D. E. Stevenson

Stevenson was born in Melville Street, Edinburgh, Scotland, on 18 November 1892. Her father was David Alan Stevenson, a lighthouse engineer and first cousin to author Robert Louis Stevenson and her mother was Annie Roberts.{{Cite web|url=https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk|title=1892 STEVENSON, DOROTHY EMILY (Statutory registers Births 685/1 1959)|website=Scotland's People}} A commemorative plaque marking the house where she spent her childhood was mounted at 14 Eglinton Crescent, Edinburgh in 2016.{{cite press release | url = http://www.cityofliterature.com/3-edinburgh-women-writers-honoured-commemorative-plaques/ | title = 3 Edinburgh Women Writers Honoured with Commemorative Plaques | date = 3 August 2016 | author = Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust | publisher = Edinburgh City of Literature | access-date = 29 January 2017 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170202140048/http://www.cityofliterature.com/3-edinburgh-women-writers-honoured-commemorative-plaques/ | archive-date = 2 February 2017 | url-status = dead }} She began writing at a young age but hid her efforts because her parents and governesses disapproved. Her father refused to send her to university, lest she become a bluestocking.

file:Moffat, Haywood Road, North Park placque.jpg

In 1916, Stevenson married James Reid Peploe, a captain in the 6th Gurkha Rifles.{{citation | url = http://www.dalyght.ca/DEStevenson/smitharticle.pdf | title = STAYING POWER: Almost 40 years after her death, the author DE Stevenson is still so popular that fans from across the world are coming to Moffat for the re-issue of one of her books | first = Mary | last = Smith | others = Photography by Phil Rigby | work = Dumbfries & Galloway Life | date = April 2011 | pages = 102–103}} The Peploes had four children.{{Cite web |title=D E STEVENSON BIOGRAPHY |url=http://dalyght.ca/DEStevenson/des_monahan/bio.html |access-date=2023-06-03 |website=dalyght.ca}} Her 1932 novel Mrs. Tim of the Regiment, which describes her life as a British army wife,{{cite web | url = http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/mrs-tim-of-the-regiment-9781608190522/ | title = Mrs. Tim of the Regiment: A Novel | work = Bloomsbury Publishing | publisher = Bloomsbury Publishing Plc | access-date = 29 January 2017}} was based on her personal diary.

She wrote most of her books while living in the town of Moffat, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Her novels were best-sellers, with more than seven million copies printed and translations in multiple languages. Her last book was published in 1969.

Stevenson died in Edinburgh in 1973.{{cite book|author=R. Reginald|title=Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature: A Checklist, 1700-1974 : with Contemporary Science Fiction Authors II|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QfEzAQAAIAAJ|year=1979|publisher=Gale Research Company|isbn=978-0-8103-1051-3|page=1088}} She is buried with her husband in Moffat New Cemetery.

== Legacy ==

In 2017, Historic Environment Scotland awarded a plaque to commemorate Stevenson, at 14 Eglinton Crescent, Edinburgh.{{cite news |last1=Latto |first1=Ryan |title=D. E. Stevenson: Prolific Edinburgh Author Finally Commemorated |url=https://theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2017/05/d-e-stevenson-prolific-edinburgh-author-finally-commemorated |access-date=19 August 2024 |work=The Edinburgh Reporter |date=24 May 2017}}

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Stevenson published under the name "DE Stevenson" or "D.E. Stevenson."

Stevenson published three volumes of poetry,{{cite web | url = http://www.destevenson.org/ | title = D. E. Stevenson's Books | first = Susan | last = Daly | date = | access-date = 29 January 2017}} two of them before her novels.

• Meadow-flowers, 1915
• The Starry Mantle, 1926
• Alister and Co., 1940, 1943 (alternate title: It's Nice to Be Me)

• Peter West, 1923 (first published in serial format in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal)
• Divorced From Reality, 1935 (alternate title: Miss Dean's Dilemma; republished in 1966 as The Young Clementina)
• Smouldering Fire, 1935
• The Empty World: A Romance of the Future, 1936 (alternate title: A World in Spell)
• The Story of Rosabelle Shaw, 1937 (alternate title: Rosabelle Shaw)
• Miss Bun the Baker's Daughter, 1938 (alternate title: The Baker's Daughter)
• Green Money, 1939
• Rochester's Wife, 1940
• The English Air, 1940
• Spring Magic, 1942
• Crooked Adam, 1942 in US, 1969 in UK
• Celia's House, 1943
• Listening Valley, 1944
• Kate Hardy, 1947
• Young Mrs. Savage, 1948
• Five Windows, 1953
• Charlotte Fairlie, 1954 (alternate titles: Blow the Wind Southerly, The Enchanted Isle)
• The Tall Stranger, 1957
• Anna and her Daughters, 1958
• Still Glides the Stream, 1959
• The Musgraves, 1960
• The Blue Sapphire, 1963
• The House on the Cliff, 1966

• Mrs Tim of the Regiment, 1932 (alternate title: Mrs. Tim of the Regiment, or, Leaves from the Diary of an Officer's Wife)
• Golden Days, 1934 (alternate title: Golden Days: Further Leaves from Mrs. Tim's Journal)
• Mrs Tim Carries On, 1941
• Mrs. Tim Gets a Job, 1947
• Mrs. Tim Flies Home, 1952

Note that Mrs Tim of the Regiment and Golden Days were originally published separately, but all subsequent reprints combined the two halves into a single volume titled Mrs. Tim Christie.

