Born: 17 August, 1921, in Yorkshire.
Died: 28 May, 2008, in Harlech, aged 86.
ELINOR Lyon wrote more than 20 books for children that have recently been republished by Fidra Books after 25 years of undeserved n
eglect. Many of her books celebrate friendship, loyalty, family values and her love for the people and scenery of the Highlands. The plots, driven by Lyon's subtle and involving prose, involve derring-do excursions and much messing about in boats on windswept lochs, along with long treks across the moors and mountains in awful weather. All her characters glory in the inglorious weather and none ever complains.
Lyon was much inspired by Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazon books and certainly her collective works, The House in Hiding, owe much to the conviviality and friendliness of the Ransome books. Indeed, the opening line of The House in Hiding almost sums up the atmosphere of all her books. Ian, the leading male character, declares, "I'm glad I'm alive, and looking at Skye, and eating marmalade tart ... I might easily not be."
Elinor Bruce Lyon was born at Guisborough, Yorkshire, but was initially brought up in Edinburgh. Her father's family were Scottish; he had been rector of the Edinburgh Academy from 1926-31, when she attended St George's School for Girls. When her father moved to Rugby School, Lyon went to Headington School in Oxford and in 1939 began reading English at Lady Margaret Hall. She left after a few terms to join the WRNS as a radar operator on the outbreak of war.
In 1944 she married Peter Wright, a classics master at Rugby. It was in the late 1940s that Lyon started to write. Despite a busy life as the wife of a housemaster and a mother of four, Lyon wrote with a keen determination. Indeed, her first book, Hilary's Island, was written in 1948 during her first pregnancy. Many of her books invoke the west of Scotland of her childhood – holidays in remote villages without electricity, and having to go to the nearest farm for milk every day.
When the rain arrived the Lyon family played cards and read. But it instilled in Lyon a deep respect for the Highlands and Islands and she wrote about them with a deep personal admiration and respect.
Wishing Watergate (with a quote from Walter de la Mare on the dust cover: "A deal of close thinking must have gone into its bright-vivid and complex plot and its lively English; I enjoyed every page") followed the next year, but her third book, The House in Hiding, was the first in a series of ten books centred around Ian and Sovra Kennedy – the local doctor's children – who lived on the west coast of Scotland.
The popular series ended in 1976 with The Floodmakers and involved a runaway orphan called Cathie.
But all Lyon's tales owe much to the local tradition of story-telling and the involvement of Highland culture. She captures the landscapes and coastline with a deft personal insight – the long sandy beaches of Arisaig, for example, play a recurring role in the stories.
But many readers enjoyed the way Lyon involved her characters in the preservation and enjoyment of their countryside, long before it became politically correct. Lyon summed up her aims as an author succinctly, saying: "As well as excitement and humour, I have tried to express deeper themes that arouse strong feelings in most children — justice, freedom and compassion."
In 1975 her husband retired from Rugby and they moved to Harlech. Her books fell out of print until Fidra Books republished three of her novels in 2006.
A year ago Lyon was guest of honour at a book conference in Edinburgh organised by Shirley Neilson and Kirstie Taylor of Old Children's Bookshelf. Her 1953 novel Run Away Home was relaunched. Ms Taylor said: "Elinor, in her mid-eighties, was bright as a button and remembered all the details of her books. She was modest in the extreme and delightfully unassuming – rather surprised at all the interest in her and her books. But she was heartened that they were being republished. Elinor always spoke with much affection of those Highland holidays of her childhood and remained proud of her Scottish ancestry."
He husband died in 1996 and Lyon is survived by their two sons and two daughters.
ALASDAIR STEVEN
The full article contains 728 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
