Dorothy Emily Stevenson (18 November 1892 – 30 December 1973) was a best-selling Scottish writer. She published more than 40 "light romantic novels" over a span of more than 40 years.

Life

Stevenson was born in Melville Street,

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, on 18 November 1892. Her father was

David Alan Stevenson David Alan Stevenson (21 July 1854 in Edinburgh – 11 April 1938) was a lighthouse engineer who built 26 lighthouses in and around Scotland. Life He was born on 21 July 1854 the son of David Stevenson and his wife, Elizabeth Mackay. His e ...

, a lighthouse engineer and first cousin to author

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...

and her mother was Annie Roberts. A commemorative plaque marking the house where she spent her childhood was mounted at 14 Eglinton Crescent, Edinburgh in 2016. She began writing at a young age but hid her efforts because her parents and governesses disapproved. Her father refused to send her to university, lest she become a

bluestocking ''Bluestocking'' (also spaced blue-stocking or blue stockings) is a Pejorative, derogatory term for an educated, intellectual woman, originally a member of the 18th-century Blue Stockings Society from England led by the hostess and critic El ...

. She lived at a house named "North Park" in Moffat from 1940 to her death In 1916, Stevenson married James Reid Peploe, a captain in the 6th Gurkha Rifles. The Peploes had four children. Her 1932 novel ''Mrs. Tim of the Regiment'', which describes her life as a

British army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

wife, was based on her personal diary. She wrote most of her books while living in the town of

Moffat Moffat is a burgh and parish in Dumfriesshire. Part of the Dumfries and Galloway local authority area in Scotland, it lies on the River Annan, with a population of around 2,500. It was a centre of the wool trade and a spa town. Moffat is arou ...

Dumfries and Galloway Dumfries and Galloway (; ) is one of the 32 unitary council areas of Scotland, located in the western part of the Southern Uplands. It is bordered by East Ayrshire, South Ayrshire, and South Lanarkshire to the north; Scottish Borders to the no ...

. Her novels were best-sellers, with more than seven million copies printed and translations in multiple languages. Her last book was published in 1969. Stevenson died in Edinburgh in 1973. She is buried with her husband in Moffat New Cemetery.

Legacy

In 2017,

Historic Environment Scotland Historic Environment Scotland (HES) () is an executive non-departmental public body responsible for investigating, caring for and promoting Scotland's historic environment. HES was formed in 2015 from the merger of government agency Historic Sc ...

awarded a plaque to commemorate Stevenson, at 14 Eglinton Crescent, Edinburgh.

Bibliography

Stevenson published under the name "DE Stevenson" or "D.E. Stevenson."

Poetry

Stevenson published three volumes of poetry, two of them before her novels. * ''Meadow-flowers'', 1915 * ''The Starry Mantle'', 1926 * ''Alister and Co.'', 1940, 1943 (alternate title: ''It's Nice to Be Me'')

Novels

Stand-alone novels

* ''Peter West'', 1923 (first published in serial format in ''

Chambers's Edinburgh Journal ''Chambers's Edinburgh Journal'' was a weekly 16-page magazine started by William Chambers in 1832. The first edition was dated 4 February 1832, and priced at one penny. Topics included history, religion, language, and science. William was so ...

'') * ''Divorced From Reality, '' 1935 (alternate title: ''Miss Dean's Dilemma''; republished in 1966 as ''The Young Clementina'') * ''Smouldering Fire'', 1935 * ''The Empty World: A Romance of the Future'', 1936 (alternate title: ''A World in Spell'') * ''The Story of Rosabelle Shaw'', 1937 (alternate title: ''Rosabelle Shaw'') * ''Miss Bun the Baker's Daughter'', 1938 (alternate title: ''The Baker's Daughter'') * ''Green Money'', 1939 * ''Rochester's Wife'', 1940 * ''The English Air'', 1940 * ''Spring Magic'', 1942 * ''Crooked Adam'', 1942 in US, 1969 in UK * ''Celia's House'', 1943 * ''Listening Valley'', 1944 * ''Kate Hardy'', 1947 * ''Young Mrs. Savage'', 1948 * ''Five Windows'', 1953 * ''Charlotte Fairlie'', 1954 (alternate titles: ''Blow the Wind Southerly'', ''The Enchanted Isle'') * ''The Tall Stranger'', 1957 * ''Anna and her Daughters'', 1958 * ''Still Glides the Stream'', 1959 * ''The Musgraves'', 1960 * ''The Blue Sapphire'', 1963 * ''The House on the Cliff'', 1966

Mrs. Tim Christie

* ''Mrs Tim of the Regiment'', 1932 (alternate title: ''Mrs. Tim of the Regiment, or, Leaves from the Diary of an Officer's Wife'') * ''Golden Days'', 1934 (alternate title: ''Golden Days: Further Leaves from Mrs. Tim's Journal'') * ''Mrs Tim Carries On'', 1941 * ''Mrs. Tim Gets a Job'', 1947 * ''Mrs. Tim Flies Home'', 1952 Note that ''Mrs Tim of the Regiment'' and ''Golden Days'' were originally published separately, but all subsequent reprints combined the two halves into a single volume titled ''Mrs. Tim Christie''.

