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Ada F. Kay, also known as A.J. Stewart, (born 1929) is a
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
writer
A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...
with a particularly complex personal history. She grew up in
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...
but lived much of her adult life in
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
.
Work
In her earlier life, Kay had a successful career working as a
dramatist
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays.
Etymology
The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...
in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
for
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, appearing in
television mini-series
A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...
throughout the 1950s. She wrote a number of
play
Play most commonly refers to:
* Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment
* Play (theatre), a work of drama
Play may refer also to:
Computers and technology
* Google Play, a digital content service
* Play Framework, a Java framework
* P ...
s during this time. One of them, ''The Man From Thermopylae'' (1959), received some critical acclaim. (It was set in ancient Greece and the title refers to the sole survivor of the
famous battle). She also went through a failed marriage.
In the 1960s, she was planning to write a play about the life of King
James IV of Scotland. In the course of her research, she planned to visit the site of the
Battle of Flodden
The Battle of Flodden, Flodden Field, or occasionally Branxton, (Brainston Moor) was a battle fought on 9 September 1513 during the War of the League of Cambrai between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland, resulting in an English ...
where the king was killed in 1513. The night before her visit, she experienced what she believed to be a traumatic flashback of being hacked to death by English spears during the battle, which led her to believe that she was a
reincarnation
Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the philosophical or religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new life in a different physical form or body after biological death. Resurrection is ...
of the king. Purportedly, she had experienced flashbacks of being killed on a
battlefield
A battlefield, battleground, or field of battle is the location of a present or historic battle involving ground warfare. It is commonly understood to be limited to the point of contact between opposing forces, though battles may involve troops ...
by blades and staves since her early childhood -- the visions she experienced the night before and during her visit of the battlefield, according to her, were continuations of
dream
A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around 5 to 20 minutes, althou ...
s she had always experienced and
intuition
Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without recourse to conscious reasoning. Different fields use the word "intuition" in very different ways, including but not limited to: direct access to unconscious knowledge; unconscious cognition; ...
she had always felt, e.g. she claims she always felt averted to
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
.
Around 1972 she published ''Falcon'', an "autobiography" of the king under the name of "A.J. Stewart" (a combination of her married name and the king's). Although much of it reflected known historical facts about James IV, it also included some surprising new revelations about the events of the time, e.g. that
James III of Scotland
James III (10 July 1451/May 1452 – 11 June 1488) was King of Scots from 1460 until his death at the Battle of Sauchieburn in 1488. He inherited the throne as a child following the death of his father, King James II, at the siege of Roxburgh ...
was a homosexual, and that James IV had built his warship the ''
Great Michael
''Michael'', popularly known as ''Great Michael'', was a carrack or great ship of the Royal Scottish Navy. She was the largest ship built by King James IV of Scotland
James IV (17 March 1473 – 9 September 1513) was King of Scotland fr ...
'' to sail it up the
River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
and bombard the royal palaces in London.
[ Ian Wilson ''Mind out of time?: Reincarnation claims investigated'']
This account received some attention in Scotland when it was published. Ada Kay appeared on BBC Scotland to discuss her claims: one historian who the BBC asked for his opinion said that the book repeated some popular misconceptions about the reign of James IV. Another historian has commented that "her 'autobiography' of the king is most safely read as a highly colourful and entertaining historical novel".
Norman Macdougall
Norman Macdougall is a Scottish historian who is known for writing about Scottish crown politics. He was a senior lecturer in Scottish history at the University of St Andrews.
Macdougall has written biographies of the kings James III of Scotland ...
''James IV'' Introduction ''
The Scotsman
''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its pare ...
s reviewer concluded that, if it had not been for the bizarre circumstances in which it was written, then it might have gained recognition as a minor addition to the genre pioneered by
Robert Graves of works supposedly penned as a first-person account by an actual historical figure, but added that it was at its best where a woman's touch might be strongest. It has also been suggested that it may have been influenced by previously published accounts of the king's life, including ''Gentle Eagle'' by Christine Orr, R. L. Mackie's biography and Walter Scott's ''
Marmion''.
[
She later wrote an autobiography of her own 20th-century life, ''King's Memory'' (originally published as ''Died 1513 - Born 1929''). It did not receive much attention, and ''The Scotsmans reviewer concluded that unlike ''Falcon'', there was little there to interest the general reader.
]
Scottish Society of Playwrights
Ada Kay was one of the founder members of the Scottish Society of Playwrights, after a meeting called by Hector MacMillan, Ena Lamont Stewart
Ena Lamont Stewart (10 February 1912, Glasgow – 9 February 2006, Dalmellington) was a Scottish playwright.
Life and career
Stewart was the daughter of a Church of Scotland minister whose family was originally from Canada and had settled in Gl ...
and John Hall in September 1973. She worked with Ian Brown and Hector MacMillan to draft its constitution which was adopted in November 1973.
References
Sources
British Film Institute: Spindrift (1959), an adaptation by Ada F. Kay of the original version by Naomi Mitchison, produced by BBC Scotland
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20090817230130/http://www.stuarttitles.co.uk/stuart4.html guide to her books as "A.J. Stewart"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kay, Ada F
1929 births
Possibly living people
Writers from Lancashire
Reincarnation
Scottish dramatists and playwrights
Scottish women dramatists and playwrights
Women autobiographers
British autobiographers
James IV of Scotland
People from Bury, Greater Manchester