V. A. Stuart

24 featured booksV. A. Stuart

Violet Vivian Finlay was born on 2 January 1914 in Berkshire, England, UK, the daughter of Alice Kathleen (née Norton) and Sir Campbell Kirkman Finlay. Her father was the owner and director of Burmah Oil Company Ltd., whose Scottish family also owned James Finlay and Company Ltd. The majority of her childhood and youth was spent in Rangoon, Burma (now also known as Myanmar), where her father worked. During her life, she frequently journeyed between India, Singapore, Java and Sumatra. Although Vivian is well-known by the surname of Stuart, she married four times during her lifetime, and had five children: Gillian Rushton (née Porch), Kim Santow, Jennifer Gooch (née Stuart), and twins Vary and Valerie Stuart. Following the dissolution of her first marriage, she studied for a time Law in London in the mid 1930s, before decided studied Medicine at the University of London. Later she spent time in Hungary in the capacity of private tutor in English, while she obtained a pathologist qualification at the University of Budapest in 1938. In 1939, she emigrated to Australia with her second husband, a Hungarian Doctor Geza Santow with whom she worked. In 1942, she obtained a diploma in industrial chemistry and laboratory technique at Technical Institute of Newcastle. Having earned an ambulance driver's certificate, she joined the Australian Forces at the Women's Auxiliary Service during World War II. She was attached to the IVth Army, and raised to the rank of sergeant, she was posted to British XIV Army in Rangoon, Burma in October 1945, and was then transferred to Sumatra in December. After the WWII, she returned to England. On 24 October 1958, she married her fourth and last husband, Cyril William Mann, a bank manager. She was a prolific writer from 1953 to 1986 under diferent pseudonyms: Vivian Stuart, Alex Stuart, Barbara Allen, Fiona Finlay, V. A. Stuart, William Stuart Long and Robyn Stuart. Many of her novels were protagonized by doctors or nurses, and set in Asia, Australia or other places she had visited. Her romance novel, Gay Cavalier published in 1955 as Alex Stuart got her into trouble with her Mills & Boon editors when she featured a secondary story line featuring a Catholic male and Protestant female who chose to marry. This so-called "mixed marriage" touched nerves in the United Kingdom. In 1960, she was a founder of the Romantic Novelists' Association, along with Denise Robins, Barbara Cartland, and others; she was elected the first Chairman (1961-1963). In 1970, she became the first woman to chair Swanwick Writers' Summer School. Violet Vivian Finlay Porch Santow Stuart Mann passed away on August 1986 in Yorkshire, at age 72. She continued writing until her death.

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OL1388377A

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V. A. Stuart
Personal name
V. A. Stuart
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OL1388377A

Featured books

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Hello!
Representative edition published 2023
Open Work
Doctor Mary Courage
Representative edition published 2022
Open Work
The Sepoy Mutiny
Representative edition published 2009
Open Work
The Period Pocketbook
Representative edition published 2006
Open Work
Escape from Hell
Representative edition published 2005
Open Work
Guns to the Far East
Representative edition published 2005
Open Work
Hazard in Circassia
Representative edition published 2004
Open Work
Hazard of Huntress
Representative edition published 2004
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Hazard's command
Representative edition published 2004
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Victory at Sebastopol
Representative edition published 2004
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Brave Captains
Representative edition published 2003
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The Cannons of Lucknow
Representative edition published 2003
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The Heroic Garrison
Representative edition published 2003
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The Valiant Sailors
Representative edition published 2003
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Problemlos durch die Tage. Was Mädchen über die Periode wissen möchten.
Representative edition published 2002
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Everything You Ever Wanted to Ask About Willies and Other Boys' Bits
Representative edition published 2002
Open Work
Massacre at Cawnpore
Representative edition published 2002
Open Work
Victor and Lords
Representative edition published 2001
Open Work
Wenn der Wind dreht. Phillip H. Hazards letzter Kampf
Representative edition published 2001
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Auf zu neuen Küsten. Phillip Horatio Hazard auf HMS Shannon
Representative edition published 2000
Open Work
The Exiles (The Australians, Vol. 1)
Representative edition published 2000
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Alle Mann zurück an Bord. Phillip Horatio Hazard vor Konstantinopel
Representative edition published 1999
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Data interpretation questions in pediatrics
Representative edition published 1998
Open Work
Tapfer bis zum Untergang. Philip Horatio Hazard im Schwarzen Meer
Representative edition published 1998
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