Dorothy Dunnett (1923–2001)
Author of The Game of Kings
About the Author
Dorothy Dunnett was born on August 25, 1923 in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland. She attended Gillespie's High School for Girls. After graduation she attended Edinburgh College of Art, and transferred, upon her marriage, to Glasgow School of Art. From 1940-1955, she worked for the Civil Service as a show more press officer. Her first novel, The Game of Kings, was published in the United States in 1961 and in the United Kingdom the year after. During her lifetime, she wrote over 20 books including King Hereafter, the six-part Lymond Chronicles, and the eight-part House of Niccolo series. She was also a professional portrait painter and exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy. In 1992 she was awarded the Office of the British Empire for services to literature. She died from cancer on November 9, 2001 at the age of 78. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Photo by Alison Dunnett from DorothyDunnett.co.uk
Series
Works by Dorothy Dunnett
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1923-08-25
- Date of death
- 2001-11-09
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Gillespie's High School for Girls
- Occupations
- novelist
painter
press officer - Organizations
- Edinburgh Festival
- Awards and honors
- Order of the British Empire (Officer)
- Relationships
- Dunnett, Ninian (son)
Dunnett, Alastair MacTavish (husband) - Short biography
- According to her fan site, Dorothy Dunnett was pursuing a successful career as a professional portrait painter in the 1950s when she complained to her husband Alastair that she had run out of reading material. He suggested she write something herself. With the erudition and depth of research that was to become her trademark, she spent the next 18 months writing The Game of Kings. It was rejected by 5 British publishers before being published in the USA in 1961 and launching her writing career.
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, UK
- Places of residence
- Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland, UK
- Place of death
- Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland, UK
- Map Location
- Scotland, UK
Members
Discussions
Spoilers ahoy! Spoilerific discussion of Dorothy Dunnett's Rum Affair in The Green Dragon (March 2013)
Reviews
Custody battle, 15th century style. And million other things besides.
Dunnett paints a huge canvas. You can try to take in the bigger picture (not always possible), or zoom in on the details, the reveals, the emotional confrontations, the dialogues, the historical stuff and politics… The character arcs are fascinating! You don’t have to like them, but you will not stay indifferent, I think.
Let’s not summarize the plot of yet another door-stopper, agreed? Let me just talk about things I show more felt especially strongly about.
✨ Nicholas and Gelis playing their stupid, dangerous, wicked game. Other characters try to stop them, but do they listen? I got sick and tired of the drama, but I could not look away. Dunnett is quite merciless when looking at people too caught up in their games to think about the consequences.
✨ Jodi! Jodi is adorable, and so well-written. It is truly amazing that he does have parents who try to do their best, despite all the stupid adult machinations. The gold medal goes to Mistress Clémence the nurse, though. What an awesome new character! I like badass sensible women.
”A well-run children’s establishment, to the mind of Mistress Clémence, had much in common with a well-run military barracks.”
”Most parents sent presents. M. de Fleury sent questions: What have you eaten today? What is the parrot saying? Have you new gloves for the winter?”
”The boy rose very slowly from his play and stood looking, unsmiling. It was the first time Nicholas had seen his eyes full of anger. He thought that they had probably succeeded, if the child felt sufficiently safe to show what he felt.”
✨ Playing Florentine football (calcio storico fiorentino, do look it up) on the castle walls of Edinburgh. Note to self: stay away from the Scottish royal family.
✨ The Mystery play that Nicholas creates for the king of Scotland. Nicholas is told that maybe it’s time to start creating instead of constant fighting and scheming and planning. (Wouldn’t that be a healthy thing, Nicholas? I know you are not listening.) The play was pure magic.
”Then the breeze slammed forth the peal of an organ, followed by a susurration like a wheat-field under rain, then swelled and swelled until it burgeoned into the voice of a full choir of song.”
”Later, it came out that the Shepherds were speaking in Scots, and making jokes you wouldn’t believe.”
”Over palace, palace and stable the cloud banks lingered and passed, tinged with sound; flushed with close-woven plainsong, opulent with polyphony; pierced by trumpets and clarions, dulcions and clarsachs, schawrns and viols: No timeas, Maria, Gabriel sang.”
This chapter hit me so hard, in many ways.
✨ The Iceland adventure! It was perfect: breathtaking landscapes, geysers, sea-battles, polar bears, and nods to King Hereafter. I dare you to find a better or a more emotional description of a volcanic eruption. I loved Kathi and Robin in these chapters. One of my buddy readers said they were like hobbits, going on an adventure with the big folk. Yes! Kathi is definitely a hobbit. Nicholas: ”She is like a young brother.” Awww.
✨ The last two chapters: the climax is partly an anticlimax. I thought: all this, for this? Then there is another revelation, and we have a moral disaster on our hands. Nicholas, you are a psycho lunatic! No, make it a psycho lunatic cubed.
