Mea Allan (23 June 1909 – 29 August 1982), born Mary Eleanor Allan, was a journalist who worked for the '' Glasgow Herald''. She also wrote a novel, ''Change of Heart'' (1943), set in the future. In 1967 she was awarded the Leverhulme Research Scholarship to write about the botanists William Hooker and

Joseph Dalton Hooker Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (30 June 1817 – 10 December 1911) was a British botanist and explorer in the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For 20 years he served as director of the Ro ...

Early life and education

Allan was born in

Bearsden Bearsden ( ) is a town in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the northwestern fringe of Greater Glasgow, approximately from the Glasgow city centre, city centre. The Roman Empire, Roman Antonine Wall runs through the town, and the remains of ...

, Dumbartonshire, Scotland, the daughter of Robert Greenoak Allan and Helen (née Maitland). She was educated at Park School,

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, and the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art.

Career

Journalism

Allan was a journalist, the first woman war correspondent to be permanently accredited to the British Forces and the first woman new editor in Fleet Street. She worked for the ''Glasgow Herald'' during and after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. She was living in London in 1940, where she described the wartime tension as "You felt you really were walking with death—death in front of you and death hovering in the skies." She reported from Germany in 1945, about death camp survivors and displaced persons temporarily sheltered at Belsen after the war, awaiting rehabilitation, family reunification, and transportation.

Other writing

Allan's first book was a novel, ''Lonely'' (1942). Her second novel, ''Change of Heart'', written in 1943, is about an

alternate history Alternate history (also referred to as alternative history, allohistory, althist, or simply A.H.) is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which one or more historical events have occurred but are resolved differently than in actual history. As ...

(then future) in which the Allies win

, but are threatened by a resurgent

Nazism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...

. Much of Allan's writing was about botany, including histories of gardens, biographies of famous gardeners and plant collectors, and guides for gardeners. In 1967 she was awarded the Leverhulme Research Scholarship to write on the botanists William Hooker and Joseph Dalton Hooker. In 1977 she wrote a book about Darwin's use of flowers to develop his theory of

natural selection Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the Heredity, heritable traits characteristic of a population over generation ...

Death and legacy

Allan died in 1982, in Walberswick, Suffolk, England. A collection of her papers was donated to the Centre for the Conservation of Historic Parks and Gardens at

York University York University (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...

. There are other papers of hers in the

Imperial War Museum The Imperial War Museum (IWM), currently branded "Imperial War Museums", is a British national museum. It is headquartered in London, with five branches in England. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, it was intended to record the civ ...

's Department of Documents. In 1999, Felicity Goodall wrote a BBC Radio program titled "Change of Heart," about Allan's life and career.

Select Bibliography

* ''Lonely'' (1942, novel) * ''Change of Heart'' (1943, novel) * ''Rose Cottage'' (1961) * ''The Tradescants: Their Plants, Gardens and Museum 1570-1662'' (1964) * ''The Hookers of Kew 1785-1911'' (1967) * ''Tom's Weeds: The Story of Rochford's and their House Plants'' (1970) * ''Fison's Guide to Gardens in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales'' (1970) * ''Palgrave of Arabia: The Life of William Gifford Palgrave, 1826-88'' (1972) * ''E. A. Bowles & his garden at Myddelton House (1865-1954)'' (1973) * ''Plants that Changed Our Gardens'' (1974) * ''Gardens of East Anglia'' (1975) * ''Darwin and His Flowers: The Key to Natural Selection'' (1977) * ''The Gardener's Book of Weeds'' (1978) * ''Weeds: The Unbidden Guests in our Gardens'' (1978) * ''The Family of Flowers'' (1979) * ''William Robinson, 1838-1935: Father of the English Flower Garden'' (1982) *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Allan, Mea Scottish science fiction writers Scottish women novelists Scottish journalists Scottish women journalists 1909 births 1982 deaths People from Bearsden British women science fiction and fantasy writers 20th-century Scottish women writers 20th-century Scottish novelists British women in World War II