Denise Robins's picture

Denise Robins


(Naomi Klein)
UK flag (1897 - 1985)
Daughter of Kit Dealtry, Mother of Patricia Robins

aka Denise Chesterton, Ashley French, Harriet Gray, Hervey Hamilton, Julia Kane, Francesca Wright

Denise Naomi Klein was born on 1 February 1897 in London, England, daughter of Herman Klein (1856-1934) and Kathleen Clarice Louise Cornwell(1872-1954). Her parents married on 19 February 1890 at the West London Synagogue, her father was a English music critic, author and teacherof singing and her mother was a Australian-born heiress, 16 years younger than him. Denise had a half-sister, Sibyl Klein, who became an actress. She also had two older brothers, Adrian Bernard L. Klein(1892-1969), who later changed his name to Adrian Cornwell-Clyne and wrote books on photography and cinematography, and Daryl Kleyn (b. 1894). Duringher parents marriage, her mother began an affair with a young Worcestershire Regiment officer, Herbert Arthur Berkeley Dealtry (b. 1878). When her fatherbecame aware of it, he filed a petition for divorce, which was granted in December 1901. After the divorce, her mother married Dealtry in 1902,but they were going through financial difficulties. They had to declare bankruptcy in 1905. The sameyear her father remarried with Helene Fox, a Christian Science practitioner of Boston, Massachusetts.

As Kit Dealtry, her mother began topublish her own writings, first short stories in magazines an later gothic novels. Years later, and single again her mother returned to London. In1918, and remarried for a third time with Sydney H. Groom, andstarted to sign her novels as C. Groom, Mrs Sydney Groom, Kathleen ClariceGroom and Clarice Groom. After Naomi left school, she decided follow in hermother's footsteps, and to publish her writings. She went to work as ajournalist for the D.C. Thomson Press, then became a freelance writer.Denise married Arthur Robins, a corn broker on the Baltic Exchange, but the marriage ended in divorce, after she met O'Neill Pearson in Egypt, who laterbecame her second husband. She was the mother of three daughters, Patricia Robins (also know as Claire Lorrimer) who became another best-sellingromance author, Anne, and Eve.

As a writer of fiction, Denise wrote short stories, plays and about 200 gothic romance novels under a variety of pseudonyms, including: Denise Chesterton, Hervey Hamilton, Francesca Wright, Ashley French, Harriet Gray, and Julia Kane, she also used to sign the books her first married name,Denise Robins, and some of her books were reedited under this pen-name. In1927, over ten years after she began to publish, Denise meet Charles Boon,of Mills & Boon, and she signed her first contract with his firm the sameyear. In a short time, she became the best paid Mills & Boon's writer, and one of the most prolific, but in 1935 she changed to a new publisher, Nicholson& Watson, that made her a better offer, and later with Hodder & Stoughton.During her very long career she worked with major publishing houses. Taylor Caldwell said: "Rarely has any writer of our times delvedso deeply into the secret places of a woman's heart." As in her real life,many of her novels are love triangles, and also appear as a backdrop the World Wars.

In 1960, she founded with other romance writers the "Romantic Novelists' Association" (R.N.A.), and she was its first president until 1966. In 1965,she wrote her autobiography, "Stranger Than Fiction". Denise passed away 1May 1985 in her native England. At the time of her death her novels, translated into 15 languages, had sold more than 100 million copies. In 1984,they were borrowed more than 1.5 million times from British libraries.
 

