when she was 43 years old. Her first novel, it was also her most successful, being translated into seven languages, and was self-reported as a bestseller, though by which contemporary lists is unknown. Byrd moved to Scotland and lived there for the following 10 years, publishing nine more works, six of them Europe-based historical fiction. Her first accommodation in Scotland was Leith Hall in Aberdeenshire, where she rented 14 rooms with her second husband, Barrie Gaunt. In The Ghosts in My Life and A Strange and Seeing Time, Byrd describes the paranormal occurrences she and her husband experienced while living there, along with other spectral encounters. Having tired of the meticulous research she undertook for her historical fiction, Byrd wrote an autobiographical novel in 1975, titled I'll Get By, for which she won the Scottish Arts Council Book Award. She published a sequel to this, It Had to Be You, in 1982. Byrd returned to the United States in 1976, to Tucson where her family had previously settled. She felt homesick for Edinburgh, however, and returned to Scotland after five years. In total, although labelled an American author, only four of her thirteen novels were published while she lived in the US. Throughout her adult life, Byrd contributed articles to various serial publications, including Scottish Field, McCall's, Reader's Digest, Esquire, and Collier's. Byrd died in Tucson on May 11, 1989, at the age of 76. Works Immortal Queen: A Novel of Mary, Queen of Scots (Ballantine, 1956) The Flowers of the Forest (Constable, 1962) The Ghosts in My Life (Ballantine, 1968) A Strange and Seeing Time (R. Hale, 1971) The Famished Land: A Novel of the Irish Potato Famine (Lippincott, 1972) The Long Enchantment: A Novel of Queen Victoria and John Brown (Macmillan, 1973) Rest Without Peace (Macmillan, 1974) I'll Get By: An Autobiographical Novel (Macmillan, 1975) The Lady of Monkton (Macmillan, 1975) The Search for Maggie Hare (Macmillan, 1976) Maid of Honour: The Court of Mary Queen of Scots (Macmillan London, 1978) The Diamond (Macmillan, 1979) It Had to Be You (Viking Children's Books, 1982) References 1912 births 1989 deaths Writers from St. Louis 20th-century American women writers American historical novelists Writers of historical fiction set in the early modern period Women historical novelists