Lucilla Matthew Andrews Crichton (born 20 November 1919 in

Suez Suez (, , , ) is a Port#Seaport, seaport city with a population of about 800,000 in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez on the Red Sea, near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal. It is the capital and largest c ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

– d. 3 October 2006 in

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) was a British

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles, genres and techniques to communicate ideas, to inspire feelings and emotions, or to entertain. Writers may develop different forms of writing such as novels, short sto ...

of 33

romance novel A romance or romantic novel is a genre fiction novel that primarily focuses on the relationship and Romance (love), romantic love between two people, typically with an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending. Authors who have contributed ...

s from 1954 to 1996. As Lucilla Andrews she specialised in hospital romances, and under the pen names Diana Gordon and Joanna Marcus wrote mystery romances. She was a founding member of the

Romantic Novelists' Association The Romantic Novelists' Association (RNA) is the professional body representing authors of romantic fiction in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1960 by Denise Robins (first president), Barbara Cartland (first vice-president), Vivian Stua ...

, which honoured her shortly before her death with a lifetime achievement award.

Biography

Born Lucilla Matthew Andrews on 20 November 1919 in

, the third of four children of William Henry Andrews and Lucilla Quero-Bejar. They met in

Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...

, and married in 1913. Her mother was daughter of a Spanish doctor and descended from the Spanish nobility. Her British father worked for the Eastern Telegraph Company (later Cable and Wireless) on African and Mediterranean stations until 1932. At the age of three, she was sent to join her older sister at boarding school in

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

. She joined the British

Red Cross The organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 16million volunteering, volunteers, members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ...

in 1940 as a VAD before training as a nurse at

St Thomas' Hospital St Thomas' Hospital is a large NHS teaching hospital in Central London, England. Administratively part of the Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, together with Guy's Hospital, Evelina London Children's Hospital, Royal Brompton Hospita ...

, London, 1941-1944, becoming a registered nurse in December 1944 - all during World War II. In 1947, she retired and married Dr James Crichton, but discovered that he was addicted to drugs. In 1949, soon after their daughter Veronica was born, he was committed to hospital and she returned to full-time nursing by night, while writing by day. In 1952, she sold her first romance novel, published in 1954, the same year that her husband died. She specialised in doctor-nurse and hospital romances, using her personal experience as inspiration. In 1969, she decided to move to

. Her daughter read History at Newnham College,

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, and became a journalist and Labour Party communications adviser, before her death from cancer in 2002. She was a founder member of the Romantic Novelists' Association in 1960 and an inaugural recipient of their Lifetime Outstanding Achievement Award, in the Scottish Parliament shortly before her death. Andrews died on 3 October 2006 in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.

Plagiarism

In late 2006, Lucilla Andrews' autobiography ''No Time for Romance'' became the focus of a posthumous controversy. It has been alleged that the novelist

Ian McEwan Ian Russell McEwan (born 21 June 1948) is a British novelist and screenwriter. In 2008, ''The Times'' featured him on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945" and ''The Daily Telegraph'' ranked him number 19 in its list of the ...

plagiarised from this work's description of Andrews' WWII nursing experiences while writing his novel, ''

Atonement Atonement, atoning, or making amends is the concept of a person taking action to correct previous wrongdoing on their part, either through direct action to undo the consequences of that act, equivalent action to do good for others, or some othe ...

''. McEwan has protested his innocence. The acknowledgements on the back page of ''Atonement'' had included Andrews' book as an inspiration and source. Andrews herself appeared to be untroubled by the connection between the books or the controversy.

Bibliography

Standalone novels

*''The Print Petticoat'' (1954) *''The Secret Armour'' (1955) *''The Quiet Wards'' (1956) *''The First Year'' (1957) *''A Hospital Summer'' (1958) *''The Wife of the Red-Haired Man'' (1959) *''My Friend the Professor'' (1960) *''Nurse Errant'' (1961) *''Flowers from the Doctor'' (1963) *''The Young Doctors Downstairs'' (1963) *''The New Sister Theatre'' (1964) *''The Light in the Ward'' (1965) *''A House for Sister Mary'' (1966) *''Hospital Circles'' (1967) *''Highland Interlude'' (1968) *''The Healing Time'' (1969) *''Edinburgh Excursion'' (1970) *''Ring O'Roses'' (1972) *''Silent Song'' (1973) *''In Storm and in Calm'' (1975) *''Busman's Holiday'' (1978) *''The Crystal Gull'' (1978) *''After a Famous Victory'' (1984) *''Lights of London'' (1985) *''The Phoenix Syndrome'' (1987) *''Frontline 1940'' (1990) *''The Africa Run'' (1993)

Endel & Lofthouse Trilogy

#''A Few Days in Endel'' (1967) aka ''Endel House'' (originally as Diana Gordon) #''Marsh Blood'' (1980) (originally as Joanna Marcus) #''The Sinister Side'' (1996)

Jason Trilogy

#''One Night in London'' (1979) #''Weekend in the Garden'' (1981) #''In an Edinburgh Drawing Room'' (1983)

Serialised novels

*''The Golden Hour'' (Woman and Home; 1955–6) *''The Fair Wind'' (Woman's Weekly; 1957) *''Pippa's Story'' (Woman's Weekly; 1968)

Omnibus

*''My Friend the Professor / Highland Interlude / Ring O' Roses'' (1979)

References

External links

Obituary in the ScotsmanLucilla Andrews (publisher's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Andrews, Lucilla 1919 births 2006 deaths Nurses from London British romantic fiction writers British women novelists British women romantic fiction writers 20th-century British novelists 20th-century British women writers British expatriates in Egypt Voluntary Aid Detachment nurses