On 18th November this year it is
the centenary of the birth of D.E. Stevenson, or Mrs.
Dorothy Peploe as she was know in Moffat where she lived in
North Park for thirty years as the wife of Major James
Peploe and mother of their children Robin, Patsy (who died
as a child), Rosemary and John.
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When she died in 1973, she had
written over 40 books. More than 4 million copies had been
sold in Britain alone and 3 million in the United States.
Her novels were translated into 6 European languages,
transcribed into Braille and read in talking Books for the
Blind. They were at the top of the best-selling lists in
Britain as well as South Africa and Australia.
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To this day, she has a large
following, especially in the States, where her work has been
republished in omnibus editions and Boston University holds
many of her manuscripts. Her success there began in the
early days of the war with The English Air. She was
proud to hear from a reader that the novel had helped those
across the Atlantic to know what it was like to have a
'tiger in the backyard'.
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Yet this popular novelist led a
Victorian childhhood with nannies and governesses, never
going to school at all. Her great grandfather was Robert
Stevenson, the famous lighthouse builder and Robert Louis
Stevenson was a first cousin of her father's. She felt that
writing was in her blood and she wrote stories from the age
of eight - she later claimed her books were her
'lighthouses'.
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This exhibition sets out to
recapture the atmosphere of her Victorian childhood, marking
various milestones in her life. Most of all, it celebrates
her books, which continue to give pleasure to so many
people."
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