Dorothy Dunnett was born in 1923 in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland.
Her time at Gillespie's High School for Girls overlapped with that
of the novelist Muriel Spark. From 1940-1955, she worked for the
Civil Service as a press officer. In 1946, she married Alastair
Dunnett, later editor of The Scotsman.
Dunnett started writing in the late 1950s. Her first novel, The
Game of Kings, was published in the United States in 1961, and
in the United Kingdom the year after. She published 22 books in
total, including the six-part Lymond Chronicles and the eight-part
Niccolo Series, and co-authored another volume with her husband.
Also an accomplished professional portrait painter, Dunnett
exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy on many occasions and had
portraits commissioned by a number of prominent public figures in
Scotland.
She also led a busy life in public service, as a member of the
Board of Trustees of the National Library of Scotland, a Trustee of
the Scottish National War Memorial, and Director of the Edinburgh
Book Festival. She served on numerous cultural committees, and was
a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. In 1992 she was awarded the
Office of the British Empire for services to literature. She died
on November 9, 2001, at the age of 78.
"Dazzling--dense, intelligent and subtle--Dunnett has fashioned a
vast tale firmly set in her grasp of the early Renaissance world."
--Newsday
"Tantalizing--fascinating--a remarkable variety of situations
present the reader with complex and volatile imaginings.....The
finest living writer of historical fiction." --The Washington Post
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