Moyra Caldecott (1 June 1927 – 23 May 2015)Kevan Manwaring
"Moyra Caldecott obituary"
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The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 8 June 2005. was a British author of historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction and non-fiction. Her works include ''Guardians of the Tall Stones'' and ''The Egyptian Sequence''. She was born in

Pretoria Pretoria ( ; ) is the Capital of South Africa, administrative capital of South Africa, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to the country. Pretoria strad ...

, South Africa, and moved to London in 1951. She married Oliver Caldecott and raised three children. She had degrees in English and Philosophy and an M.A. in English Literature. In 2000, she became one of the earliest proponents of commercial e-books when she contracted with Mushroom eBooks to re-publish most of her titles in electronic formats. She had a reputation as a novelist who wrote as vividly about the adventures and experiences to be encountered in the inner realms of the human consciousness as she did about those in the outer physical world. To Moyra, reality was multidimensional. In her later years she suffered from

progressive aphasia In neurology, primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a type of neurological syndrome in which language capabilities slowly and progressively become impaired. As with other types of aphasia, the symptoms that accompany PPA depend on what parts of ...

. She died peacefully on 23 May 2015, aged 87.

Biography

Early life and education

Moyra was born in

, South Africa, on 1 June 1927 to Jessica Florence (Harris) and Frederick Stanley Brown. Moyra studied at Natal University, obtaining degrees in English Literature and Philosophy and a Master's in English Literature. In 1950, she moved to

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

and became a lecturer at the university there, where she met Oliver Caldecott, an anti-apartheid campaigner. In 1951, they moved to the UK and married in London. Once settled, she took evening classes in geology, religious studies, mythology, archaeology, Egyptian

hieroglyphics Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs ( ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined ideographic, logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with more than 1,000 distinct characters.I ...

and pottery. She also took up watercolour painting, pottery,

batik Batik is a dyeing technique using wax Resist dyeing, resist. The term is also used to describe patterned textiles created with that technique. Batik is made by drawing or stamping wax on a cloth to prevent colour absorption during the dyein ...

making and the creation of stained glass.

Writing

Moyra Caldecott had written since childhood, but first gained attention as a poet. Her work was published in various poetry anthologies throughout the 1950s and '60s. She became Secretary to the acclaimed Dulwich Poetry Group in the 1960s. Plays of hers were performed on radio, but it was not until she started writing novels in her late 40s, that her career took off. She went on to see more than 30 books published. Her best known work is the ''Guardians of the Tall Stones Trilogy''. Set in

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

Britain, it was inspired by a vivid experience she had in Dyce Stone circle in Scotland, and the world heritage site of

Avebury Avebury () is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles, around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, in south-west England. One of the best-known prehistoric sites in Britain, it contains the largest megalithic stone circle in ...

in Wiltshire. For many years this trilogy was required reading for various tour groups visiting the sacred sites of Britain from America, and has been in print continuously since 1977. Another well-received trilogy, about the rise, fall and rise again of the ancient Egyptian priests of

Amun Amun was a major ancient Egyptian deity who appears as a member of the Hermopolitan Ogdoad. Amun was attested from the Old Kingdom together with his wife Amunet. His oracle in Siwa Oasis, located in Western Egypt near the Libyan Desert, r ...

, focused on

Akhenaten Akhenaten (pronounced ), also spelled Akhenaton or Echnaton ( ''ʾŪḫə-nə-yātəy'', , meaning 'Effective for the Aten'), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Eig ...

and

Hatshepsut Hatshepsut ( ; BC) was the sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, Egypt, ruling first as regent, then as queen regnant from until (Low Chronology) and the Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Thutmose II. She was Egypt's second c ...

. As a result of these books, she was invited by the pop star

Tina Turner Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939 – May 24, 2023) was a singer, songwriter, actress, and author. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Rock 'n' Roll", her vocal prowess, raspy voice, and electrifyin ...

to act as a personal guide to the ancient sites of Egypt – an experience that Moyra spoke of with great fondness. Although fascinated by prehistory and the Celts, Moyra was also knowledgeable about other traditions and devoted the major portion of her life to collecting and examining myths and legends across the world. She followed Jung and

Joseph Campbell Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American writer. He was a professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work covers many aspects of t ...

in believing myths and legends are not "just" stories but actually deep and meaningful expressions of the universal and eternal in the human psyche. Moyra Caldecott's non-fiction titles include: ''Crystal Legends, Myths of the Sacred Tree, Women in Celtic Myth, and Mythical Journeys, Legendary Quests.''

Family

Her husband, Oliver Z. S. Caldecott, son of South African artists Harry Stratford Caldecott and Florence Josephine Zerffi, was a fierce and outspoken opponent of

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

. He fled South Africa during a crackdown on the movement and moved to London, where he continued his political campaigning. He became first an editor for Readers Union and later Chief Editor of Fiction at

Penguin Books Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...

during the 1960s. After the death of Sir

Allen Lane Sir Allen Lane (born Allen Lane Williams; 21 September 1902 – 7 July 1970) was a British publisher who together with his brothers Richard and John Lane founded Penguin Books in 1935, bringing high-quality paperback fiction and non-fictio ...

