The stylish, educated novels of Mary Stewart, who has died aged 97, charmed two generations of postwar readers and launched a whole new strand of modern popular writing: romantic suspense. She arguably inspired the deluge of bestselling romantic fiction that has flooded the market in recent decades. During a writing career of more than 40 years, she produced a score of chart-topping novels that sold in excess of 5m copies and made her an international household name.
Yet fame was not what she wanted. She detested the intrusions it brought and fiercely protected her privacy. In 1997, apprehensive about a forthcoming and rarely granted press interview, she found herself unable to write for six weeks. When her first novel, Madam, Will You Talk? (1954), was published and she saw "This is the new star" printed next to her publicity photograph, she burst into tears of dismay.
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