UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND AUTHOR · FICTION · GENERAL
D. E. Stevenson
Also known as: D.E. STEVENSON, D.E. Stevenson
Dorothy Emily Stevenson was a best-selling Scottish writer. She published more than 40 "light romantic novels" over a span of more than 40 years. D. E. Stevenson was born in Edinburgh in 1892; she was the daughter of one of the ‘lighthouse’ Stevensons (Robert Louis was her father’s first cousin) and lived in Scotland all her life. She did not go to school but was educated by a governess, starting to write stories when she was eight. Holidays were spent at North Berwick, where she was a keen golfer. In 1916 she married Major James Peploe (a nephew of the artist Samuel Peploe). After the First World War they lived in Bearsden near Glasgow and brought up two sons and a daughter. Dorothy wrote her first book in 1923 but her second did not appear for nine years. In 1934 she published Miss Buncle’s Book. Thereafter she wrote a novel a year, selling over four million copies of her books in Britain and three million in the USA. Among them were Miss Buncle Married in 1936 and The Two Mrs Abbotts in 1943. During the war the Peploes moved to Moffat; D.E. Stevenson died there in 1973.
Most acclaimed
The English Air
In this unlikely story Wynne, an English girl, meets her half-German cousin Franz when he visits England in 1938. Franz is doing undercover research for his Nazi father, using his English relatives as a cover. Wynne and Franz fall in love. He has to go back to Germany but is soon disenchanted with Nazism. He joins an underground group working against the Nazis. Eventually he escapes to Scotland, is injured and ill for a long time. He tells all his secrets to Wynne's Uncle Dane who happens to be something in British Intelligence or whatever they called it. Franz, now Frank, and Wynne become engaged and Frank goes over to fight for Finland against the Germans. Everyone lives happily after ever.
Mrs. Tim Flies Home
The war is over and Mrs Tim Christie, regimental CO's wife, reluctantly leaves her husband in Kenya and flies home to England. In the quiet backwater of Old Quinings, she faces a vindictive landlady and a maliciously gossiping neighbor, in addition to coping with postwar austerity (although rationing and the servant shortage don't seem to affect her greatly!) and the tribulations - romantic and otherwise - of friends and relations. Old friend Tony shows up to help Mrs. Tim out of her difficulties, inadvertently feeding the fires of scandal in the absence of Col Christie. This is the last book in a series of 4 about Mrs Tim, though each can be read alone.
Rochester's Wife
Kit Stone moved to a small English village to share the practice of an aging country doctor. After four years of wandering aimlessly about the world, the change of pace was pleasant and diverting. And most diverting of all was lovely Mardie Rochester, a sensitive young woman who unwittingly captured Kit's heart. But there was one very large obstacle in Kit's search for happiness - the woman he so adored was Jack Rochester's wife.