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Reay Tannahill^{[pronunciation?]} (9 December 1929 – 2 November 2007) was a British historian, non-fiction writer, and novelist, best known perhaps for two non-fiction bestsellers: Food in History and Sex in History. She also wrote under the pseudonym Annabel Laine.[1] Her novel Passing Glory won in 1990 the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association.[2]

Reay Tannahill
Born	(1929-12-09)9 December 1929 Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
Died	2 November 2007(2007-11-02) (aged 77) London, England, United Kingdom
Pen name	Reay Tannahill, Annabel Laine
Occupation	Historian, writer, novelist
Nationality	British
Period	1964-2007
Genre	Non-fiction, historical fiction, romance
Notable awards	RoNA Award
Spouse	Michael Edwardes (1958-1983)

Biography

Personal life

Reay Tannahill was born on 9 December 1929[3] in Glasgow, Scotland,[4] where she was brought up.[5] Her forename was the maiden name of her mother, Olive Reay.[4] She was educated at Shawlands Academy, and obtained an MA in History and a postgraduate certificate in Social Sciences at the University of Glasgow.[5]

In 1958, she married Michael Edwardes; the marriage ended in divorce in 1983 and he died in 1990.[3]

Until her death on 2 November 2007 she lived in a terraced house in London near Tate Britain.[4]

Career

Before she started to write, she worked as a probation officer, advertising copywriter, newspaper reporter, historical researcher and graphic designer.[3] She published her first non-fiction book in 1964. With the international success that came with the book Food in History, her publisher suggested a companion volume on the second great human imperative, Sex in History. For her 2002 revised edition of Food in History, she won the Premio Letterario Internazionale Chianti Ruffino Antico Fattore.[4]

She also wrote historical romance novels, and in 1990, her novel Passing Glory won in 1990 the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association.[2]

She belonged to the Arts Club and the Authors' Club, and was chairman of the latter from 1997 to 2000.[4]

Bibliography

As Reay Tannahill

[6]

Non-fiction works

• Regency England: The Great Age of the Colour Print (1964)
• Paris in the Revolution: A Collection of Eye-witness Accounts (1966)
• The Fine Art of Food (1969)
• Food in History (1973) (Stein and Day publishers)
• Flesh & Blood: A History of the Cannibal Complex (1975)
• Sex in History (1980)

Historical fiction

Single novels

• A Dark and Distant Shore (1983)
• The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1985)
• Passing Glory (1989)
• In Still and Stormy Waters (1992)
• Return of the Stranger (1995)
• Fatal Majesty: A Novel of Mary, Queen of Scots (1998)
• The Seventh Son (2001)

Dame Constance de Clair Series

1. Having the Builders in (2006)
2. Having the Decorators in (2007)

As Annabel Laine

• The Reluctant Heiress (1979)
• The Melancholy Virgin (1982)

References and sources

External links

• Obituary in The Times, 27 December 2007
• A Dark and Distant Shore: Tannahill's working papers, research notes and draft copies (ref. DM1294/9/4/3) Penguin Archive, University of Bristol Library Special Collections

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