Rachel Ames, née Stainer (London, 1 October 1915 –

Petronell Petronell-Carnuntum is a community of Bruck an der Leitha in Austria. It is known for its annual World Theatre Festival. History The village derives the second half of its name, Carnuntum, from the ancient Roman legionary fortress and headquar ...

, Austria, 24 November 1999) was a British novelist and journalist who wrote under the pseudonym Sarah Gainham. She is perhaps best known for her 1967 novel '' Night Falls on the City'', the first of a trilogy about life in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

under

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...

rule.

Life

Rachel Stainer was born in

Islington Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ...

. After her father Tom died in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, the family moved to

Newbury, Berkshire Newbury is a market town in the county of Berkshire, England, and is home to the administrative headquarters of West Berkshire Council. The town centre around its large market square retains a rare medieval Cloth Hall, an adjoining half timbe ...

. After an "impulsive and unsuccessful wartime liaison", in 1947 she moved to

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

to work with the

Four Power Commission 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smalles ...

, and married the journalist

Antony Terry Antony may refer to: * Antony (name), a masculine given name and a surname * Antony, Belarus, a village in the Hrodna Voblast of Belarus * Antony, Cornwall, a village in Cornwall, United Kingdom ** Antony House, Cornwall, United Kingdom * Anto ...

. Terry was German correspondent for the ''

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, wh ...

'', and the marriage "fell victim to his workload". Stainer never returned to England, living in

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

and

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into pr ...

before returning to Vienna. In 1956 Cyril Ray helped secure her a job as Central and Eastern Europe Correspondent for ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''Th ...

'', making a plea that she needed the money. Writing as Sarah Gainham (the name of her maternal great-grandmother), she reported on Germany and the German-speaking parts of Central Europe until 1966. She soon published her first novel, ''

Time Right Deadly ''Time Right Deadly'' is a 1956 thriller novel by the British writer Sarah Gainham. Her debut novel, it was shortlisted for the Gold Dagger Award, losing out to Edward Grierson's ''The Second Man''. Like many of her novels it takes place in post ...

'' (1956), a semi-autobiographical account of an unsuccessful affair. The novel was followed by several other spy thrillers set in Europe. Here Gainham drew on her own knowledge of Cold War spies and intrigues: Terry, hired to the ''Sunday Times'' by Ian Fleming, may have been an MI6 agent, and Gainham herself apparently researched a document 'East-West Routes for Agents', commissioned by Fleming, on how to gain access to

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under m ...

from

East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as West Berlin. From 13 August 1961 u ...

. In 1964 her marriage to Terry was dissolved, and she married

Kenneth Ames Kenneth is an English given name and surname. The name is an Anglicised form of two entirely different Gaelic personal names: ''Cainnech'' and '' Cináed''. The modern Gaelic form of ''Cainnech'' is ''Coinneach''; the name was derived from a by ...

, Central European correspondent of ''The Economist''. '' Night Falls on the City'' (1967), a tale of love and betrayal set in wartime Vienna, achieved significant commercial success: it topped the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' bestseller list for several months, and was widely translated. It was the first novel of a trilogy, completed by ''

A Place in the Country A Place in the Country may refer to: * ''A Place in the Country'' (essay collection), a 1998 book by W. G. Sebald * ''A Place in the Country'' (album), a 1986 album by Bill Anderson * ''A Place in the Country'' (novel) a 1969 novel by Sarah ...

'' (1969) and ''

Private Worlds ''Private Worlds'' is a 1935 dramatic film which tells the story of the staff and patients at a mental hospital and the chief of the hospital, who has problems dealing with a female psychiatrist. The film stars Claudette Colbert, Charles Boyer ...

'' (1971), and gave her financial security. In 1975 Ames committed suicide, leaving Gainham alone in later life. In 1976 she moved from Vienna to a small house in

Petronell-Carnuntum Petronell-Carnuntum is a community of Bruck an der Leitha in Austria. It is known for its annual World Theatre Festival. History The village derives the second half of its name, Carnuntum, from the ancient Roman legionary fortress and headquar ...

, on the banks of the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , ...

, and became a somewhat eccentric recluse. Her last novel was the heavily autobiographical but unsuccessful ''The Tiger, Life'' (1983). In 1984 she was made a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 600 Fellows, ele ...

. ''A Discursive Essay on the Presentation of Recent History in England'' was privately published in 1999.

Works

* ''

''. London: Arthur Barker, 1956. * ''

The Cold Dark Night ''The Cold Dark Night'' is a 1957 spy thriller novel by the British writer Sarah Gainham. Her second novel, it is set at the height of the Cold War when the 1954 Berlin Conference saw the Big Four foreign ministers arrive in the divided city.Bu ...

''. London: Arthur Barker, 1957. * ''

The Mythmaker ''The Mythmaker'' is a 1957 spy thriller novel by the British writer Sarah Gainham, her third published novel. At with many of her works it takes place in Vienna, where she settled in the post-war era. It was released in the United States in 195 ...

.'' London: Arthur Barker, 1957. * ''

The Stone Roses The Stone Roses were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1983. One of the pioneering groups of the Madchester movement in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the band's classic and most prominent lineup consisted of vocalist Ian Brown, ...

''. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1958. * (tr.) ''The Voice of Fear: ten poems'' by E. G. Molnár. Translated from the German of Illa Kovarik and Tibor Simányi, with drawings by Hugo Matzenauer. Vienna: Ars Hungarica, 1959. * ''

The Silent Hostage ''The Silent Hostage'' is a 1960 spy thriller novel by the British writer Sarah Gainham. Before writing her most celebrated work ''Night Falls on the City'', Gainham produced several thrillers set in Continental Europe where she had lived since ...

''. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1960. * '' Night Falls on the City''. London: Collins, 1967. * ''

''. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1969. * ''Takeover Bid: a tale''. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1970. * ''

''. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1971. * ''Maculan's Daughter''. London: Macmillan, 1973. * ''To the Opera Ball''. London: Macmillan, 1975. * ''The Habsburg Twilight: tales from Vienna''. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1979. * ''The Tiger, Life''. London: Methuen, 1983. * ''A Discursive Essay on the Presentation of Recent History in England''. New Millennium, 1999.

References

External links

Women Writers Revisited: Kate Mosse on Sarah Gainham
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gainham, Sarah 1915 births 1999 deaths 20th-century British novelists 20th-century British women writers English reporters and correspondents English women journalists Journalists from London British foreign correspondents 20th-century British journalists 20th-century English women 20th-century English people British expatriates in Austria British expatriates in Germany