Author
Rebecca West
Cecily Fairfield was the daughter of Isabella Campbell Mackenzie and Charles Fairfield. She was born in London. When her father deserted the family in 1901, her mother returned to her native Edinburgh.
She trained as an actress in London, taking the name "Rebecca West" from the rebellious young heroine in Rosmersholm by Henrik Ibsen. Her acting career was short lived as she turned to journalism. She had a son, Anthony, by H.G. Wells in 1914.
Margaret Sackville
Margaret Sackville was born in Mayfair, London, the youngest child of Reginald and Constance Sackville, 7th Earl and Countess De La Warr.
At the outbreak of World War I, she joined the anti-war Union of Democratic Control. In 1916 She published a collection of poems "The Pageant of War" in 1916. It included "Nostra Culpa", which denounced women who betrayed their sons by not speaking out against the war.
She was the first president of Scottish PEN and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
She died in Cheltenham in 1963.
Irene Jessie Young
Irene Young was born in Edinburgh, the daughter of Samuel Young, bank clerk and Emily M. Gordon.
She graduated from Edinburgh University in 1942, and was recruited to work at Bletchley Park.
She was widowed after only six months of marriage when her first husband was killed whilst on a secret mission behind enemy lines in France in 1944.
After the war she moved to South Africa, where she married her second husband. The couple returned to Scotland, where Irene worked in a University of Edinburgh library.
Rosamunde Pilcher
Rosamunde Scott was born in Cornwall. She moved to Dundee following her marriage to Graham Hope Pilcher in 1946. Her first novel was published in 1949, under the pen name Jane Fraser. She began writing under her own name in 1955. Her breakthrough novel, The Shellseekers, was published in 1987. It was translated into 40 languages.
She published ten novels as Jane Fraser and seventeen as Rosamunde Pilcher, plus short stories.
She was awarded the OBE in 2002.
Marie Stopes
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Iris Murdoch
Janet Hamilton
Janet Hamilton was a poet and author who lived in what is now Coatbridge in the 19th century.
She was born Janet Thomson in Shotts in October 1795, in a house that was a remnant of an old farm steading, named Carshill.
Her father, James Thomson was a shoemaker and was a well read man with a keen interest in politics. Her mother’s name was Mary Brownlee.
Janet was fifth in descent from John Whitelaw, who was executed at the Old Tolbooth in Edinburgh, four years after the battle of Bothwell Bridge, in which he had taken an active role as a supporter of the Covenanting principles.
J K Rowling
Born Yate, near Bristol, England, her parents were Peter James Rowling and Anne Volant She graduated from Exeter University and taught English in Portugal. She married Jorge Arantes, a journalist, and they had a daughter Jessica Isabel Rowling who was born in 1993. Jo began writing books after coming to Edinburgh, Scotland, to be near her sister Dianne when she divorced in 1995.
She selected the pseudonym J K Rowling, using initials to attract male readers and adding a K for Kathleen after her grandmother. Her books have been made into films.
Rachel Annand Taylor
Rachel Annand was born in Aberdeen. Her father was a stone mason and an active trade unionist. She was one of the first women to study at Aberdeen University. Despite excelling academically, she did not complete her degree. She taught at the High School for Girls, in the building now occupied by Harlaw Academy. She married Alexander Cameron Taylor in 1901, but the marriage was not a happy one. She published four volumes of poetry between 1904 and 1923. She also published books on the Italian Renaissance and the poet Dunbar. She died in London in 1960.
Dorothy Dunnett
Dorothy Halliday was the daughter of Evelyn Millard, and Alick Halliday, a mining engineer. She was educated at James Gillespie’s High School, Edinburgh, Edinburgh College of Art and Glasgow School of Art. From 1940 to 1946 she was assistant press officer for Scottish Government Departments and worked for the Board of Trade in Glasgow. In 1946 she married Alistair Dunnett (1908–98), author, playwright and editor of The Scotsman from 1956. They had two children. From 1950 she was a professional portrait painter.