D. E. Stevenson
Dorothy Emily Stevenson (1892–1973) was a Scottish author of more than 40 light romantic novels. Her father was the lighthouse engineer David Alan Stevenson, first cousin to the author Robert Louis Stevenson.
2009 saw a renewed interest in Stevenson's books with the reissue of two of her most popular novels, Mrs. Tim of the Regiment (from Bloomsbury) and Miss Buncle's Book (from Persephone Books). The sequel, Miss Buncle Married, was reissued by Persephone in 2011.
Early life
Dorothy Stevenson was born in Edinburgh in 1892, and was educated at home by governesses. She started to write at eight, but because her parents and governesses disapproved she had to do this in secret. She later wanted to go to university but her father refused, concerned about having an educated woman in the family. Stevenson was married in 1916 to a captain in the 6th Ghurkha Rifles.[1]
Books
- Peter West 1923
- Mrs Tim of the Regiment 1932 (Mrs. Tim; Mrs. Tim Christie; Mrs. Tim: leaves from the diary of an officer's wife)
- Golden Days 1934
- Miss Buncle's Book 1934 (Republished in 2008 by Persephone Books)
- Divorced From Reality 1935 (Miss Dean's Dilemma; republished in 1966 as The Young Clementina)
- Smouldering Fire 1935
- Miss Buncle Married 1936 (Republished in 2011 by Persephone Books)
- The Empty World: A Romance of the Future 1936 (A World in Spell) [Utopia]
- The Story of Rosabelle Shaw 1937
- Miss Bun the Bakers Daughter 1938 (The Baker's Daughter)
- Green Money 1939
- Rochester's Wife 1940
- The English Air 1940
- Mrs Tim Carries On 1941
- Spring Magic 1942
- Crooked Adam 1942 (in US; 1969 in UK)
- Celia's House 1943
- The Two Mrs. Abbotts 1943 (Republished in 2013 by Persephone Books)
- Listening Valley 1944
- The Four Graces 1946
- Mrs. Tim Gets a Job 1947
- Kate Hardy 1947
- Young Mrs. Savage 1948
- Vittoria Cottage 1949
- Music in The Hills 1950
- Winter and Rough Weather 1951 (Shoulder the Sky)
- Mrs. Tim Flies Home 1952
- Five Windows 1953
- Charlotte Fairlie 1954 (Blow the Wind Southerly; The Enchanted Isle)
- Amberwell 1955
- Summerhills 1956
- The Tall Stranger 1957
- Anna and her Daughters 1958
- Still Glides the Stream 1959
- The Musgraves 1960
- Bel Lamington 1961
- Fletcher's End 1962
- The Blue Sapphire 1963
- Katherine Wentworth 1964
- Katherine's Marriage 1965 (The Marriage of Katherine)
- The House on the Cliff 1966
- Sarah Morris Remembers 1967
- Sarah's Cottage 1968
- Gerald and Elizabeth 1969
- House of the Deer 1970
Inter-book links
Miss Buncle spills into The Four Graces as well as Spring Magic, and her book is described in Anna and her Daughters. Celia's House inspired Listening Valley, where Celia makes a re-appearance. We hear of her again during Anna and Her Daughters. Anna pops up briefly in the Katherine books which link with Charlotte Fairlie (Mr. Heath the vicar makes a re-appearance this time). Later Sarah Morris ends up in Ryddelton in Sarah's Cottage to be befriended by Debbie (who made her debut in Celia's House) and to hear about Tonia (Listening Valley) and Charlotte Fairlie.
More links exist from the Katherine books, via Mr Sandford the lawyer, to House on the Cliff which links via Miss Martineau the landlady to The Blue Sapphire. The Katherine books also tell us more about MacAslan who we first meet in Smouldering Fire. Stevenson's last book, The House of the Deer (a reworking of a serial published in The Glasgow Bulletin in 1936) revisits the MacAslan family in the second generation, and is a sequel to Gerald and Elizabeth.
Gerald and Elizabeth enter into the saga around Drumburly and re-introduce Freda from Five Windows. Jock from the Music in the Hills trilogy also knows of Freda. Bel Lamington links into these books. Bel's friend Margaret was a Musgrave, and there are links from The Musgraves to The Tall Stranger, which was a sequel (of sorts) to Five Windows (though Stevenson, uncharacteristically, makes an error between the two books - in Five Windows the main character is David Kirke while in The Tall Stranger his name is spelled Kirk). The Musgraves give a tenuous link back to Ryddelton via "The Mulberry Coach", a story written by one of Anna's daughters and nearly performed by Delia Musgrave.
The Amberwell books link closely to Still Glides the Stream which in turn ties in with the Sarah books, in that Will and Sarah both visit Nivennes and meet with the Delormes family, although their visits are many years apart.
Another recurring character is the author Janetta Walters, whose light romantic novels are either loved or loathed by Stevenson characters. We first hear of her books in Mrs. Tim Carries On and Spring Magic. She appears in person in The Two Mrs. Abbotts and The Four Graces.
Republication
Persephone Books reprinted Miss Buncle's Book in 2008 and Miss Buncle Married in 2011. Sourcebooks Landmark released them in the U.S. in 2012, followed in 2013 by The Young Clementina and The Two Mrs. Abbotts.
External links
- DEStevenson.org
- The Original Site
- Author Profile at Persephone Books
- Miss Buncle's Book at Persephone Books
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