Like her on Facebook! Learn more on her website! Marion Chesney Gibbons aka: Ann Fairfax, Jennie Tremaine, Helen Crampton, Marion Chesney, Charlotte Ward, Sarah Chester. Marion Chesney was born on 1936 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK, and started her first job as a bookseller in charge of the fiction department in John Smith & Sons Ltd. While bookselling, by chance, she got an offer from the Scottish Daily Mail to review variety shows and quickly rose to be their theatre critic. She left Smith’s to join Scottish Field magazine as a secretary in the advertising department, without any shorthand or typing, but quickly got the job of fashion editor instead. She then moved to the Scottish Daily Express where she reported mostly on crime. This was followed by a move to Fleet Street to the Daily Express where she became chief woman reporter. After marrying Harry Scott Gibbons and having a son, Charles, Marion went to the United States where Harry had been offered the job of editor of the Oyster Bay Guardian. When that didn’t work out, they went to Virginia and Marion worked as a waitress in a greasy spoon on the Jefferson Davies in Alexandria while Harry washed the dishes. Both then got jobs on Rupert Murdoch’s new tabloid, The Star, and moved to New York. Anxious to spend more time at home with her small son, Marion, urged by her husband, started to write historical romances in 1977. After she had written over 100 of them under her maiden name, Marion Chesney, and under the pseudonyms: Ann Fairfax, Jennie Tremaine, Helen Crampton, Charlotte Ward, and Sarah Chester, she getting fed up with 1714 to 1910, she began to write detectives stories in 1985 under the pseudonym of M. C. Beaton. On a trip from the States to Sutherland on holiday, a course at a fishing school inspired the first Constable Hamish Macbeth story. They returned to Britain and bought a croft house and croft in Sutherland where Harry reared a flock of black sheep. But Charles was at school, in London so when he finished and both tired of the long commute to the north of Scotland, they moved to the Cotswolds where Agatha Raisin was created.
Series
Books
Agatha's First Case
2015
The Love and Temptation Series
2020
Dead on Target
2023
The Dukes and Desires Series
2020
The Blood of an Englishman
2014
Agatha Raisin and the Dead Ringer
2018
Death of a Witch
2009
Devil's Delight
2022
Agatha Raisin
The Complete BBC Radio Drama Collection
2019
Death of a Smuggler
2025
Death of a Spy
2024
Death of a Prankster
1988
My Dear Duchess
2011
The Vicious Vet
1993
Killing Time
2024
Tilly
2011
Death of a Travelling Man
1993
The Skeleton in the Closet
2001
Death of a Nurse
Extended Free Preview, First 3 Chapters
2015
Death of Yesterday
2013
Beating About the Bush
2019
Dishing the Dirt
2015
Death of an Addict
1999
The Poor Relation Collection
Sir Philips's Folly / Colonel Sandhurst to the Rescue / Back in Society / Lady Fortescue Steps Out / Mrs Budley Falls from Grace / Miss Tonks Turns to Crime
2013
Agatha Raisin and the Potted Gardener
1994
Death of a Policeman
2014
Agatha Raisin and the Fairies of Fryfam
2000
The Quiche of Death
1992
Her Grace's Passion
2011
Love, Lies and Liquor
2006
Death of a Valentine
2009
Death of a Dreamer
2006
A Highland Christmas
1999
Death of a Celebrity
2002
Agatha Raisin and the Love from Hell
2001
Molly
1980
Christmas Crumble
2012
Death of an Outsider
1988
Kitty
2014
Lucy
2014
Summer of Discontent
2015
The Original Miss Honeyford
2011
Polly
2011
Agatha Raisin and the Witches' Tree
2017
The Daring Debutantes Series
Henrietta, Molly, Penelope, Lucy, Annabelle, Kitty, Sally
2020
Death of a Laird
2022
Henrietta
2014
Agatha Raisin
The Potted Gardener & The Walkers of Dembley
2007
As the Pig Turns
2011
Death of a Hussy
1988
Death of a Bore
2005
Kissing Christmas Goodbye
2007
Sugar and Spite
2025
Death of a Village
2003
Agatha Raisin and the Day the Floods Came
2002
Knock, Knock, You're Dead!
2016
Death of a Poison Pen
2004
Death of a Nag
1995
Agatha Raisin
Hell's Bells
2013
Agatha Raisin and the Terrible Tourist
1997
Agatha Raisin and the Busy Body
2010
There Goes the Bride
2009
The Agatha Raisin Companion
2010
Agatha Raisin and the Walkers of Dembley
1995
Agatha Raisin and the Case of the Curious Curate
2003
Agatha Raisin and the Haunted House
2003
Death of a Scriptwriter
1998
Hot to Trot
2020
The Loves of Lord Granton
2014
Death of an Honest Man
2018
The Perfect Paragon
2005
Death of a Green-Eyed Monster
2022
Death of a Gentle Lady
2008
Death of a Chimney Sweep
2011
Death of a Dustman
2001
The Deadly Dance
2004
Death of a Glutton
1988
Hiss and Hers
2012
Death of a Ghost
2017
Death of a Traitor
2023
Death of a Maid
2007
A Spoonful of Poison
2008
Pushing up Daisies
2016
Lady Fortescue à la rescousse / Miss Tonks prend son envol
2022
Agatha Raisin and the Wizard of Evesham
1999
Agatha Raisin and the Wellspring of Death
1998
Death of a Charming Man
1994
Agatha Raisin and the Witch of Wyckhadden
1999
Something Borrowed, Someone Dead
2013
Death of a Gossip
1985
Death of a Dentist
1997
Death of a Nurse
2016
Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage
1996
Down the Hatch
2021
Death of a Cad
1987
Sally
2011
Annabelle
2010
Death of a Kingfisher
2012
Death of a Snob
1988
Death of a Macho Man
1996
The Marquis Takes a Bride
1980
Introducing Agatha Raisin
The Quiche of Death/The Vicious Vet
2007
Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet BBC Audio Dramatisation
2025
Death of a Liar
2015
Death of a Perfect Wife
1989
