Marion Chesney
Marion Gibbons (née Chesney; 10 June 1936 – 30 December 2019) was a Scottish writer of romance and mystery novels, whose career as a published author began in 1979. She wrote numerous successful historical romance novels under a form of her maiden name, Marion Chesney, including the "Travelling Matchmaker" and "Daughters of Mannerling" series. Using the pseudonym M. C. Beaton, she also wrote many popular mystery novels, most notably the Agatha Raisin and Hamish Macbeth mystery series. Both of these book series have been adapted for TV. She also wrote romance novels under the pseudonyms Ann Fairfax, Jennie Tremaine , Helen Crampton, Charlotte Ward, and Sarah Chester. Writing as Marion Chesney, her final endeavour was an Edwardian mystery series featuring Lady Rose Summer, a charming debutante with an independent streak, and Captain Harry Cathcart, an impoverished aristocrat. In an interview, she stated that she ceased writing the Edwardian series as a result of the pressure of writing for the Agatha Raisin and Hamish Macbeth series. Biography. Marion Chesney was born on 10 June 1936 in Glasgow, Scotland, and worked as a buyer of fiction for the Glasgow bookshop John Smith & Son before working at the Scottish Daily Express as a  theatre critic, newspaper reporter and editor. She married Express Middle East Correspondent Harry Scott Gibbons in 1969; they had a son, Charles. The couple moved to the Cotswolds when their son was about to go to university, assuming that he would go to Oxford, though in fact he did not. Chesney had also lived in the USA. In later life she divided her time between a cottage in the Cotswolds (No.6 Northwick Terrace, Blockley, Moreton in Marsh, Gloucestershire), and Paris. She died at a hospital in Gloucester, England on 30 December 2019, at the age of 83. Bibliography. As Marion  Chesney. Stand-alone novels. "(some of these books were re-published much later as part of other series, often as by "M. C. Beaton")" Those Endearing Young Charms There are also the short stories "Agatha Raisin and the Christmas Crumble" (2012), "Hell's Bells" (2013) and "Agatha's First Case" (2015), as well as "The Agatha Raisin Companion" (2010) with introduction by M.C.Beaton.