• Miss Buncle's Book, 1934 (republished in 2008 by Persephone Books)
• Miss Buncle Married, 1936 (republished in 2011 by Persephone Books)
• The Two Mrs. Abbotts, 1943 (republished in 2013 by Persephone Books)
• The Four Graces, 1946

• Vittoria Cottage, 1949
• Music in The Hills, 1950
• Winter and Rough Weather, 1951 (alternate title: Shoulder the Sky)

Amberwell

• Amberwell, 1955
• Summerhills, 1956

Bel Lamington

• Bel Lamington, 1961
• Fletcher's End, 1962

Katherine Wentworth

• Katherine Wentworth, 1964
• Katherine's Marriage, 1965 (alternate title: The Marriage of Katherine)

Sarah Morris Remembers

• Sarah Morris Remembers, 1967
• Sarah's Cottage, 1968

Gerald and Elizabeth

• Gerald and Elizabeth, 1969
• House of the Deer, 1970

Five additional works were published by Greyladies after being discovered in a box in the Stevenson family attic.{{cite news | url = https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-13280234 | title = DE Stevenson novels published long after author's death | first = Willie | last = Johnston | date = 5 May 2011 | work = BBC News | publisher = BBC | access-date = 29 January 2017}}{{cite web | url = http://www.anglophilebooks.com/desnew.htm | title = D. E. Stevenson's "lost" books | publisher = Anglophile Books | access-date = 29 January 2017}}

• Jean Erskine's Secret, written 1913-1917, published 2013
• Emily Dennistoun, written 1920s, published 2011
• Portrait of Saskia, written 1920s, published 2011
• The Fair Miss Fortune, written 1930s, published 2011
• Found in the Attic, collection of papers, published 2013

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Some of Stevenson's characters appear as supporting characters or make cameo appearances in her other novels. She also sometimes reused settings.

Miss Buncle spills into The Four Graces as well as Spring Magic, and her book is described in Anna and her Daughters. Celia's House inspired Listening Valley, where Celia makes a re-appearance. Readers hear of her again during Anna and Her Daughters. Anna pops up briefly in the Katherine books which link with Charlotte Fairlie (Mr. Heath the vicar makes a re-appearance this time). Later Sarah Morris ends up in Ryddelton in Sarah's Cottage to be befriended by Debbie (who made her debut in Celia's House) and to hear about Tonia (Listening Valley) and Charlotte Fairlie.

More links exist from the Katherine books, via Mr Sandford the lawyer, to House on the Cliff which links via Miss Martineau the landlady to The Blue Sapphire. The Katherine books also tell readers more about MacAslan who is first introduced in Smouldering Fire. Stevenson's last book, The House of the Deer (a reworking of a serial published in The Glasgow Bulletin in 1936) revisits the MacAslan family in the second generation, and is a sequel to Gerald and Elizabeth.

Gerald and Elizabeth enter into the saga around Drumburly and re-introduce Freda from Five Windows. Jock from the Music in the Hills trilogy also knows of Freda. Bel Lamington links into these books. Bel's friend Margaret was a Musgrave, and there are links from The Musgraves to The Tall Stranger, which was a sequel (of sorts) to Five Windows (though Stevenson, uncharacteristically, makes an error between the two books - in Five Windows the main character is David Kirke while in The Tall Stranger his name is spelled Kirk). The Musgraves give a tenuous link back to Ryddelton via "The Mulberry Coach", a story written by one of Anna's daughters and nearly performed by Delia Musgrave{{clarify|reason=What does "nearly performed" mean in this context?|date=September 2021}}.

The Amberwell books link closely to Still Glides the Stream which in turn ties in with the Sarah books, in that Will and Sarah both visit Nivennes and meet with the Delormes family, although their visits are many years apart.

Another recurring character is the author Janetta Walters, whose light romantic novels are either loved or loathed by Stevenson characters. Her books in are mentioned in Mrs. Tim Carries On and Spring Magic. She appears in person in The Two Mrs. Abbotts and The Four Graces.

Dr. (Monkey) Wrench appears briefly in Vittoria Cottage to deliver the Widgeons' baby. He was introduced as Arthur's close friend and war buddy in Miss Buncle Married. He continued to appear in The Two Mrs. Abbotts where he had the added and interesting role of the bonfire builder.

Some of Stevenson's most popular books are being reissued.

Persephone Books reprinted Miss Buncle's Book in 2008 and Miss Buncle Married in 2011. Mrs. Tim of the Regiment was reprinted by Bloomsbury in 2010. Sourcebooks Landmark released the latter two Miss Buncle books in the U.S. in 2012, followed in 2013 by The Young Clementina and The Two Mrs. Abbotts. Endeavour Media has republished many of D.E Stevenson's titles in eBook format.

Please Turn Over, (1959)

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.destevenson.org/ DEStevenson.org]
• [http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~abunting/ The Original Site]
• [http://www.persephonebooks.co.uk/de-stevenson/ Author Profile at Persephone Books] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160414182347/http://www.persephonebooks.co.uk/de-stevenson/ |date=14 April 2016 }}
• [http://www.persephonebooks.co.uk/miss-buncle-s-book.html Miss Buncle's Book] ''at Persephone Books
• [http://www.endeavourmedia.co.uk/?s=Stevenson D.E Stevenson's books] at Endeavour Media

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Category:1892 births

Category:1973 deaths

Category:Scottish women novelists

Category:20th-century Scottish women writers

Category:Writers from Edinburgh

Category:20th-century Scottish novelists

Category:20th-century Scottish women