Jean S. MacLeod

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Biography

Borned Jane Sutherland MacLeod on January 20, 1908 in Glasgow, Scotland, the daughter of Elizabeth Allen and John MacLeod. She was actually named Jane, but her grandfather complained it was not Scottish enough, and it was changed to Jean. Her father, who was a civil engineer, moved her family with jobs. Her education began at Bearsden Academy, continued in Swansea and ended in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

She worked in a sweet shop. She moved to North Yorkshire, England to marry with Major Lionel Walton on January 1, 1935[4][2], an electricity board executive, who died in 1995. They had a son, David Walton, who died two years before her. She died on April 11, 2011 at 103 years.

Jean S. MacLeod started writing stories for the magazine The People's Friend, before sold her first romance at Mills & Boon in 1936. Her debut novel was Life For Two. She also published under the name Catherine Airlie. She wrote contemporary romances, most of them were set in her native Scotland, or in exotic places like Spain or Caribbean, places that she normally visited for documented. From 1948 to 1965, she also published under the pseudonym of Catherine Airlie. She was the first author published in the Mills & Boon Romance Series. As an author for Harlequin Romance, Jean S. MacLeod published 55 novels.

In a 2009 interview with The Daily Mail[1], MacLeod recounted an encounter with author Barbara Cartland:

Mrs MacLeod was a member of the Romantic Novelists' Association and as a result, knew famed romance novelist Barbara Cartland.

She said: 'Mills & Boon always had a champagne tent on Ladies' Day at Ascot for their authors. One year, Barbara sauntered over and dismissively asked, "Wearing the same outfit twice, Jean? Are things really that hard?"

'I didn't dignify it with a response - she was known for her sharp remarks.'


Books

On the Web

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