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Last edited by David Scotson
December 10, 2022 | History

M. C. Beaton

Marion Chesney was born in 1936 in Glasgow, Scotland. Her first job was a bookseller in charge of the fiction department in John Smith & Sons Ltd. While working there, the Scottish Daily Mail hired her to review variety shows; she quickly rose to be their theatre critic. She left Smith’s to work as a secretary--albeit without typing or shorthand skills--in the advertising department of Scottish Field magazine but was soon the fashion editor instead. She moved to the Scottish Daily Express, where she reported mostly on crime, then to Fleet Street and the Daily Express, where she was their chief woman reporter.

Marion married Harry Scott Gibbons, and they had a son, Charles. Harry was offered a job as editor of the Long Island, New York, Oyster Bay Guardian, and the small family moved to the United States. The Oyster Bay job didn’t work out, and the trio moved to Virginia. Marion and Harry worked in the same greasy spoon in Alexandria--Marion waited tables, and Harry washed dishes. Happily, they both got jobs on Rupert Murdoch’s new tabloid, The Star, and returned to New York.

Marion wanted to spend more time at home with young Charles. In 1977, encouraged by her husband, she started to write historical romance novels, eventually publishing over one hundred books under her maiden name, Marion Chesney, and under a variety of pseudonyms: Ann Fairfax, Jennie Tremaine, Helen Crampton, Charlotte Ward, and Sarah Chester.

By 1985, Marion was weary of historicals and turned to detectives stories, writing as M. C. Beaton. A course at a fishing school during a holiday in Sutherland provided inspiration for the first Constable Hamish Macbeth story. Eventually, the family returned to Scotland and and bought a croft house and croft in Sutherland, where Harry reared a flock of black sheep. Another move, to the Cotswolds, led to the birth of Agatha Raisin.

British writer (1936–2019)

Born 1936
Died 2019

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  • Cover of: Death of a Poison Pen
    First published in 2004 8 editions

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  • Cover of: Death of a Maid
    Cover of edition deathofmaid00mcbe First published in 2007 7 editions

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  • Cover of: Death of a Gossip
    Cover of edition deathofgossip0000beat_p7y0 First published in 1985 7 editions

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  • Cover of: Death of aperfect wife
    Cover of edition deathofperfectwi00beat_0 First published in 1989 6 editions

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  • Cover of: Death of a village: a Hamish Macbeth mystery

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  • Cover of: Agatha Raisin and the quiche of death

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  • Cover of: A Highland Christmas
    First published in 1999 5 editions

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  • Cover of: Death of an addict
    Cover of edition deathofaddict0000beat_c5l7 First published in 1999 5 editions

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  • Cover of: Death of a Charming Man
    Cover of edition deathofcharmingm00beat First published in 1994 5 editions

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  • Cover of: Death of a dreamer
    First published in 2005 5 editions

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  • Cover of: Death of a Celebrity: A Hamish Macbeth Mystery

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  • Cover of: Agatha Raisin and the walkers of Dembley

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  • Cover of: Agatha Raisin and the potted gardener

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  • Cover of: Death of a cad
    First published in 1987 4 editions

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  • Cover of: Agatha Raisin and the case of the curious curate

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  • Cover of: Agatha Raisin and the love from hell

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  • Cover of: Agatha Raisin and the witch of Wyckhadden.

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  • Cover of: Death of a Hussy
    Cover of edition deathofhussy00beat First published in 1990 4 editions

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  • Cover of: Death of an outsider
    Cover of edition deathofoutsider00beat First published in 1988 4 editions

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  • Cover of: Death of a witch
    Cover of edition isbn_9781597229036 Cover of edition deathofwitch0000beat_c7f8 First published in 2009 4 editions

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British writer (1936–2019)

Born 1936
Died 2019

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December 10, 2022 Edited by David Scotson Edited without comment.
August 22, 2020 Edited by SHM Edited without comment.
May 4, 2014 Edited by Kitty Nichols Edited without comment.
May 4, 2014 Edited by Kitty Nichols Edited bio
April 1, 2008 Created by an anonymous user initial import