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Mary Renault
Sign in to saveEnglish novelist (1905–1983)
OverviewAI-generated
Mary Renault, born Eileen Mary Challans on 4 September 1905 in London, was a British and South African novelist, biographer, nurse and writer. She was educated at St Hugh's College and began her career in 1939, writing in the genre of historical prose literature; her works include The Last of the Wine, The Mask of Apollo, The Bull from the Sea, The King Must Die and Return to night. She was interested in Alexander the Great and Achilles and Patroclus, and was nominated for the Booker Prize.
Renault, who was a lesbian, died on 13 December 1983 in Cape Town.
Synthesized by Vinony from 25 facts across 2 sources: Wikidata, Open Library. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Person · Open Library
- Born
- 4 September 1905
- Died
- 13 December 1983
- Works
- 23
Top works
- The Last of the Wine
- The Mask of Apollo
- The Bull from the Sea
- The King Must Die
- Return to night
via Open Library + Wikidata
Key facts
- Born
- Eileen Mary Challans , ( 1905-09-04 ) 4 September 1905, Forest Gate , Essex, England
- Died
- 13 December 1983 (1983-12-13) (aged 78), Cape Town , South Africa
- Occupation
- Writer
- Education
- St Hugh's College, Oxford
- Period
- 1939–1981
- Genre
- Historical fiction , contemporary romance , war novel , gay literature
- Notable works
- The King Must Die The Charioteer The Last of the Wine Fire from Heaven The Persian Boy Funeral Games
- Partner
- Julie Mullard (1933–1983)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Mary
- Gender
- female
- Citizenship
- South Africa
- Place of birth
- London
- Place of death
- Cape Town
- Occupation
- writer
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Field of work
- literature
- Image
- Mary Renault 1946.jpg
Show 10 more facts
- date of birth
- 1905-09-04
- date of death
- 1983-12-13
- writing language
- English language
- start of work period
- 1939-00-00
- sexual orientation
- lesbianism
- birth name
- Eileen Mary Challans
- interested in
- Achilles and Patroclus
- nominated for
- Booker Prize
- P12749
- Mohamed Said Fofana
- name in native language
- Mary Renault
via Wikidata · CC0
~21 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Eileen Mary Challans (4 September 1905 – 13 December 1983), known by her pen name Mary Renault (/ˈrɛnoʊlt/), was a British writer best known for her historical novels set in ancient Greece.
Born in Forest Gate in 1905, she attended St Hugh's College, Oxford, from 1924 until 1928. After graduating from St Hugh's with a Third Class in English, she worked as a nurse and began writing her first novels, which were contemporary romances. In 1948, she moved to Durban, South Africa with her partner, Julie Mullard, and later to Cape Town, where she spent the rest of her life. Living in South Africa allowed her to write about openly gay characters without fearing the censorship and homophobia of England. She devoted herself to writing historical fiction in the 1950s, which were also her most successful books. She is best known for her historical fiction today.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Mary Renault” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.