Fraser, Christine Marion

(British, 1945– )

Fraser was born in Glasgow, and has been confined to a wheelchair since contracting a rare muscular disease at the age of 10. She now lives in Argyllshire. Her family stories are enormously popular; begin with Rhanna (1978), the first of five books evoking life on a Hebridean island. A young couple's love-affair sets them at odds with sections of the tight-knit community. Kings Croft (1986) begins a series of novels about an Aberdeenshire family. During the early 1900s they leave their croft for Glasgow, where they learn how to cope with city life. In Noble Beginnings (1994) a gifted young woman in a small Argyllshire town is held back by her father when opportunities for betterment present themselves. Kinvara (1998), set on the northern Scottish coast, tells of the unhappy love between a married lighthouse keeper and a single mother.

Pamela Oldfield, Susan Howatch, Phyllis Bentley  DH