Charlotte Lamb

Sheila Holland, née Sheila Ann Mary Coates (December 22, 1937 in Dagenham, Essex, England – October 8, 2000 in Isle of Man) was best known under the pseudonym Charlotte Lamb as a prolific romantic novelist.

She signed her novels with her married or maiden names – Sheila Holland, Sheila Coates – and under the pseudonyms Sheila Lancaster, Victoria Wolf and Laura Hardy.

She was married to Richard Holland.

They had five children, including a set of twins: – Michael Holland, Sarah Holland, Jane Holland, Charlotte Holland and David Holland.

Born Sheila Ann Mary Coates on 22 December 1937 at Dagenham, Essex, England.

As a child, she was moved from relative to relative to escape the bombings of World War II.

She attended the Ursuline Convent for Girls in Ilford, Essex.

She worked as a typist-secretary at the Bank of England in London, from 1954 to 1956, and then as a junior researcher for the BBC at Broadcasting House from the 1956 to 1958.

In 1959, she married Richard Holland, then a Fleet Street journalist, later a sub-editor of The Times and a classical biographer.

They had five children, including a set of twins: – Michael Holland, Sarah Holland, Jane Holland, Charlotte Holland and David Holland.

Her husband prompted her to begin writing in the early 1970s.

By the late 1970s, she was an established and successful author, publishing as many as twelve novels a year with Mills and Boon.

One of the first writers to explore the boundaries of sexual desire, her novels often reflected the forefront of the "sexual revolution" of the 1970s.

Her books touched on then-taboo subjects such as child abuse and rape, and she created sexually confident -even dominant- heroines.

She was also one of the first to create a modern romantic heroine: independent, imperfect, and perfectly capable of initiating a sexual or romantic relationship.

Her last novel, a romantic thriller published posthumously with Hodder & Stoughton, was entitled The Angel of Death.

(Same titles as Sheila Holland)

In 1973 she signed Follow a Stranger as her most famous pseudonym: Charlotte Lamb, but later she used several other pseudonyms, among them Sheila Lancaster, Victoria Woolf and Laura Hardy.

Her first historical and romantic novels were published by Robert Hale and serialised in Woman's Weekly Digest.

She had been living on the island since 1977 with her husband and four of her five children.

A voracious reader, she wrote her first book in three days with three children underfoot.

In between raising her five children, she wrote many more novels.

She began her writing career as her married name Sheila Holland and as her maiden name Sheila Coates.

That annual number rose over the next few years; by the late 1990s, she had published over 160 novels, most of them romances, others historical novels and romantic thrillers, achieving over 200 million sales worldwide.

During the course of her career, she wrote for a variety of different international publishers including: Penguin, Collins, Fontana, Hodder & Stoughton, Hodder Headline and Simon & Schuster.

Known for her swiftness, literary style and versatility, Sheila Holland was able to write in several different genres – hence her plethora of pseudonyms as well as publishers.

She typically wrote a minimum of two thousand words per day, working from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. While she once finished a full-length novel in four days, she herself pegged her average speed at two weeks to complete a full novel.

She was a true revolutionary in the field of romance writing.

She died suddenly on October 8, 2000 in her baronial-style home 'Crogga' on the Isle of Man.