Editing D. K. Broster (section)

==Biography==
Dorothy Kathleen Broster was born on 2 September 1877, to Thomas Mawdsley Broster and Emilie Kathleen Gething,<ref>Who's Who 1939</ref> at Devon Lodge (now Monksferry House) in Grassendale Park, [[Garston, Liverpool]], on the banks of the [[River Mersey|Mersey]].<ref>1881 England Census</ref> "And to this she probably owed her life-long interest in the sea."<ref>Biographical blurb on a 1972 William Heinemann Ltd edition.</ref> When she was 16, the family moved to [[Cheltenham]], where she attended [[Cheltenham Ladies' College]]. From 1896 to 1898 she read history at [[St Hilda's College, Oxford]], where she was one of the first students, although at this date women were not awarded degrees.<ref name="cg">Lorna Sage, ''The Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in English'' Cambridge University Press, 1999 {{ISBN|0-521-66813-1}}, p. 94.</ref>

Broster served as secretary to [[Charles Harding Firth]], ([[Regius Professor of Modern History (Oxford)|Regius Professor of History]] from 1904 to 1925) for several years, and collaborated on several of his works. Her first two novels were co-written with a college friend, [[Gertrude Winifred Taylor]]: ''Chantemerle: A Romance of the Vendean War'' (1911) and ''The Vision Splendid'' (1913) (about the [[Oxford Movement|Tractarian Movement]]).<ref name="cg"/>

During [[World War I|the First World War]] she served as a [[Red Cross]] nurse with a voluntary Franco-American hospital, but she returned to England with a knee infection in 1916. After the war, she and a friend, Gertrude Schlich (daughter of [[Wilhelm Philipp Daniel Schlich]], first professor of forestry at Oxford), moved near to [[Battle, East Sussex]], where Broster worked full-time as a writer. She was in the first batch of women to receive her [[Bachelor of Arts]] and [[Master of Arts]] in 1920 at [[Oxford]].<ref>"Degrees conferred at Oxford", ''Yorkshire Post'', 15 October 1920, p. 5.</ref>

''The Yellow Poppy'' (1920), about the adventures of an aristocratic couple during the French Revolution, was later adapted by Broster and W. Edward Stirling for the London stage in 1922.<ref>J. P. Wearing, ''The London Stage, 1920–1929: a calendar of plays and players''. [[Metuchen, New Jersey]]: Scarecrow Press, 1984. {{ISBN|0-8108-1715-2}}, p. 148.</ref> She produced her bestseller about Scottish history, ''The Flight of the Heron'', in 1925.<ref name="cg"/> Broster stated she had consulted eighty reference books before beginning the novel.<ref name="dw">Diana Wallace, ''The Woman's Historical Novel: British women writers, 1900–2000''. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. {{ISBN|1-4039-0322-0}}, pp. 7 and 29.</ref> She followed it up with two successful sequels, ''The Gleam in the North'' and ''The Dark Mile''. She wrote several other historical novels, much reprinted in their day, although this Jacobite trilogy, inspired by a five-week visit to friends in Scotland and featuring the dashing Ewen Cameron as hero, remains the best known.

During her career, Broster wrote several poems, articles and, notably, short stories, which were collected in ''A Fire of Driftwood'' and ''Couching at the Door''.<ref>[[Mike Ashley (writer)|Mike Ashley]], ''Who's Who in Horror and Fantasy Fiction''. Elm Tree Books, 1977. {{ISBN|0-241-89528-6}}, p. 44.</ref> The title story of ''Couching at the Door'' involves an artist haunted by a mysterious entity.<ref name="ja">Jack Adrian, "Broster, D(orothy) K(athleen)", in [[David Pringle]], ed., ''St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic Writers''. London: St. James Press, 1998, pp. 95–97. {{ISBN|1-55862-206-3}}</ref> Other supernatural tales include "Clairvoyance", (1932) about a [[psychic]] girl, "Juggernaut" (1935) about a haunted chair, and "The Pestering", (1932) focusing on a couple tormented by a supernatural entity.<ref name="ja"/> In 2022, a collection of eleven stories entitled ''From the Abyss'' was published by Handheld Press (Bath UK), edited by Melissa Edmundson.

Broster avoided personal publicity. During her lifetime, many of her readers wrongly assumed she was both male and Scottish.<ref name="cg" /> She died in [[Bexhill-on-Sea|Bexhill]] Hospital on 7 February 1950, aged 73.