, Caldecott left Penguin to start his own publishing house, Wildwood House, in the 1970s. Throughout his publishing career, he also painted and exhibited widely. In 1987, with Oliver's health failing, the Caldecotts moved to Bath, a city whose Romano-British heritage Moyra wrote about in two of her novels, ''The Winged Man'' (1993) and ''The Waters of Sul'' (1997). She was also a founder member of the (now dormant) Bladud Society, dedicated to raising awareness of Bath's Celtic heritage, and in her later years she liked to perform her visionary poetry at local open mic events in the city. She was made an honorary bard of Bath in 2005 and a memoir of her life, ''Multi-Dimensional Life'', was published on her 80th birthday by the Bath-based firm Mushroom Books.

Children

Stratford Caldecott (26 November 1953 – 17 July 2014) was an author, editor, publisher, and blogger. His books include ''Radiance of Being,'' ''Beauty for Truth's Sake'', ''All Things Made New'', and ''Not as the World Gives''. Julian Caldecott (born 2 August 1956) is an author, ecologist and blogger. His books include ''Hunting and Wildlife Management in Sarawak, Designing Conservation Projects, Water: The Causes, Costs and Future of a Global Crisis, Aid Performance and Climate Change'', and (as co-editor) ''World Atlas of Great Apes and their Conservation''. Rachel Caldecott (born 1 August 1960) is a novelist, craftswoman, illustrator, human rights activist and blogger. Her books include ''Lodève – A Fast Guide to its History'', ''The Panopticon Experiment (Book One of the Siklus Series)'', and the humorous memoir ''Blown Out of Proportion: Misadventures of a Glassblower in France''.

Bibliography

Fiction

* ''Child of the Dark Star'' (a future fantasy novel). Paperback and eBook. * ''The Winged Man'' (the legendary King Bladud, Britain c.500 BC). Paperback and eBook. * ''The Waters of Sul'' (set in

Aquae Sulis Aquae Sulis (Latin for ''Waters of Sulis'') was a small town in the Roman province of Roman Britain, Britannia. Today it is the England, English city of Bath, Somerset. The Antonine Itinerary register of Roman roads lists the town as ''Aquis Su ...

in Roman Britain c.72 AD). Paperback. * ''The Silver Vortex'' (sequel to ''Guardians of the Tall Stones''). Paperback and eBook. * '' Hatshepsut: Daughter of Amun'' (the story of the female pharaoh Hatshepsut). Paperback and eBook. * '' Akhenaten: Son of the Sun'' (the story of the pharaoh Akhenaten). Paperback and eBook. * '' Tutankhamun and the Daughter of Ra'' (the story of the wife of Tutankhamun). Paperback and eBook. * ''The Ghost of Akhenaten'' (the sequel to the Egyptian sequence). Paperback and eBook. * ''The Green Lady and the King of Shadows''. Paperback and eBook. * ''The Lily and the Bull'' (set in Bronze Age Crete). Paperback and eBook. * ''The Tower and the Emerald'' (a romantic fantasy set in Dark Ages Britain). Paperback and eBook. * ''Three Celtic Tales'' (three tales from the

Mabinogion The ''Mabinogion'' () is a collection of the earliest Welsh prose stories, compiled in Middle Welsh in the 12th–13th centuries from earlier oral traditions. There are two main source manuscripts, created –1410, as well as a few earlier frag ...

). Paperback and eBook. * ''Etheldreda'' (life of the Anglo Saxon saint of Ely, 7th century AD). Paperback and eBook. * ''Weapons of the Wolfhound'' (teenage novel about Vikings set in the Hebrides and Iceland). Paperback and eBook. * ''The Eye of Callanish'' (the sequel to ''Weapons of the Wolfhound''). Paperback and eBook. * ''The Tall Stones'' (the first of the ''Guardians of the Tall Stones'' sequence)(1977, Popular Library). * ''The Temple of the Sun'' (the second of the ''Guardians of the Tall Stones'' sequence) * ''Shadow on the Stones'' (the third of the ''Guardians of the Tall Stones'' sequence) * ''Adventures by Leaf Light'' (stories for little children). Paperback and eBook.

Myths and legends

* ''Twins of the Tylwyth Teg'' (retells a tale from Celtic folklore) * ''Taliesin and Avagddu'' (retells a tale from the Mabinogion) * ''Bran, Son of Llyr'' (retells a tale from the Mabinogion) * ''Three Celtic Tales'' (collected edition of the three stories above) Paperback and eBook * ''The Green Lady and the King of Shadows'' (Glastonbury legends) Paperback and eBook * ''Crystal Legends'' (the lore and legend of crystals and crystal healing) Paperback and eBook * ''Women in Celtic Myth'' (tales of extraordinary women from the ancient Celtic tradition) * ''Myths of the Sacred Tree'' (tree myths and legends from around the world) * ''Mythical Journeys: Legendary Quests'' (the spiritual search - traditional stories from world mythology). Paperback and eBook.

Poetry

* ''The Breathless Pause'' (a selection of poems). Paperback and eBook.

Autobiography

* ''Multi-Dimensional Life'' (a writer's life and inspiration). Paperback and eBook.

References

External links

*
Mushroom eBooks, publisher
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Caldecott, Moyra 1927 births 2015 deaths 20th-century British novelists British fantasy writers British historical novelists South African emigrants to the United Kingdom