”He invents, and then allows the invention to swallow him. […] He has to reach the conclusion that he must never do it again.”
I’m wondering if we are to have a redemption arc in books 7-8? I am sceptical, but let’s see what you can do, Dame Dunnett. show less
Dunnett paints a huge canvas. You can try to take in the bigger picture (not always possible), or zoom in on the details, the reveals, the emotional confrontations, the dialogues, the historical stuff and politics… The character arcs are fascinating! You don’t have to like them, but you will not stay indifferent, I think.
Let’s not summarize the plot of yet another door-stopper, agreed? Let me just talk about things I show more felt especially strongly about.
✨ Nicholas and Gelis playing their stupid, dangerous, wicked game. Other characters try to stop them, but do they listen? I got sick and tired of the drama, but I could not look away. Dunnett is quite merciless when looking at people too caught up in their games to think about the consequences.
✨ Jodi! Jodi is adorable, and so well-written. It is truly amazing that he does have parents who try to do their best, despite all the stupid adult machinations. The gold medal goes to Mistress Clémence the nurse, though. What an awesome new character! I like badass sensible women.
”A well-run children’s establishment, to the mind of Mistress Clémence, had much in common with a well-run military barracks.”
”Most parents sent presents. M. de Fleury sent questions: What have you eaten today? What is the parrot saying? Have you new gloves for the winter?”
”The boy rose very slowly from his play and stood looking, unsmiling. It was the first time Nicholas had seen his eyes full of anger. He thought that they had probably succeeded, if the child felt sufficiently safe to show what he felt.”
✨ Playing Florentine football (calcio storico fiorentino, do look it up) on the castle walls of Edinburgh. Note to self: stay away from the Scottish royal family.
✨ The Mystery play that Nicholas creates for the king of Scotland. Nicholas is told that maybe it’s time to start creating instead of constant fighting and scheming and planning. (Wouldn’t that be a healthy thing, Nicholas? I know you are not listening.) The play was pure magic.
”Then the breeze slammed forth the peal of an organ, followed by a susurration like a wheat-field under rain, then swelled and swelled until it burgeoned into the voice of a full choir of song.”
”Later, it came out that the Shepherds were speaking in Scots, and making jokes you wouldn’t believe.”
”Over palace, palace and stable the cloud banks lingered and passed, tinged with sound; flushed with close-woven plainsong, opulent with polyphony; pierced by trumpets and clarions, dulcions and clarsachs, schawrns and viols: No timeas, Maria, Gabriel sang.”
This chapter hit me so hard, in many ways.
✨ The Iceland adventure! It was perfect: breathtaking landscapes, geysers, sea-battles, polar bears, and nods to King Hereafter. I dare you to find a better or a more emotional description of a volcanic eruption. I loved Kathi and Robin in these chapters. One of my buddy readers said they were like hobbits, going on an adventure with the big folk. Yes! Kathi is definitely a hobbit. Nicholas: ”She is like a young brother.” Awww.
✨ The last two chapters: the climax is partly an anticlimax. I thought: all this, for this? Then there is another revelation, and we have a moral disaster on our hands. Nicholas, you are a psycho lunatic! No, make it a psycho lunatic cubed.
”He invents, and then allows the invention to swallow him. […] He has to reach the conclusion that he must never do it again.”
I’m wondering if we are to have a redemption arc in books 7-8? I am sceptical, but let’s see what you can do, Dame Dunnett. show less
Oh, I am so happy. I am heartbroken. I’ve just run an exhausting mixture of a sprint and a marathon and collapsed after the finish line, gasping.
Dunnett is shatteringly ruthless in this book. Beloved characters die in horrible ways. The knives are invisible and they pierce you slowly, until Dunnett starts to twist. Things are not what they seem, this is not the story you think you are reading! There are clues, of course, but you gallop past them – because of the plot, because of some of show more the best action I’ve ever encountered on a page, because of masks so skilfully worn.
As for the characters…:
There is a maturity, a sense of responsibility, an urgency to Lymond that was missing from the first two books. I’m full of admiration, both for the character arc and the author’s skill in creating it. This is not a game any more. (Richard to Lymond: “Not for the first time, you frighten me silly.”)
I loved the chemistry between Lymond and Gabriel and Jerott. Yes, I want a slashfic, is that really too much to ask? Obviously (for those in the know), I mean Gabriel from the first half of the book, this Gabriel:
“I wish… you did not need to mock,” he said, and rested his fingertips, briefly, as once before, on Lymond’s arm. “For of all men, my God could love you; and I, too.”
Oonagh, whose storyline I hated in the previous book, managed to make me root for her and break my heart.
