Agatha Raisin creator dies aged 83
● Scottish writer penned more than 160 novels
The author and creator of fictional detectives Agatha Raisin and Hamish Macbeth has died at the age of 83. Glasgow-born Marion Chesney Gibbons, who wrote under the pseudonym MC Beaton, penned more than 160 novels.
One of Scotland’s most popular crime writers has died at the age of 83. Glasgow-born Marion Chesney Gibbons, who wrote under the pen name M C Beaton, was author of the Hamish Macbeth and Agatha Raisin detective novels.
She died on 30 December after a short illness.
Ms Gibbons had been writing romance and mystery novels since 1979, selling more than 21 million books around the world.
The Agatha Raisin and Hamish Macbeth novels were translated into 17 languages and were both made into television dramas.
Robert Carlyle played Highland policeman Macbeth in the BBC Scotland series, which ran from 1995 to 1997.
Ashley Jensen starred as amateur sleuth Raisin in the Sky TV drama, which first aired in 2016.
Ms Gibbons also wrote under other pseudonyms – including Ann Fairfax, Jennie Tremaine, Helen Crampton, Charlotte Ward, Sarah Chester and her own maiden name, Marion Chesney.
Tributes have been flooding in since her death was announced.
Her son Charles Gibbons said his mother had died following a “brief illness”.
Headded:“authorofover160 novels in her prolific 40-year career, this news will sadden many of her readers almost as much as it has her family and friends.
“The support of her fans and the success she enjoyed in later years were a source of great pride and satisfaction to her, and for that I will be eternally grateful.”
Krystyna Green, her editor, said: “I’m going to miss her dreadfully as after 23 years I’d grown from being in awe of her to thinking she was absolutely wonderful – and very kind under her rather fierce exterior.
“She was forthright and uncompromising and never afraid to express a view, no matter how unfashionable.
“She was funny, wise and truly an inspiring, utterly unique individual. This is just such a sad end to the year.”
Scottish crime writer and broadcaster Val Mcdermid was one of those who took to Twitter to pay her respects.
She tweeted: “Sad news. Marion’s sense of humour never deserted her, nor her determination to enjoy life to the full.”
Stuart Macbride, whose detective thrillers are set in Aberdeen, posted: “This is horrible, horrible news.
“Marion was a wonderful lady, a proper force of nature who brought pleasure to millions with her writing, and someone I was very proud to call my friend. What an utterly terrible end to 2019.”
Marion Chesney was born on 10 June 1936 in Glasgow. Her first job was as a buyer of fiction for a bookshop in the city, before becoming a theatre critic, newspaper reporter and editor.
Her newspaper career took her to Fleet Street, before moving to the US with journalist husband Harry Scott Gibbons.
She took up writing regency romances to be able to spend more time at home with their infant son Charles, later turning to detective fiction.
The first Hamish Macbeth story was inspired by a trip to Sutherland and the family bought a croft in the area.
They later moved to the Cotswolds, in southern England, where Agatha Raisin is set.
She may not often have received the sort of plaudits reserved for “serious” literary figures but MC Beaton was a truly great writer.
The prolific creator of fictional detectives Hamish Macbeth and Agatha Raisin, MC Beaton – a pseudonym for Marion Chesney Gibbons – sold more than 21 million copies of her books around the world to an army of fans who recognised her brilliance as a storyteller of great warmth and humour.
Her novels may not have had the grit of much contemporary
Scottish fiction but they were often sharply satirical. The soubriquet “the queen of cosy crime” did not do the breadth and depth of her work justice.
There are many standards by which to judge writers but perhaps the most important is how they connect to readers. Mc Beaton did that with ease, winning over bookworms eager to escape into the worlds – at once both familiar and bizarre – that she created.
The literary world continues to mourn Alasdair Gray. The passing of MC Beaton represents as great a loss to our cultural life.