Further to my post on Fiona Pringle’s excellent Evening News article on honouring Edinburgh’s great women, possibly with a statue, here is the Evening News update – and it covers Mary Stewart! Click on the link in the tweet to read the article:

As you can read in this follow-up article, Mary Stewart features as

a popular nomination

It sounds as though a few of us may have responded to the original article with Mary Stewart’s name: great work, everyone!

Here is what it says about Mary Stewart:

MARY STEWART: CULTIVATED ADVENTUROUS HEROINES 

A popular nomination, the novelist Mary Stewart has been acknowledged as the writer who developed the romantic mystery genre over a career spanning 40 years.

Not only were her stories engaging and novel, but she shunned the traditional female characterisation and presented a new adventurous heroine who recoiled from the “normal” weak mould portrayed at the time.

Women in Mary’s books could drive fast cars, they could hold their own in dangerous situation and would fight their corner.

It was a new take on leading women in novels and readers were enthralled.

Born in 1916 Mary trained as a teacher before moving to Edinburgh in 1956 with her husband.

Her background in English and a classical education gave her the ability to spin wonderfully engaging and compelling tales littered with casual and intelligent literary allusions, earning the plaudit as a natural successor to Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte.

Her storytelling was a quality she believed was inherent, saying “I am first and foremost, a teller of tales”.

Mary’s first novel – Madam, Will You Talk? published shortly after arriving in Edinburgh – was followed by many other successful works over the years, including her bestseller The Crystal Cave.

Isn’t it terrific to see Mary Stewart given this write-up in her adoptive city’s newspaper?