Alanna Knight

Alanna Knight
Born
Gladys Allan Cleet

24 February 1923
Jesmond, Newcastle, England
Died2 December 2020(2020-12-02) (aged 97)
Edinburgh, Scotland
Other namesMargaret Hope
OccupationWriter

Alanna Knight MBE (24 February 1923 – 2 December 2020), born Gladys Allan Cleet, was a British writer, based in Edinburgh. She wrote over sixty novels, including romances, mysteries, crime, historical, and time travel stories, as well as plays, biographies, and histories. She sometimes also published under the pen name Margaret Hope.

Early life

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Gladys Allan Cleet was from Jesmond, Newcastle, the daughter of Herbert Cleet and Gladys Allan Cleet. Her father was a butcher. She trained as a secretary as a young woman.[1]

Career

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In 1964, in her forties, Knight became paralysed by polyneuritis (neuropathy), and her husband gave her an electric typewriter to help in her recovery.[2] By the time the paralysis ended five years later, she had written her first novel, Legend of the Loch (1969). She would continue writing, publishing over sixty books in her last fifty years. Her best known series was the Inspector Faro mysteries, set in the nineteenth century, but she also wrote a series about a time-traveling detective, Tam Eildor, and series about women detectives; she wrote gothic romances, true crime, writing advice, memoirs, and biography.[3]

Knight was honorary president of the Edinburgh Writers Club, a founder and honorary president of the Scottish Association of Writers, and an active member of the Crime Writers' Association.[4] She taught creative writing and lectured on the topic in various settings, from universities to Bloody Scotland, a literary convention.[5] She was also a portrait and landscape painter.[1]

Knight was made a Member of the British Empire for services to literature in 2014.[6]

Personal life

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Gladys Cleet married scientist Alistair Knight in 1951, in Aberdeen. They had two sons, Christopher and Kevin. She died in 2020 after suffering a stroke in Edinburgh at the age of 97.[1][2]

Selected bibliography

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Fiction written as Margaret Hope

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  • The Queen's Captain (1978)
  • The Shadow Queen (1979)
  • Hostage Most Royal (1980)
  • Perilous Voyage (1983)

Fiction written as Alanna Knight

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  • Legend of the Loch (1969)
  • The October Witch (1971)
  • Castle Clodha (1972)
  • Lament for Lost Lovers (1972)
  • The White Rose (1973)
  • Passionate Kindness (1974, also published as A Violent Passion)
  • A Stranger Came By (1974)
  • A Drink for the Bridge (1976, also published as The Most Tragic Tay Bridge Disaster)
  • The Wicked Wynsleys (1977)
  • Girl on an Empty Swing (1978)
  • The Black Duchess (1980)
  • Castle of Foxes (1981)[7]
  • Colla's Children (1982)[8]
  • The Clan (1985)
  • Estella (1986)[9]
  • Enter Second Murderer (1988, the first Inspector Jeremy Faro mystery)[10]
  • Blood Line (1989)[11]
  • Deadly Beloved (1989)[12]
  • Killing Cousins (1990)
  • The Wicked Wynsleys (1990)[13]
  • A Quiet Death (1991)
  • To Kill a Queen (1992)
  • The Sweet Cheat Gone (1992)[14]
  • Strathblair (1993)[15]
  • This Outward Angel (1993)
  • The Evil that Men Do (1993)
  • The Missing Duchess (1994)
  • The Bull Slayers (1995)[16]
  • Murder by Appointment (1996)[17]
  • Angel Eyes (1997)[18]
  • The Coffin Lane Murders (1998)[19]
  • The Monster in the Loch (1999, for new readers)[20]
  • The Royal Park Murder (1999, for new readers)[21]
  • Dead Beckoning (1999, for new readers)[22]
  • The Inspector's Daughter (2000, the first Rose McQuinn novel)[23]
  • The Dagger in the Crown (2001, the first Tam Eildor novel)
  • Dangerous Pursuits (2002)
  • In the Shadow of the Minster (2002)[24]
  • The Final Enemy (2002)[25]
  • An Orkney Murder (2003)[26]
  • The Gowry Conspiracy (2003)
  • Ghost Walk (2004)[27]
  • Unholy Trinity (2004, also known as Death at Carasheen)[28]
  • Faro and the Royals (2005)[29]
  • The Stuart Sapphire (2005)
  • Burke and Hare (2007, non-fiction)[30]
  • Destroying Angel (2007)[31]
  • Murder in Paradise (2008)[32]
  • Quest for a Killer (2010)[33]
  • The Seal King Murders (2011)[34]
  • Deadly Legacy (2012)[35]
  • Murder Most Foul (2013)[36]
  • The Midnight Visitor (2013)
  • The Balmoral Incident (2014)[37]
  • Miss Havisham's Revenge, Estella's Missing Years (2014)[38]
  • Akin to Murder (2016)[39]
  • The Darkness Within (2017)[40]
  • Murder Lies Waiting (2018)[41]
  • The Dower House Mystery (2019)
  • Murder at the World's Edge (2021, forthcoming)[42]

