (2000)
- The Search for Love (2000)
- For Always (2001)
- The Faithful Heart (2002)
- Troubled Waters (2004)
Murder Mysteries
- Over My Dead Body (2003)
- Dead Centre (2005)
- Infatuation (2007)
Novels
- The Garden (1980)
- The Constant Heart (1998)
- Dead Reckoning (2009)
Collections
- Variations: The Snake Belt / One in Three / The WhiteDoves / The Angel and the Witch or Miss Tansley's Easter Play / Trust Me / Once a Year / Goat's Loose / The Patient in Number Twenty-Two / Comfortand Joy / Two Sides to a Coin / Old Toys Wanted / A True Story / PoorLittle Rich Girl / Progress / The Garden (1991)
- Emotions (2008)
Non fiction
- House of Tomorrow (Biography) (1987)
- You Never Know (Autobiography) (2007)
References and sources
- 1 2 International Who's Who of Authors and Writers 2004
- ↑ Renowned author who tracked Nazi bombers in World War Two then entranced a generation of women with her romantic novels has died aged 95
- 1 2 Author's Website
- ↑ Twentieth-century romance and gothic writers
- ↑ "Award-winning romantic novelist Claire Lorrimer dies". thebookseller.com. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
- ↑ Patricia Robins at fantasticfiction.co.uk