“Could she not teach him other comforts, though? The comfort of planning, of action; the great panacea of success. On this stricken island there was no one who knew what a leader should be like… except Oonagh O’Dwyer.”
Joleta… So much potential, so much talent that was wasted and twisted. I can’t help feeling a lot of sympathy and sorrow.It’s interesting how Dunnett crams all this convent-bred innocence down the reader’s throat – it should give you a clue, but it doesn’t.
Sibylla, you are such a joy, in so many ways, always. “The Church,” said Sibylla definitely, “should excommunicate girls who do not replace lids on sticky jars and wash their hair every day with the best towels.”
Somervilles are an awesome family. I hated Philippa the brat, and then she turned into a seed of something magnificent (I’ll see what the rest of the books bring). Well, maybe it is not that surprising, with such a mother. “… and being Kate, she had stayed, gnawing at her nails, where she was, and had left Philippa to do her growing-up without interference.”
I really wanted an epic sword fight between certain characters – as the book was drawing to a close, I grew worried. And then it happened! It *was* epic (too short, though).
The ending makes you want to grab the next book. I won’t, though, not right now. I need to breathe and come to my senses. show less
Dunnett is shatteringly ruthless in this book. Beloved characters die in horrible ways. The knives are invisible and they pierce you slowly, until Dunnett starts to twist. Things are not what they seem, this is not the story you think you are reading! There are clues, of course, but you gallop past them – because of the plot, because of some of show more the best action I’ve ever encountered on a page, because of masks so skilfully worn.
As for the characters…:
There is a maturity, a sense of responsibility, an urgency to Lymond that was missing from the first two books. I’m full of admiration, both for the character arc and the author’s skill in creating it. This is not a game any more. (Richard to Lymond: “Not for the first time, you frighten me silly.”)
I loved the chemistry between Lymond and Gabriel and Jerott. Yes, I want a slashfic, is that really too much to ask? Obviously (for those in the know), I mean Gabriel from the first half of the book, this Gabriel:
“I wish… you did not need to mock,” he said, and rested his fingertips, briefly, as once before, on Lymond’s arm. “For of all men, my God could love you; and I, too.”
Oonagh, whose storyline I hated in the previous book, managed to make me root for her and break my heart.
“Could she not teach him other comforts, though? The comfort of planning, of action; the great panacea of success. On this stricken island there was no one who knew what a leader should be like… except Oonagh O’Dwyer.”
Joleta… So much potential, so much talent that was wasted and twisted. I can’t help feeling a lot of sympathy and sorrow.
Sibylla, you are such a joy, in so many ways, always. “The Church,” said Sibylla definitely, “should excommunicate girls who do not replace lids on sticky jars and wash their hair every day with the best towels.”
Somervilles are an awesome family. I hated Philippa the brat, and then she turned into a seed of something magnificent (I’ll see what the rest of the books bring). Well, maybe it is not that surprising, with such a mother. “… and being Kate, she had stayed, gnawing at her nails, where she was, and had left Philippa to do her growing-up without interference.”
I really wanted an epic sword fight between certain characters – as the book was drawing to a close, I grew worried. And then it happened! It *was* epic (too short, though).
The ending makes you want to grab the next book. I won’t, though, not right now. I need to breathe and come to my senses. show less
When I realised I had six chapters left, I decided to read slower. Don’t leave me yet, book! Two chapters away from the end, I started reading the next book in my queue. One chapter away from the end, I continued to read that next book in queue. What do you mean, “who does that?” I do.
What a journey this has been! This series continues to delight, amaze, horrify.
At first, we are in Venice: ”Reclining scented upon her lagoon. Venice was a city of festivals, a city of water-parties show more and music, of masquerades and stately processions, of entertainments of the circus and entertainments of a more intimate kind, behind silken curtains.” There are assassins, spies, intrigues, glass-makers of Murano... But this is simply a prologue. Nicholas has plans (doesn’t he always?). ”Intrigue is his life, as we saw today, as you saw on Cyprus. Intrigue, and danger, and a taste for what he transforms, often enough, into high adventure. But whether he means it or not, people die.”
We are going to Africa! Ships venturing down the West coast of Africa in the 15th century, this is exactly like going to the Moon hundreds of years later. ”There are many dangers; curiosity being the greatest.” Nicholas has unexpected company on this journey – Gelis von Borselen, Katelina’s younger sister; and Bel, her companion. They are both awesome, and the fraught, uneasy relationships and strange friendships forming and reforming, are exhilarating to watch.
”I can’t protect a woman out there.”
”I never thought you could,” said Gelis van Borselen. ”It isn’t your forte.”
Also Gelis:
”…if you could get me a light bow, I could use it. Is the handgun as simple as it looks?”
