Violet Winspear (1928–1989)

Violet Winspear was born on 28 April 1928 in London, England. She worked in a factory since 1942, when in 1961 she sold her first romance novels to Mills & Boon. In 1963, she became a full-time writer. She wrote from her home in the south-east England, that she never left, but she meticulously researched her far-flung settings at the local library. She never married, and had no children, but she inspired her nephew Jonathan to write. Violet died at January 1989 after a long battle with cancer.

She said: "The real aim of romance is to provide escape and entertainment", but she created a maelstrom when in 1970 she commented: "I get my heroes so that they're lean and hard muscled and mocking and sardonic and tough and tigerish and single, of course. Oh and they've got to be rich and then I make it that they're only cynical and smooth on the surface. But underneath they're well, you know, sort of lost and lonely. In need of love but, when roused, capable of breathtaking passion and potency. Most of my heroes, well all of them really, are like that. They frighten but fascinate. They must be the sort of men who are capable of rape: men it's dangerous to be alone in the room with." The comment, that they were 'capable of rape' caused uproar and lead to her receiving hate mail. Interestingly, she railed against the work of authors such as Harold Robbins. Winspear's forte was creating and sustaining sexual tension between her characters while building fantastic worlds.