Lucilla Matthew Andrews Crichton (born 20 November 1919 in

Suez Suez ( ar, السويس '; ) is a seaport city (population of about 750,000 ) in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez (a branch of the Red Sea), near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same boun ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

– d. 3 October 2006 in

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, Scotland) was a British

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

of 33

romance novel A romance novel or romantic novel generally refers to a type of genre fiction novel which places its primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people, and usually has an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." Pre ...

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 that represents authors of romantic fiction in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1960 by Denise Robins (first president), Barbara Cartland (first vice-president), Vivian Stuart ...

, 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

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, 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 (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

. She joined the British

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in 1940 as a VAD, and later trained as a nurse at

St Thomas' Hospital St Thomas' Hospital is a large NHS teaching hospital in Central London, England. It is one of the institutions that compose the King's Health Partners, an academic health science centre. Administratively part of the Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foun ...

, London, 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 Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicent ...

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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 an English 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 th ...

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

Atonement Atonement (also atoning, to atone) 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 other ex ...

''. 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 Women romantic fiction writers 20th-century British novelists 20th-century British women writers British expatriates in Egypt