Catherine Gavin
Scottish historian and novelist (1907–1999)
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Catherine Irvine Gavin (13 May 1907 – 27 December 1999) was a Scottish academic historian, war correspondent, and historical novelist.[1]
Catherine Gavin | |
|---|---|
Catherine Gavin, from a 1969 newspaper. | |
| Born | May 13, 1907 Aberdeen, Scotland |
| Died | 27 December 1999 (age 92) |
| Occupations | historian, academic, war correspondent, novelist |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | University of Aberdeen |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | University of Aberdeen University of Glasgow Kemsley Newspapers |
Early life
Gavin was born in Aberdeen in 1907,[2] and studied history and English at the University of Aberdeen, graduating with first-class honours.[1] She completed doctoral work in 1931, with a doctoral thesis on Louis Philippe of France; her thesis was published in 1933.[3]
Career
Gavin held positions as a history lecturer at Aberdeen and at the University of Glasgow.[1] She stood unsuccessfully as a Unionist candidate in two parliamentary elections in the 1930s.[1]
During World War II, she worked in France and the Netherlands for Kemsley Newspapers.[1] She also wrote a biography of Edward VII, published in 1941. She was a correspondent in the Middle East and Ethiopia after the war, for the Daily Express. After marriage, she worked a few years on the staff of Time magazine in New York.[2] She wrote about her wartime experiences in Liberated France (1955).[4]
Most of Gavin's literary output was in the genre of historical romance.[5] "Her characters are attractive flesh-and-blood people, her narrative adventurous and suspenseful, and her use of history skillful and unerring," reported one American reviewer in 1957.[6] The University of Aberdeen awarded her an honorary DLitt in 1986.[1] The Catherine Gavin Room there is named in her honour.[1] The university has a 1940 portrait of her, in oil, by Elizabeth Mary Watt.[7]
Gavin appeared as a castaway on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 24 June 1978.[8]
Selected works
Gavin's works of historical fiction include the following titles:
- Clyde Valley (1938)[9]
- The Hostile Shore (1940)
- The Black Milestone (1941)[10]
- The Mountain of Light (1944)
- Madeleine (1957)[11]
- The Cactus and the Crown (1962)[12][13]
- The Fortress (1964)
- The Moon Into Blood (1966)
- The Devil in Harbour (1968)[5]
- The House of War (1970)[14]
- Give Me the Daggers (1972)[15][16]
- The Snow Mountain (1973)[17]
- Traitors' Gate (1976)
- None Dare Call It Treason (1978)[18]
- How Sleep the Brave (1980)
- The Sunset Dream (1984)[19]
- A Light Woman (1986)
- A Dawn of Splendour (1989)[20]
- The French Fortune (1991)[21]
- One Candle Burning (1996)[22]