M. R. D. Meek (born Margaret Reid Duncan Gilloran; March 19, 1918 – November 27, 2009) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

author of mysteries. Some of her novels were written under the pseudonym Alison Cairns.

Biography

Early life and education

Margaret Reid Duncan Gilloran was born March 19, 1918, in

Greenock, Renfrewshire Greenock (; sco, Greenock; gd, Grianaig, ) is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council area in Scotland, United Kingdom and a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, located in the west central Lowlands of ...

, Scotland. She attended

Skerry's College Skerry's College was a series of colleges which primarily prepared candidates for Civil Service examinations. History 1878-1885 Skerry’s College was inaugurated as a small training centre in Edinburgh in 1878 by George Skerry,Skerry's Colle ...

from 1937 to 1938; College of Law, Lancaster Gate from 1962 to 1967; and

London University The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degr ...

, receiving an

LL.B. Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

(with honors) in 1968.

Career

She worked as a shorthand typist and as a clerical assistant before she became a solicitor. Meek's career as an attorney began following the death of her first husband. She began her writing career following her retirement from the law in 1978. She was perhaps best known for her 15-book Lennox Kemp series. The first, ''With Flowers That Fell'', was published in 1982. The final book, ''Kemp's Last Case'', was published in 2005.

Personal life

Meek was a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their na ...

and was politically liberal. She was the chair of a local branch of a cancer research group and she volunteered with

Meals on Wheels Meals on Wheels is a programme that delivers meals to individuals at home who are unable to purchase or prepare their own meals. The name is often used generically to refer to home-delivered meals programmes, not all of which are actually named ...

. Her first marriage was to Donald Gregory, a doctor, on July 11, 1942. They had two children: Christopher and Cressida. Donald Gregory died in 1959. She then married Colin Alfred Meek, a government scientist, on April 21, 1978. Colin Meek died in 1993. M. R. D. Meek died on November 27, 2009.

Selected works

Lennox Kemp series; under the name M. R. D. Meek

# ''With Flowers That Fell,'' R. Hale (London, England), 1982. # ''The Sitting Ducks,'' Collins (London, England), 1983. # ''Hang the Consequences,'' Collins (London, England), 1984, Scribner (New York, NY), 1985. # ''The Split Second,'' Collins (London, England), 1985, Scribner (New York, NY), 1987. # ''In Remembrance of Rose,'' Collins (London, England), 1986, Scribner (New York, NY), 1988. # ''A Worm of Doubt,'' Collins (London, England), 1987, Scribner (New York, NY), 1988. # ''A Mouthful of Sand,'' Collins (London, England), 1988, Scribner (New York, NY), 1989. # ''The Loose Connection,'' Scribner (New York, NY), 1989. # ''This Blessed Plot,'' Scribner (New York, NY), 1990. # ''Touch and Go,'' Scribner (New York, NY), 1992. # ''Postscript to Murder,'' Collins (London, England), 1996. # ''A House to Die For,'' Severn House (Sutton, Surrey, England), 2000. # ''If You Go Down to the Woods,'' Severn House (Sutton, Surrey, England), 2001. # ''The Vanishing Point,'' Severn House (Sutton, Surrey, England), 2003. # ''Kemp's Last Case,'' Severn House (Sutton, Surrey, England), 2005.

Under the pseudonym Alison Cairns

* ''Strained Relations''. St. Martin's, 1983. * ''New Year Resolution''. St. Martins, 1985.

References

External links

M.R.D. Meek
on

Goodreads Goodreads is an American social cataloging website and a subsidiary of Amazon that allows individuals to search its database of books, annotations, quotes, and reviews. Users can sign up and register books to generate library catalogs and readi ...

Alison Cairns
on Goodreads
Reviews
at '' Kirkus Reviews''
Reviews
at ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' {{Authority control Scottish mystery writers Scottish women writers Scottish novelists Scottish women novelists 1918 births 2009 deaths Scottish Presbyterians Writers from Greenock