ELEANOR Fairburn (1928 – 2015) was born in Westport, Co. Mayo, Ireland. She was educated at St. Louis Convent, Balla and went on to train in Fashion, Art and Design in Dublin. After moving to England, she supplemented her income by writing articles and stories for newspapers, as well as producing knitwear designs for Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. She settled in North Yorkshire with her husband and daughter, and began her career as a novelist in earnest. Her first book, ‘The Green Popinjays’ was published in 1962, followed by her most successful book ‘The White Seahorse’ (1964) about the infamous pirate queen Grace O’Malley. In all, she wrote 17 works of historical fiction as well as crime thrillers under various pseudonyms, including Emma Gayle, Catherine Carfax, Elena Lyons, and Anna Neville. Alongside her work as a novelist, she taught a writing course sponsored by the University of Leeds, and was also a founding member of the Middlesbrough Writers’ Group. After the death of her husband Brian in 2011, she moved to Norfolk to be closer to her daughter, Anne-Marie. Eleanor Fairburn died peacefully in Norwich on 2nd January, 2015 at the age of 86.
