Maureen Mollie Hunter McIlwraith (30 June 1922 – 31 July 2012)[1] was a Scottish writer known as Mollie Hunter. She wrote fantasy for children, historical stories for young adults, and realistic novels for adults. Many of her works are inspired by Scottish history, or by Scottish or Irish folklore, with elements of magic and fantasy.
Life
Born and raised near Edinburgh in the small village of Longniddry, her final years were spent in Inverness.[2] A portrait of her hangs in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.[3]
Hunter's debut was Patrick Kentigern Keenan, published by Blackie and Son in 1963 with illustrations by Charles Keeping.[4][5] In the U.S. it was published in 1963 as The Smartest Man in Ireland.
Awards
For The Stronghold Mollie Hunter won the 1974 Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject.[6] The same novel, published in The Netherlands as "Een toren tegen de romeinen" won the "Zilveren Griffel" (Silver Pen) award in 1978 for children's writing.
She won the Phoenix Award from the Children's Literature Association in 1992, recognising A Sound of Chariots (1972) as the best children's book published twenty years earlier that did not win a major award.[7]
The Oxford English Dictionary credits Hunter with a quotation regarding the word consensus: "No single group has the right to ignore a consensus of thoughtful opinion"[8]
The King's Swift Rider: A Novel on Robert the Bruce (1998)
Collections
A Furl of Fairy Wind (1977)
Plays
Stay for an Answer (1962)
The Captain
A Love-song for My Lady
The Walking Stones
Picture books
Hi Johnny (1963)
The Brownie (1986), illus. Mahri Christopherson
The Enchanted Boy (1986), illus. Christopherson
Flora MacDonald and Bonnie Prince Charlie (1988), illus. Chris Molan
Gilly Martin the Fox (1994), illus. Dennis McDermott
Nonfiction
Talent Is Not Enough: Mollie Hunter on Writing for Children (1976)
The Pied Piper Syndrome and Other Essays (1992)
Notes
^ abISFDB and WorldCat records show some later UK publications under the US titles, and perhaps vice versa.
^ abcdWorldCat libraries have catalogued at least four of her books with the subtitle "a story of suspense": A Stranger Came Ashore, The Wicked One, The Walking Stones, and The 13th Member.
