What are her books like. Rosefolly?

Light, humorous adventure stories, for the most part. The Mrs Pollifax series features a cheerful, resourceful grandmother who works for the CIA during the Cold War to escape suburban boredom. The series was immensely popular starting in the mid 1960's through the 1980's. Fluffy but clever, just the thing to amuse when you are not in the mood for deep reading but don't want your intelligence to be insulted. After a while they did become repetitive, but I find that is true with most series.

Rosefolly

Rosefolly, I didn't know, either, that Gilman had died. I did know that she had used her married name of Butters for her early YA/children's books.

My mother always liked the Mrs Pollifax books, but I preferred Gilman's historicals and nonseries adventures best. One of the last I read was Incident at Badamya, set in Burma right after World War II where a missionary's teenage daughter (the main character) and several other Americans and Europeans were taken hostage by insurgents.

I agree, Rosefolly, that Gilman's writing may not be the deepest but she never insults the reader's intelligence. I liked her YA books, particularly Witch's Silver, and have continued to enjoy them even though I'm long past the intended age.

Frieda, I liked Incident at Badamya too.

I'm sorry that she has died; I really liked the early Mrs. Pollifax novels as well as her non-seried books.

It's making me feel older all of a sudden; some of my favorite authors are passing away and it seems only yesterday that I discovered them for the first time. (Dorothy Gilman and Anne McCaffrey for example)