Lucilla Andrews

Born in November 1919, in Suez, Lucilla Andrews' experiences of nursing, both during the Second World War and after it, provided her with material which she would draw on when writing her hospital-set romances. She died on the 3rd of October, 2006, in Edinburgh, aged 86 and an obituary, published in the Guardian, can be found here.

She was the author of 35 romance novels, focusing largely on her area of expertise: nursing.

Post-humously, Andrews' name filled literary news. Controversy arose when noted British author Ian McEwan was accused of plagiarizing Andrews' memoir, No Time For Romance, in his novel Atonement. McEwan's defenders, including literary luminaries such as Thomas Pynchon, rose to the author's defense, noting that McEwan's use of the source material constituted legitimate research of historical events. The material he used from the book were largely matters of fact. Andrews was apparently aware of McEwan's use of her memoirs as source material (and she was cited as a source in Atonement), though she never spoke with McEwan prior to her death.