Nonfiction

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  • The Private Life of Robert Louis Stevenson (1983, play)
  • The Robert Louis Stevenson Treasury (1985)[43]
  • R. L. S. in the South Seas: An intimate photographic record (1986, editor)[44][45][46]
  • Close and Deadly: Chilling Murders in the Heart of Edinburgh (2002, non-fiction)[47]
  • 101 Golden Rules for Writing Successful Fiction (2015, professional advice)
  • My Psychic Life, Mostly (2018, autobiography)
  • My Writing Life, Mostly (2020, autobiography)

References

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  1. ^ a b c Ripley, Mike (17 December 2020). "Alanna Knight obituary". the Guardian. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  2. ^ a b "Alanna Knight obituary". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  3. ^ "Alanna Knight". Fantastic Fiction. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  4. ^ "Alanna Knight". The Crime Writers' Association. Archived from the original on 2 January 2021. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  5. ^ "Founding Patron Alanna Knight". Bloody Scotland. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  6. ^ "Alanna Knight". WEA Scotland. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  7. ^ Knight, Alanna (1981). Castle of Foxes. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-15327-0.
  8. ^ Knight, Alanna (1983). Colla's Children. Little, Brown Book Group Limited. ISBN 978-0-7088-1813-8.
  9. ^ Knight, Alanna (1998). Estella. Thorndike Press. ISBN 978-0-7862-1313-9.
  10. ^ Knight, Alanna (1990). Enter Second Murderer. Ulverscroft. ISBN 978-0-7089-2236-1.
  11. ^ Knight, Alanna (1991). Blood Line. Ulverscroft. ISBN 978-0-7089-2370-2.
  12. ^ Knight, Alanna (1992). Deadly Beloved. Ulverscroft. ISBN 978-0-7089-2646-8.
  13. ^ Knight, Alanna (1990). The Wicked Wynsleys. Ulverscroft. ISBN 978-0-7089-2139-5.
  14. ^ Knight, Alanna (1992). The Sweet Cheat Gone. Severn House. ISBN 978-0-7278-4379-1.
  15. ^ Knight, Alanna (1993). Strathblair: The Novel. BBC Books. ISBN 978-0-563-36778-9.
  16. ^ Knight, Alanna (1997). The Bull Slayers: An Inspector Faro Mystery. G.K. Hall. ISBN 978-0-7838-8045-7.
  17. ^ Knight, Alanna (1997). Murder by Appointment: An Inspector Faro Mystery. G.K. Hall. ISBN 978-0-7838-8044-0.
  18. ^ Knight, Alanna (1998). Angel Eyes. Thorndike Press. ISBN 978-0-7862-1480-8.
  19. ^ Knight, Alanna (4 February 2016). The Coffin Lane Murders: An Inspector Faro Mystery. ReadHowYouWant.com, Limited. ISBN 978-1-4596-8612-0.
  20. ^ Knight, Alanna (1999). The Monster in the Loch. Contemporary Books. ISBN 978-0-8092-0688-9.
  21. ^ Knight, Alanna (1998). The Royal Park Murder. Contemporary Books. ISBN 978-0-8092-0687-2.
  22. ^ Knight, Alanna (1999). Dead Beckoning. Contemporary Books. ISBN 978-0-8092-0689-6.
  23. ^ Knight, Alanna (2006). The Inspector's Daughter. Thorndike Press. ISBN 978-0-7862-8963-9.
  24. ^ Knight, Alanna (2002). In the Shadow of the Minster. Dales Large Print. ISBN 978-1-84262-114-1.