Genres: Romance, Historical Romance
 
Series
Fauna Trilogy (as by Harriet Gray)
   1. Gold for the Gay Masters (1954)
   2. Bride of Doom (1956)
   3. The Flame and the Frost (1957)
thumbthumbthumb
 
Novels
   Love's Broken Idol (1918) (as by Denise Chesterton)
   The Marriage Bond (1924)
   Sealed Lips (1924)
   The Inevitable End (1927)
   Jonquil (1927)
   The Triumph of the Rat (1927)
   Bride of Revenge (1928)
     aka Desire Is Blind
   The Passionate Flame (1928)
   White Jade (1928)
   Women Who Seek (1928)
   The Dark Death (1929)
   The Enduring Flame (1929)
   Heavy Clay (1929)
   Love Was a Jest (1929)
   And All Because (1930)
   Heat Wave (1930)
   Swing of Youth (1930)
   The Lonely Heart (1930)
   Crowns, Pounds, and Guineas (1931)
   Fever of Love (1931)
   Lovers of Janine (1931)
   One Night in Ceylon (1931)
   Second Best (1931)
   Blaze of Love (1932)
   The Boundary Line (1932)
   The Secret Hour (1932)
   Gay Defeat (1933)
   Men Are Only Human (1933)
   Shatter the Sky (1933)
   Strange Rapture (1933)
   Brief Ecstasy (1934)
   Never Give All (1934)
   Slave Woman (1934)
   Sweet Love (1934)
   All This for Love (1935)
   Climb to the Stars (1935)
   How Great the Price (1935)
   Life and Love (1935)
   Murder in Mayfair (1935)
   Love Game (1936)
   Those Who Love (1936)
   Were I thy bride (1936)
   Family Holiday (1937) (as by Hervey Hamilton)
   Kiss of Youth (1937)
   Set Me Free (1937)
   The Tiger in Men (1937)
   The Restless Heart (1938)
   Since We Love (1938)
   You Have Chosen (1938)
   Chain of Love (1939)
   Dear Loyalty (1939)
   Gypsy Lover (1939)
     aka Romany Lover
   I, Too, Have Loved (1939)
   Officer's Wife (1939)
   Island of Flowers (1940)
   Little We Know (1940)
   Set the Stars Alight (1940)
   Sweet Sorrow (1940)
   To Love Is to Live (1940)
   If This Be Destiny (1941)
   Winged Love (1941)
   Christmas Roses (1942) (as by Denise Chesterton)
   This One Night (1942)
   War Marriage (1942)
   What Matters Most (1942)
   What Wendy Did (1942) (as by Denise Chesterton)
   When Love Called (1942) (as by Denise Chesterton)
   The Changing Years (1943)
   Daughter Knows Best (1943)
   Dust of Dreams (1943)
   Escape to Love (1943)
   Queen of the Roses (1943) (as by Denise Chesterton)
   This Spring of Love (1943)
   War changes Everything (1943)
   Give Me Back My Heart (1944)
   How to Forget (1944)
   Never Look Back (1944)
   Desert Rapture (1945)
   Love so Young (1945)
   All for You (1946)
   Figs in Frost (1946) (as by Hervey Hamilton)
   Separation (1946)
   The Story of Veronica (1946)
   Forgive Me, My Love (1947)
   More Than Love (1947)
   Could I Forget (1948)
   The Feast is Finished (1948)
   Greater Than All (1948)
   Khamsin (1948)
   Love Me No More (1948)
   To Love Again (1949)
   The Uncertain Heart (1949)
   The Hard Way (1949)
   Love Hath an Island (1950)
   The Madness of Love (1950)
   Heart of Paris (1951)
   Infatuation (1951)
   Only in My Dreams (1951)
   Second Marriage (1951)
   Something to Love (1951)
   The Other Love (1952)
   Strange Meeting (1952)
   The First Long Kiss (1953)
   The Loves of Lucrezia (1953) (as by Francesca Wright)
     aka Lucrezia
   My True Love (1953)
   Once Is Enough (1953) (as by Ashley French)
   The Bitter Core (1954) (as by Ashley French)
   The Long Shadow (1954)
   The Unshaken Loyalty (1954)
