Vivian Stuart

Vivian Stuart
Violet Vivian Stuart (née Finlay; 2 January 1914 – 18 August 1986) was a British writer from 1953 to 1986. She published under different pen names: her romantic novels as Vivian Stuart, Alex Stuart, Barbara Allen, Fiona Finlay, and Robyn Stuart, her military sagas as V.A. Stuart, and her historical saga as William Stuart Long.
In 1960, she was a founder of the Romantic Novelists' Association, along with Denise Robins, Barbara Cartland, and others; she was elected the first chairman. In 1970, she became the first woman to chair Swanwick writers' summer school.
Biography
Personal life
Violet Vivian Finlay was born in Berkshire, England on 2 January 1914. She was the daughter of Alice Kathleen (née Norton) and Sir Campbell Kirkman Finlay, the owner and director of Burmah Oil Company Ltd., whose Scottish family also owned James Finlay and Company Ltd. The majority of her childhood and youth was spent in Rangoon, Burma (now also known as Myanmar), where her father worked.
Finlay married four times and bore five children, Gillian Rushton (née Porch), Kim Santow, Jennifer Gooch (née Stuart), and twins Vary and Valerie Stuart.
Following the dissolution of her first marriage, she studied Law in London in the mid 1930s, before deciding to study Medicine at the University of London. Later she spent time in Hungary in the capacity of private tutor in English, while she obtained a pathologist qualification at the University of Budapest in 1938. In 1939, she emigrated to Australia with her second husband, a Hungarian Doctor Geza Santow with whom she worked. In 1942, she obtained a diploma in industrial chemistry and laboratory technique at Technical Institute of Newcastle. Having earned an ambulance driver's certificate, she joined the Australian Forces at the Women's Auxiliary Service during World War II. She was attached to the IVth Army, and raised to the rank of captain, she was posted to British XIV Army in Rangoon, Burma in October 1945, and was then transferred to Sumatra in December. After the war she returned to England.
On 24 October 1958, she married her fourth and last husband, Cyril William Mann, an investment banker.
Violet Vivian Mann died in 1986 in York, at age 72. She continued writing until her death.
Writing career
She published her first novels in 1953. She signed her romantic fiction as Vivian Stuart, one of her married names, and under the pen names of Alex Stuart, Barbara Allen, Fiona Finlay and Robyn Stuart, while for her military sagas, "Alexander Sheridan Saga" and "Phillip Hazard Saga" she used the name V.A. Stuart. William Stuart Long was her pen name for the popular historical series: "Australians", based on her research at The Mitchell Library Sydney; The National Maritime Museum; British Public Records Office and the New York Public Library.
Many of her romance novels were protagonized by doctors or nurses, and set in Asia, Australia or other places she had visited. Her novel, "Gay Cavalier" (1955 as Alex Stuart) caused trouble between Vivian and her Mills & Boon editors. She featured a secondary story line featuring a Catholic male and Protestant female who chose to marry. This so-called "mixed marriage" outraged many people in the United Kingdom at the time.
In 1960, she was a founder of the Romantic Novelists' Association, along with Denise Robins, Barbara Cartland, and others; she was elected the first chairman. In 1970, she became the first woman to chair Swanwick writers' summer school.
Bibliography
Some of Stuart's novels are released under different pen names or titles.