  25. ^ Knight, Alanna (2002). The Final Enemy: An Inspector Faro Mystery. Black & White. ISBN 978-1-902927-28-2.
  26. ^ Knight, Alanna (2006). An Orkney Murder. Allison & Busby, Limited. ISBN 978-0-7490-8181-2.
  27. ^ Knight, Alanna (6 September 2012). Ghost Walk: An ominous Scottish mystery. Allison & Busby. ISBN 978-0-7490-1370-7.
  28. ^ Knight, Alanna (2004). Unholy Trinity: An Inspector Faro Mystery. Black & White. ISBN 978-1-84502-002-6.
  29. ^ Knight, Alanna (2005). Faro and the Royals. Black & White. ISBN 978-1-84502-045-3.
  30. ^ Knight, Alanna (30 June 2007). Burke and Hare. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-1-905615-13-1.
  31. ^ Knight, Alanna (6 September 2012). Destroying Angel: The suspense-filled Scottish mystery. Allison & Busby. ISBN 978-0-7490-1375-2.
  32. ^ Knight, Alanna (2008). Murder in Paradise. Allison & Busby. ISBN 978-0-7490-7943-7.
  33. ^ Knight, Alanna (10 May 2013). Quest for a Killer. Allison & Busby. ISBN 978-0-7490-1452-0.
  34. ^ Knight, Alanna (26 March 2012). The Seal King Murders: The evocative Victorian Scottish whodunnit. Allison & Busby. ISBN 978-0-7490-1102-4.
  35. ^ Knight, Alanna (26 March 2012). Deadly Legacy: A sinister and dangerous Scottish mystery. Allison & Busby. ISBN 978-0-7490-1112-3.
  36. ^ Knight, Alanna (28 January 2013). Murders Most Foul. Allison & Busby. ISBN 978-0-7490-1357-8.
  37. ^ Knight, Alanna (23 October 2014). The Balmoral Incident. Allison & Busby. ISBN 978-0-7490-1726-2.
  38. ^ Knight, Alanna (4 February 2016). Miss Havisham's Revenge Or Estella's Missing Years. ReadHowYouWant.com, Limited. ISBN 978-1-4596-8606-9.
  39. ^ Knight, Alanna (21 January 2016). Akin to Murder. Allison & Busby. ISBN 978-0-7490-1924-2.
  40. ^ Knight, Alanna (23 March 2017). The Darkness Within. Allison & Busby Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7490-2122-1.
  41. ^ Knight, Alanna (18 January 2018). Murder Lies Waiting. Allison & Busby Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7490-2214-3.
  42. ^ Knight, Alanna (20 May 2021). Murder at the World's Edge. ALLISON & BUSBY. ISBN 978-0-7490-2765-0.
  43. ^ Susan R. Gannon. “The Call to Adventure:Escape or Necessity? The Lion and the Unicorn, Volume 12, Number 1, June 1988.
  44. ^ Radford, Tim (19 December 1986). "Death in a Far Place". The Guardian. p. 12. Retrieved 23 December 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  45. ^ Boyle, Richard A. “DEAD MAN'S CHEST: TRAVELS AFTER ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON, by Nicholas Rankin (Book Review).” Victorian Studies; Bloomington, Ind. Vol. 32, Iss. 3, (Spring 1989): 450-52.
  46. ^ Doug Munro . Review: [Untitled] Reviewed Work: R.L.S. in the South Seas. An Intimate Photographic Record by Alanna Knight The Journal of Pacific History Vol. 24, No. 1 (Apr., 1989), pp. 129-131
  47. ^ Knight, Alanna (2002). Close and Deadly: Chilling Murders in the Heart of Edinburgh. Black & White. ISBN 978-1-902927-39-8.
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