Miss Buncle

* ''Miss Buncle's Book'', 1934 (republished in 2008 by

Persephone Books ''Persephone Books'' is an independent publisher based in Bath, England. Founded in 1999 by Nicola Beauman, Persephone Books reprints works largely by women writers of the late 19th and 20th century, though a few books by men are included. Th ...

) * ''Miss Buncle Married'', 1936 (republished in 2011 by

) * ''The Two Mrs. Abbotts'', 1943 (republished in 2013 by

) * ''The Four Graces'', 1946

Vittoria Cottage trilogy

* ''Vittoria Cottage'', 1949 * ''Music in The Hills'', 1950 * ''Winter and Rough Weather'', 1951 (alternate title: ''Shoulder the Sky'')

Other series

Amberwell * ''Amberwell'', 1955 * ''Summerhills'', 1956 Bel Lamington * ''Bel Lamington'', 1961 * ''Fletcher's End'', 1962 Katherine Wentworth * ''Katherine Wentworth'', 1964 * ''Katherine's Marriage'', 1965 (alternate title: ''The Marriage of Katherine'') Sarah Morris Remembers * ''Sarah Morris Remembers'', 1967 * ''Sarah's Cottage'', 1968 Gerald and Elizabeth * ''Gerald and Elizabeth'', 1969 * ''House of the Deer'', 1970

Posthumously published works

Five additional works were published by Greyladies after being discovered in a box in the Stevenson family attic. * ''Jean Erskine's Secret'', written 1913-1917, published 2013 * ''Emily Dennistoun'', written 1920s, published 2011 * ''Portrait of Saskia'', written 1920s, published 2011 * ''The Fair Miss Fortune'', written 1930s, published 2011 * ''Found in the Attic'', collection of papers, published 2013

Inter-book links

Some of Stevenson's characters appear as

supporting character A supporting character is a character in a narrative that is not the focus of the primary storyline, but is important to the plot/protagonist, and appears or is mentioned in the story enough to be more than just a minor character or a cameo a ...

s or make

cameo appearances A cameo appearance, also called a cameo role and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief guest appearance of a well-known person or character in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking one ...

in her other novels. She also sometimes reused settings. 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. Readers 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 readers more about MacAslan who is first introduced 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. Her books in are mentioned in ''Mrs. Tim Carries On'' and ''Spring Magic''. She appears in person in ''The Two Mrs. Abbotts'' and ''The Four Graces''. Dr. (Monkey) Wrench appears briefly in ''Vittoria Cottage'' to deliver the Widgeons' baby. He was introduced as Arthur's close friend and war buddy in ''Miss Buncle Married''. He continued to appear in ''The Two Mrs. Abbotts'' where he had the added and interesting role of the bonfire builder.

Republication

Some of Stevenson's most popular books are being reissued.

reprinted ''Miss Buncle's Book'' in 2008 and ''Miss Buncle Married'' in 2011. ''Mrs. Tim of the Regiment'' was reprinted by Bloomsbury in 2010. Sourcebooks Landmark released the latter two Miss Buncle books in the U.S. in 2012, followed in 2013 by ''The Young Clementina'' and ''The Two Mrs. Abbotts''.

Endeavour Media Lume Books is an independent publishing company based in London. Founded in 2018 by Matthew Lynn, Lume has published many award-winning authors including Marjorie Bowen, A. J. P. Taylor, Paula DiPerna, Nick Thorpe, Wendy Perriam, Ramsey Campbell, ...

has republished many of D.E Stevenson's titles in eBook format.

References

External links

DEStevenson.orgThe Original SiteAuthor Profile at Persephone Books

''at Persephone Books
D.E Stevenson's books
at Endeavour Media {{DEFAULTSORT:Stevenson, D. E. 1892 births 1973 deaths Scottish women novelists 20th-century Scottish women writers Writers from Edinburgh 20th-century Scottish novelists 20th-century Scottish women