As Vivian Stuart
Single novels
Along Came Ann (1953) a.k.a. Along Came Doctor Ann
Proud Heart (1953)
The Unlit Heart (1954) a.k.a. Jungle Doctor
Eyes of the Night (1954)
Pilgrim Heart (1955) a.k.a. Doctor in the Tropics
Lover Betrayed (1955)
No Single Star (1956)
Life Is the Destiny (1958)
Nurse in Malaya (1960)
The Unlit Love (1961)
The Summer's Flower (1961)
The New Mrs. Aldrich (1976)
Non fiction
The Beloved Little Admiral: Admiral of the Fleet the Hon. Sir Henry Keppel 1809–1904 (1967)
Non fiction in collaboration
His Majesty's Sloop-of-War: Diamond Rock (1978) (with George T. Eggleston)
Alex Stuart
Single novels
The Captain's Table (1953)
Ship's Nurse (1954)
Soldier's Daughter (1954)
Gay Cavalier (1955)
Island for Sale (1955)
Bachelor of Medicine (1956)
A Cruise for Cinderella (1956)
Huntsman's Folly (1956)
Garrison Hospital (1957)
Queen's Counsel (1957)
The Last of the Logans (1957)
Master of Guise (1957)
Master of Surgery (1958) a.k.a. That Wonderful Feeling
Daughters of the Governor (1958)
Castle in the Mist (1959)
Peacock Pagoda (1959)
Return to Love (1960)
Star of Oudh (1960) a.k.a. On Her Majesty's Orders
Doctor Mary Courage (1961) a.k.a. Only a Memory
Spencer's Hospital (1961)
Sister Margarita (1961) a.k.a. Nurse in Spain
Doctor on Horseback (1962)
The dedicated (1962)
Doctor of Rhua (1964) a.k.a. The Piper of Laide
Maiden Voyage (1964)
Samaritan's Hospital (1965)
There But for Fortune (1966)
Random Island (1967)
Strangers When We Meet (1968)
Stranger in Town (1970)
Young Doctor Mason (1970)
Research Fellow (1971)
A Sunset Touch (1972)
Anthologies in collaboration
Fair Horizon / Desert Nurse / Queen's Counsel (1970) (with Jane Arbor, Rosalind Brett)
Nurse on Holiday / Country of the Heart / Last of the Logans (1972) (with Catherine Airlie, Rosalind Brett)
Return to Love / Stormy Haven / Nurse to Captain Andy (1972) (with Rosalind Brett, Jill Christian)
Send for Nurse Vincent / Island For Sale / Winter is Past (1973) (with Margaret Malcolm and Anne Weale)
Harlequin Classic Library (1980) (with Elizabeth Hoy, Susan Barrie, Mary Burchell, Juliet Shore, Jean S. MacLeod, Elizabeth Houghton and Jill Tahourdin)
As Barbara Allen
Single novels
Doctor Lucy (1956)
Someone Else's Heart (1958)
The Gay Gordons (1961)
The Scottish Soldier (1966)
As Fiona Finlay
Single novels
Moon Over Madrid (1957)
As V.A. Stuart
Alexander Sheridan Series
Like Victors and Lords (1964) a.k.a. Victors and Lords a.k.a. Captain of Cavalry
The Sepoy Mutiny (1973) a.k.a. Mutiny in Meerut a.k.a. Mutiny at Dawn
Massacre at Cawnpore (1973)
Cannons of Lucknow (1974) a.k.a. Battle for Lucknow
The Heroic Garrison (1973)
Phillip Hazard Series
The Valiant Sailors (1966)
Brave Captains (1968) a.k.a. The Brave Captains
Black Sea Frigate (1971) a.k.a. Hazard's Command
Hazard of Huntress (1972)
Hazard in Circassia (1973)
Victory at Sebastopol (1973) a.k.a. Hazard to the Rescue
Guns to the Far East (1975) a.k.a. Shannon's Brigade
Escape from Hell (1976) a.k.a. Sailors on Horseback
As William Stuart Long
Australians Series
The Exiles (1979)
The Settlers (1980)
The Traitors (1981)
The Explorers (1982)
The Adventurers (1983)
The Colonists (1984)
The Gold Seekers (1985)
The Patriots (1986) a.k.a. The Gallant
The Empire Builders (1987)
The Seafarers (1988)
The Nationalists (1989)
The Imperialists (1990)
As Robyn Stuart
Single novels
Buccaneer's Lady (1981)
Wild Rivers Run (1983)
From the Flames (1983)
References and sources
1914 births
1986 deaths
English women novelists
English romantic fiction writers
English adventure novelists
English historical novelists
Women romantic fiction writers
20th-century English women writers
20th-century English novelists
Women historical novelists