Dorothy Dunnett Biography

Scottish portrait painter turned historical novelist, born in Dunfermline. With Game of Kings (1961) she began a series of six novels which, as the ‘Lymond Chronicles’, described the adventures of Francis Crawford, a sixteenth-century Scottish adventurer. This series gave her ample opportunity to display her gift for subtle narrative backed by meticulous research. King Hereafter (1982) was an ambitious attempt to identify the historical Macbeth. Niccolo Rising (1986) began another series, ‘The House of Niccolo’, set in the banking world of the fifteenth century and reaching from Bruges to Cyprus and Trebizond; it was followed by The Spring of the Ram (1987) and Race of Scorpions (1989). As Dorothy Halliday, she has written a series of contemporary comedy thrillers, featuring Johnson and his yacht, ‘The Dolly’, beginning with Dolly and the Singing Bird (1968).