Nancy Brysson Morrison

Morrison was born in Glasgow in 1903[http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/101060216/Agnes-Morrison Agnes Morrison] to Arthur Mackie Morrison, engineer, son of a Glasgow baillie, and Agnes Brysson Morrison CBE, née Inglis.{{Citation|title=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|date=2004-09-23|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/60216|work=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|pages=ref:odnb/60216|editor-last=Matthew|editor-first=H. C. G.|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/60216|access-date=2019-12-31|editor2-last=Harrison|editor2-first=B.|url-access=subscription}} Her mother invented the idea of a "Flag Day" - this is not a Flag Day in the American meaning of the phrase, but a day set aside to gather funds for worthy causes when each contributor is given a small paper flag to wear as evidence of their gift. Several of Morrison's siblings were authors too.

Morrison's first book was"Breakers, published under the androgynous name "N. Brysson Morrison".{{cite book|author1=Elizabeth Ewan|author2=Sue Innes|author3=Sian Reynolds|title=The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women: From the Earliest Times to 2004|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VfSkBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA273|year=2006|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=978-0-7486-1713-5|page=273}}

Her third book was her most popular. The Gowk Storm told the life of three sisters with the youngest as the narrator.{{cite book|author=Nancy Brysson Morrison|title=The Gowk Storm|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w2vZ6KgHII0C|date=1 July 2010|publisher=Canongate Books|isbn=978-1-84767-544-6}} The Gowk Storm (1933) was a Book Society Choice. It sold well and was adapted for the radio.[http://www.canongate.tv/authors/nancybryssonmorrison Nancy Brysson Morrisson], Canongate.tv, Retrieved 27 June 2016

Morrison also secretly wrote popular romantic fiction under the name "Christine Strathern". This was kept so secret that the link was not discovered until 30 years after her death.[http://www.scottishreviewofbooks.org/index.php/back-issues/2013-03-27-15-25-26/volume-nine-issue-two/548-a-gowk-if-ever-there-was-one-susan-mansfield A Gowk if ever there was one], Scottish Review of Books, Retrieved 27 June 2016

Her 1949 novel The Winnowing Years won the first Frederick Niven Award.

A biography of Morrison was written and published in 2013 by Mary Seenan.{{cite book|author=Mary Seenan|title=Nancy Brysson Morrison: A Literary Life|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nEfbmgEACAAJ|date=March 2013|publisher=Kennedy & Boyd|isbn=978-1-84921-122-2}}

In 1971 Rick Wakeman bought a copy of The Private Life of Henry VIII by N. Brysson Morrison.{{cite news | title=Music: Popping the Classics | date=9 July 1973 | publisher=Time | url =http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,907520-2,00.html | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20110604050143/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,907520-2,00.html | url-status =dead | archive-date =4 June 2011 | work =Time |access-date = 12 January 2010 }} Wakeman credits the book with inspiring his album The Six Wives of Henry VIII.{{cite news | title=How Rick Wakeman Made The Six Wives of Henry VIII | date=29 March 1973 | url =https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=4uQPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=4IsDAAAAIBAJ&dq=rick%20wakeman%20six%20wives&pg=5741%2C6013819 | work =The Village Voice | pages =55 | access-date = 27 June 2016}}

Morrison wrote several biographies, novels and some romantic fiction. She was known for writing about Scottish history and for focusing on those usually lost to history.

She died of cancer in St Mary's Hospital, London, on 27 February 1986. Her ashes are buried in her sister's grave in Ballater, Scotland.

• Breakers (1930)
• The Gowk Storm (1933)
• When the Wind Blows (1937)
• The Winnowing Years (1949)
• The Hidden Fairing (1951)
• The Keeper of Time (1953)
• The Following Wind (1954)
• Mary, Queen of Scots, (1960) non-fiction
• Thea (1962)

"The Gowk Storm is one of the most atmospheric books I have ever read and the claustrophobia of the setting acts as a metaphor for the restrictions society places on these strong, intelligent and articulate young women. The symbolism of weather and the force of nature underpins the narrative. The weather is a character in itself, central to the main figures' lives; sometimes joyful, more often uncaring or malevolent, but always lovingly described and full of significance. What I love about the book is the detail; the way in which the author brings alive a character or place with economy and precision. The ferryman is 'a mere paring of a man', Christine Strathern's features are 'like a wax doll's which have melted ever so slightly at the fire'."{{Cite news|url=https://www.list.co.uk/article/2764-nancy-brysson-morrison-the-gowk-storm-1933/|title=Nancy Brysson Morrison - The Gowk Storm (1933)|date=2005-01-01|work=The List|access-date=2017-11-24|language=en-GB}}

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Category:1903 births

Category:1986 deaths

Category:Writers from Glasgow

Category:Scottish women novelists

Category:20th-century Scottish novelists

Category:Scottish biographers

Category:British women biographers

Category:20th-century Scottish women writers