   Venetian Rhapsody (1954)
   Bitter-Sweet (1955)
   All That Matters (1956)
   Breaking Point (1956) (as by Ashley French)
   The Enchanted Island (1956)
   Loving and Giving (1956)
   Bride of Violence (1957) (as by Harriet Gray)
   The Noble One (1957)
   The Seagull's Cry (1957)
   Chateau of Flowers (1958)
   The Untrodden Snow (1958)
   Dance in the Dust (1959) (as by Harriet Gray)
   Do Not Go, My Love (1959)
   We Two Together (1959)
   Arrow in the Heart (1960)
   The Unlit Fire (1960)
   I Should Have Known (1961)
   My Lady Destiny (1961) (as by Harriet Gray)
   A Promise is for Ever (1961)
   Dark, Secret Love (1962) (as by Julia Kane)
   Put Back the Clock (1962)
   Mad Is the Heart (1963)
   Nightingale's Song (1963)
   Reputation (1963)
   Meet Me in Monte Carlo (1964)
   Moment of Love (1964)
   The Sin Was Mine (1964) (as by Julia Kane)
   The Strong Heart (1965)
   Time Runs Out (1965) (as by Julia Kane)
   The Crash (1966)
   Lightning Strikes Twice (1966)
   Love Is Enough (1966)
   O Love! O Fire! (1966)
   Forbidden (1967)
   House of the Seventh Cross (1967)
   Wait for Tomorrow (1967)
   House By the Watch Tower (1968)
   Laurence, My Love (1968)
   The Price of Folly (1968)
   Two Loves (1968)
   When a Woman Loves (1968)
   Love and Desire and Hate (1969)
   A Love Like Ours (1969)
   She Devil (1970) (as by Francesca Wright)
     aka Jezebel
   Sweet Cassandra (1970)
   Under the Sky (1970)
   The Snow Must Return (1972)
   The Other Side of Love (1973)
   Twice Have I Loved (1973)
   Dark Corridor (1974)
   Australian Opal Safari (1974)
   The Cyprus Love Affair (1974)
   The Wild Bird (1974)
   Betrayal (1976)
   It Wasn't Love (1976)
   Come Back, Yesterday (1976)
   Fauna (1978)
   Let Me Love (1979)
   Love's Triumph (1983)
   Princess Passes (1984)
   For the Sake of Love (1985)
   Masquerade of Love (1985)
   Life's a Game (1985)
   The Enchantress (1987)
   The Woman's Side of It (1988)
   The Gilded Cage (1998)
   Illusion of Love (2000)
no image availablethumbno image availablethumb
thumbno image availablethumbthumb
thumbthumbno image availablethumb
thumbthumbthumbthumb
thumbthumbno image availablethumb
thumbno image availablethumbthumb
thumbthumbthumbthumb
thumbthumbthumbthumb
thumbthumbthumbthumb
thumbthumbthumbno image available
thumbthumbthumbthumb
thumbthumbthumbthumb
thumbthumbthumbthumb
thumbno image availablethumbno image available
thumbthumbthumbthumb
thumbno image availablethumbno image available
no image availableno image availableno image availablethumb
no image availablethumbthumbno image available
thumbno image availablethumbthumb
thumbthumbno image availablethumb
thumbno image availablethumbno image available
thumbthumbthumbthumb
thumbthumbthumbthumb
thumbthumbthumbthumb
thumbthumbthumbthumb
thumbthumbthumbthumb
thumbthumbthumbthumb
thumbthumbthumbthumb
thumbthumbthumbthumb
thumbthumbthumbthumb
thumbthumbthumbthumb
thumbthumbthumbthumb
thumbthumbthumbthumb
thumbthumbthumbthumb
thumbthumbthumbthumb
thumbthumbthumbthumb
thumbthumbthumbthumb
thumbthumbthumbthumb
thumbthumbthumbthumb
thumbthumbthumbthumb
thumbthumbthumbthumb
thumbthumbthumbthumb
no image availablethumbthumbthumb
thumbthumbthumbthumb
 
Collections
   Light the Candles (1957)
thumb
 
Anthologies edited
no image available
 
Non fiction show
 
Omnibus editions show
 


About Fantastic Fiction       Information for Authors