Dorothy Dunnett

The Lymond Chronicles is a series of six novels, set in mid-sixteenth-century Europe and the Mediterranean, which follows the life and career of a Scottish nobleman, Francis Crawford of Lymond, from 1547 through 1558.

Meticulously researched, the series takes place in a wide variety of locations, including France, the Ottoman Empire, Malta, England, Scotland and Russia.

In addition to a compelling cast of original characters, the novels feature many historical figures, often in important roles.

The House of Niccolò is a series of eight historical novels set in the late-fifteenth-century European Renaissance.

Dorothy, Lady Dunnett (née Halliday, 25 August 1923 – 9 November 2001) was a Scottish novelist best known for her historical fiction.

Dorothy Dunnett was married in 1946 to Sir Alastair Dunnett, editor of The Scotsman newspaper, and appears in his autobiography, Among Friends, 1984.

The manuscript for the first book in the Lymond Chronicles, The Game of Kings, was rejected by five British publishers before being published by U.S. publisher 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.

A contemporary short story, "The Proving Climb", set on the Scottish Isle of St. Kilda, was published in the 1973 anthology Scottish Short Stories (Scottish Arts Council, published by Collins, ISBN 0-00-221851-8).

Her other works include a novel concerning the historical Macbeth called King Hereafter (1982), and a series of mystery novels centered upon Johnson Johnson, a portrait painter and spy.

Dunnett 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.

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 National War Memorial, and a non-executive director of Scottish Television.

King Hereafter (1982), her long novel set in Orkney and Scotland in the years just before the invasion of England by William the Conqueror, was in Dorothy Dunnett's eyes her masterpiece.

It is about an Earl of Orkney uniting the people of Alba (Scotland) and becoming its king, and is based on the author's premise that the central character Thorfinn, Earl of Orkney and the historical Macbeth, Scottish King, were one and the same person (Thorfinn is his birth name and Macbeth his baptismal name).

Niccolo Rising, the first book of the series, was published in 1986, and the last, Gemini in 2000.

The protagonist of the series is Nicholas de Fleury (Niccolò, Nicholas van der Poele, or Claes), a talented boy of uncertain birth who rises to the heights of European merchant banking and international political intrigue.

The series shares most of the locations in Dunnett's earlier series, the Lymond Chronicles, but it extends much further geographically to take in the important urban centres of Bruges, Venice, Florence, Geneva, and the Hanseatic League; Burgundy, Flanders, and Poland; Iceland; the Iberian Peninsula and Madeira; the Black Sea cities of Trebizond and Caffa; Persia; the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus and Rhodes; Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula; and West Africa and the city of Timbuktu.

Nicholas's progress is intertwined with such historical characters as Anselm Adornes, James III of Scotland and James II of Cyprus.

As with the Lymond Chronicles, the series features a number of historical persons, many as important characters.

Both the historical and fictional characters are, however, taken from a wider variety of occupations and social classes than in the Lymond Chronicles.

There are significant differences in narrative approach and writing style between the series, reflecting in part the very different personal journey taken by the central character in each.

In 1992 she was awarded an OBE for her services to literature.

Dunnett assisted in the compilation of The Dorothy Dunnett Companion (1994) and The Dorothy Dunnett Companion II (2002), which were written by Elspeth Morrison.

These books provide background information to historical characters and events featured in the Lymond Chronicles and The House of Niccolò, as well as explanations of classical allusions and literary and other quotations used in the two series, notes to sources of these citations, and many maps.

The second volume, which was written after the Niccolò series was completed,contains a bibliography of many of the hundreds of primary and secondary sources Dunnett used in her historical research.

Dunnett contributed more to the second volume than the first and wrote many of the entries.

This series of mystery thrillers was written over a long period, starting when she was writing the Lymond Chronicles.

The final entry was published prior to the first House of Niccolò book.

By virtue of his knighthood in 1995, she became Lady Dunnett.

She died in Edinburgh, and was survived by her sons Ninian and Mungo Dunnett.

Writing in The Times Literary Supplement, Alexander Fiske-Harrison reviewed her final novel in 2000, Gemini, and through that her entire oeuvre of historical fiction: "Although Dunnett’s writing style is not the neutral prose of genre fiction and it can be opaque and hard to read, especially in the early works, at times, this works with the almost melodramatic content to produce a powerful, operatic mixture... It is neither as a literary novelist nor as a historian, but as a writer of historical fiction that Dorothy Dunnett deserves recognition... The publication of Gemini completes an ambitious literary circle."

In 2001 she founded the Dorothy Dunnett Society to promote interest in the historical periods about which she wrote and communication among her readers.

Dunnett's archive was left to the National Library of Scotland and articles from it appear in Whispering Gallery, the magazine of the Dorothy Dunnett Society.

It was republished by the Dorothy Dunnett Society and distributed to its members in 2008 with issue 100 of Whispering Gallery.

The Lymond Poetry contains her versions and translations of some of the poems that appeared in The Lymond Chronicles.

Dunnett is most famous for her six novel series set during the 16th century, which concern the fictitious adventurer Francis Crawford of Lymond.

This was followed by the eight novel prequel series The House of Niccolò.