Sad news, but what a wonderful, long life, and what wonderful books!

I've read most, if not all, her books, and enjoyed every one. I read her Arthurian trilogy when I was in my teens and that made a huge impression on me. (One descriptive bit that has stuck in my mind some 30+ years is Merlin describing his skull as a "bubble of bone".) She was a great talent.

She was one of my favourite authors when I was in my teens. Her books, along with those of Victoria Holt and Phyllis Whitney, were the basis of my love for romantic suspense. I have never read anything of hers in English, however, except part of The Crystal Cave. Maybe its time I finished it and read the rest of the trilogy.

I always enjoyed her novels, but I am finding many are not out of print or else, difficult to find in libraries and bookshops.

I am sad, but she had a long and productive life. She will always be one of my favorite authors.

Thank you so much for the link, Vee. I listened to the interview and just loved it. It's been a long time since I've read any of the books, and it made me want to go back and reread them all.

Ms. Stewart is one of my all-time favorite authors. The settings for her novels were always so great, and I credit her with a lot of my love of travel. I'm glad to learn that her books made her wealthy.

So sorry to hear this. Like my sister Rouan I grew up reading her books. Our mother liked them too, and considered her fiction to be a cut above that of Victoria Holt and Phyllis Whitney. I was disappointed when Mary Stewart set aside romantic suspense to write the Arthur series, but I read the Arthur books many years later and like them at that time.

I think I'll go re-read one of her novels as a memorial this weekend.

Folly

I remember when Mary Stewart was interviewed by (to my annoyance) a sloppy local radio presenter in Australia who made a poor excuse why he hadn't read her latest book. She was very kind about his lack of preparation and practically interviewed herself!

Until browsing through some older threads and discovering this one, I didn't realise that Mary Stewart had passed away. I remember with great fondness reading her Arthurian trilogy when I was much younger These books were probably some of the earliest novels about King Arthur that I have read and kindled an interest that has stayed with me until present, so I have much to thank her for.

The thread also jogged my memory and a search of my "to read" pile revealed, as I had thought, another Mary Stewart book, The Wicked Day, a fourth book that I am going to read as soon as I finish my current book. So, the trilogy has expanded to become a series and I see from the end of that book that there seems to be another follow up in the Arthurian period, The Prince and the Pilgrim. Has anyone read it?

Bill

Bill, I read The Prince and the Pilgrim a long time ago and don't remember it at all. It is one of Ms. Stewart's young adult books. I think I have a copy of every book she ever wrote, but the YAs are more simplistic that the others. I liked the Arthurian series very much, too.

In the interview I mentioned, Mary said that she had visited the sites she wrote about in the Arthur books. In one place, she was convinced that there had been a river running around a mound and on checking old maps, found she was correct.
I once went onto a hill in the South of England and felt there had been a village built on a flat part of it, from the lie of the land. I wasn't able to verify this but I think that past places leave a kind of imprint that can be picked up.