Catherine Gavin

{{short description|Scottish historian and novelist (1907–1999)}}

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| name = Catherine Gavin

| honorific_suffix = DLitt

| image =CatherineGavin1969.jpg

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| alt =The face of a middle-aged white woman with short dark hair.

| caption =Catherine Gavin, from a 1969 newspaper.

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| birth_date = {{Birth date|1907|5|13}}

| birth_place = Aberdeen, Scotland

| death_date = 27 December 1999 (age 92)

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| nationality = Scottish

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| occupation = historian, academic, war correspondent, novelist

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| alma_mater = University of Aberdeen

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| workplaces = University of Aberdeen
University of Glasgow
Kemsley Newspapers

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Catherine Irvine Gavin (13 May 1907 – 27 December 1999) was a Scottish academic historian, war correspondent, and historical novelist.{{cite web|url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/catherine-gavin-1.242162|title=Catherine Gavin|last=Alexander|first=Flora|date=1 April 2000|work=Herald Scotland|access-date=18 August 2014}}

Early life

Gavin was born in Aberdeen in 1907,{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pFddDwAAQBAJ&q=Catherine+Gavin+Clyde+Valley&pg=PA289|title=Twentieth-Century Romance and Gothic Writers|year=1982|publisher=Macmillan International Higher Education|isbn=978-1-349-06127-3|pages=289|language=en}} and studied history and English at the University of Aberdeen, graduating with first-class honours. She completed doctoral work in 1931, with a doctoral thesis on Louis Philippe of France; her thesis was published in 1933.{{Cite book|last=Gavin|first=Catherine Irvine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d50aAAAAMAAJ|title=Louis Philippe, King of the French|date=1933|publisher=Methuen & Company Limited|language=en}}

Career

Gavin held positions as a history lecturer at Aberdeen and at the University of Glasgow. She stood unsuccessfully as a Unionist candidate in two parliamentary elections in the 1930s.

During World War II, she worked in France and the Netherlands for Kemsley Newspapers. She also wrote a biography of Edward VII, published in 1941. She was a correspondent in the Middle East and Ethiopia after the war, for the Daily Express. After marriage, she worked a few years on the staff of Time magazine in New York. She wrote about her wartime experiences in Liberated France (1955).{{Cite book|last=Gavin|first=Catherine Irvine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B8sfAAAAMAAJ|title=Liberated France|date=1955|publisher=Cape|language=en}}

Most of Gavin's literary output was in the genre of historical romance.{{Cite news|last=Gifford|first=Thomas|date=1969-03-23|title=When Novels Aren't Novel, They're Genre|pages=99|work=Star Tribune|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/51497428/when-novels-arent-novel-theyre/|access-date=2020-05-17|via=Newspapers.com}} "Her characters are attractive flesh-and-blood people, her narrative adventurous and suspenseful, and her use of history skillful and unerring," reported one American reviewer in 1957.{{Cite news|last=Barkham|first=John|date=1957-11-30|title=Hazards Ride High|pages=12|work=Tucson Citizen|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/51496539/hazards-ride-highjohn-barkham/|access-date=2020-05-17|via=Newspapers.com}} The University of Aberdeen awarded her an honorary DLitt in 1986. The Catherine Gavin Room there is named in her honour. The university has a 1940 portrait of her, in oil, by Elizabeth Mary Watt.{{cite web|url=https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/catherine-gavin-105195|title=BBC – Your Paintings – Catherine Gavin|work=Art UK|access-date=18 August 2014}}

Gavin appeared as a castaway on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 24 June 1978.{{cite web|title=Desert Island Discs – Castaway : Dr Catherine Gavin|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/castaway/5b3366f0#p009mynt|work=BBC Online|publisher=BBC|access-date=18 August 2014}}

Selected works

Gavin's works of historical fiction include the following titles:

Clyde Valley (1938){{Cite book|last=Finkelstein|first=David|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gdeqBgAAQBAJ&q=Catherine+Gavin+Clyde+Valley&pg=PA239|title=Edinburgh History of the Book in Scotland, Volume 4: Professionalism and Diversity 1880–2000|year=2007|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=978-0-7486-2884-1|pages=239–240|language=en}}
The Hostile Shore (1940)
The Black Milestone (1941){{Cite news|last=Smith|first=Janet Adam|date=19 July 1942|title=The Literary Scene in Scotland|page=BR7|work=The New York Times|id={{ProQuest|}} }}
The Mountain of Light (1944)
Madeleine (1957){{Cite book|last=Gavin|first=Catherine Irvine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wbw3AAAAIAAJ|title=Madeleine|date=1957|publisher=St. Martin's Press|language=en}}
The Cactus and the Crown (1962){{Cite book|last=Gavin|first=Catherine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YV8lwwEACAAJ|title=The Cactus and the Crown|date=1962|language=en}}{{Cite news|last=Alexander|first=Charles|year=1962|title=An Old Dream Dies, A New is Born|pages=6|work=Albany Democrat-Herald|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/51495449/an-old-dream-dies-a-new-is/|access-date=2020-05-17|via=Newspapers.com}}
The Fortress (1964)
The Moon Into Blood (1966)
The Devil in Harbour (1968)
The House of War (1970){{Cite book|last=Gavin|first=Catherine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=frHkAAAAMAAJ|title=The House of War|date=1970|publisher=Morrow|isbn=9780671819262|language=en}}
Give Me the Daggers (1972){{Cite book|last=Gavin|first=Catherine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rtF5nQAACAAJ|title=Give Me the Daggers|date=2005|publisher=Royal National Institute of the Blind|language=en}}{{Cite news|last=Harvey|first=Catherine|date=1972-10-22|title=Catherine Gavin Novel Entertaining|pages=102|work=Fort Worth Star-Telegram|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/51496098/catherine-gavin-novel/|access-date=2020-05-17|via=Newspapers.com}}
The Snow Mountain (1973){{Cite book|last=Gavin|first=Catherine Irvine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q-gfAQAAIAAJ|title=The Snow Mountain|date=1974|publisher=Pantheon Books|isbn=978-0-394-49179-0|language=en}}
Traitors' Gate (1976)
None Dare Call It Treason (1978){{Cite book|last=Gavin|first=Catherine Irvine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8H9UGwAACAAJ|title=None Dare Call it Treason|date=1978|publisher=St. Martin's Press|isbn=978-0-312-57706-3|language=en}}
How Sleep the Brave (1980)
The Sunset Dream (1984){{Cite book|last=Gavin|first=Catherine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w7-NHAAACAAJ|title=The Sunset Dream|date=1985|publisher=Coronet|isbn=978-0-340-36656-1|language=en}}
A Light Woman (1986)
A Dawn of Splendour (1989){{Cite book|last=Gavin|first=Catherine Irvine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yiEBJQAACAAJ|title=A Dawn of Splendour|date=1990|publisher=Grafton|isbn=978-0-586-20345-3|language=en}}
The French Fortune (1991){{Cite book|last=Gavin|first=Catherine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zPfjAAAACAAJ|title=The French Fortune|date=1991|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=978-0-246-13588-9|language=en}}
One Candle Burning (1996){{Cite book|last=Gavin|first=Catherine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aVfBAAAACAAJ|title=One Candle Burning|date=1997|publisher=HarperCollinsPubl.|isbn=978-0-586-20909-7|language=en}}

Personal life

In 1948, Gavin married American advertising executive John Ashcraft and moved to the United States with him. She was widowed in 1998, and died in 1999, aged 92.