”Perhaps gold makes men dizzy, like wine. The very ship seems to sing.”
”Do you say?” said Mistress Bel. ”Nothing vulgar, I hope.”
What I really liked was how easily Gelis and Bel became part of the team, competent and respected (ans badass). When you are “going to the Moon”, you are either a team or you die, 15th century gender roles going out of the window. Kudos to the characters, kudos to Dunnett.
Considering the time and the place I should have expected a slave trade plot, but I did not. ”How could you bring people to Christ while stealing their children?” Loppe, a former slave, has an amazing character arc in this book and throughout the series, but I cannot understand his reasons for trying to make a horrible system “better”. He sounded naive to me.
I liked how Dunnett tried to avoid racial stereotypes, making everyone and everything they meet on the journey complex, interesting, different. And yet, as the author writes with a white gaze, stereotypes still seep in, making the reader cringe.
There are Adventures with a sense of wonder, riveting desperate treks across inhospitable lands, treachery and heartbreak. Reader, don’t forget to breathe. When they reach Timbuktu, the description of it is nothing short of amazing. Dunnett is also being sarcastic about Europeans not expecting to find such a centre of learning.
”Light pounced like a lion through the vaults and arcades of Ma’Dughu… [ ] Inside was another dusk, made of gold.”
I loved Gelis’s chapters when she was alone in Timbuktu, making a life for herself, learning new things, learning Arabic.
I loved Nicholas’ journey across the Sahara, seeking absolution for things in his past.
”Understanding, and vision, and peace with oneself. You have to win that war, Nicholas, before you can win any other.”
”He had sailed as an army would sail, to seize its objectives. […] And he had not thought at all, of what that would do to people around him. Many were dead. All were altered. Most of all, late and laggard, himself.”
It is hard, very hard, to come back from a journey such as this. You might be changed, but your old world is the same.
”Nicholas said abruptly, ”Do you have peace?” He said it in Arabic.
She looked up, her lashes aghast like a doll’s. When she answered, it was in harsh Arabic, and not with the called-for response. ”No,” she said. ”I don’t know who I am.”
At the end, Dunnett breaks my heart and gleefully indulges in some character assassination. Team Gelis in my head is standing there, looking forlorn and confused, having dropped all the pom poms. You can wave them at the angsty stuff that is surely to follow in the next book, I tell Team Gelis.
I am also beginning to think that the Crawfords of Dunnett's Lymond Chronicle have nothing on the van der Poeles, de St Pols, van Borselens etc. What a stupid mess this is, really.
Yes, I will be there for the next book. I will be there for all the storytelling joy. show less
What a journey this has been! This series continues to delight, amaze, horrify.
At first, we are in Venice: ”Reclining scented upon her lagoon. Venice was a city of festivals, a city of water-parties show more and music, of masquerades and stately processions, of entertainments of the circus and entertainments of a more intimate kind, behind silken curtains.” There are assassins, spies, intrigues, glass-makers of Murano... But this is simply a prologue. Nicholas has plans (doesn’t he always?). ”Intrigue is his life, as we saw today, as you saw on Cyprus. Intrigue, and danger, and a taste for what he transforms, often enough, into high adventure. But whether he means it or not, people die.”
We are going to Africa! Ships venturing down the West coast of Africa in the 15th century, this is exactly like going to the Moon hundreds of years later. ”There are many dangers; curiosity being the greatest.” Nicholas has unexpected company on this journey – Gelis von Borselen, Katelina’s younger sister; and Bel, her companion. They are both awesome, and the fraught, uneasy relationships and strange friendships forming and reforming, are exhilarating to watch.
”I can’t protect a woman out there.”
”I never thought you could,” said Gelis van Borselen. ”It isn’t your forte.”
Also Gelis:
”…if you could get me a light bow, I could use it. Is the handgun as simple as it looks?”
”Perhaps gold makes men dizzy, like wine. The very ship seems to sing.”
”Do you say?” said Mistress Bel. ”Nothing vulgar, I hope.”
What I really liked was how easily Gelis and Bel became part of the team, competent and respected (ans badass). When you are “going to the Moon”, you are either a team or you die, 15th century gender roles going out of the window. Kudos to the characters, kudos to Dunnett.
Considering the time and the place I should have expected a slave trade plot, but I did not. ”How could you bring people to Christ while stealing their children?” Loppe, a former slave, has an amazing character arc in this book and throughout the series, but I cannot understand his reasons for trying to make a horrible system “better”. He sounded naive to me.
I liked how Dunnett tried to avoid racial stereotypes, making everyone and everything they meet on the journey complex, interesting, different. And yet, as the author writes with a white gaze, stereotypes still seep in, making the reader cringe.
There are Adventures with a sense of wonder, riveting desperate treks across inhospitable lands, treachery and heartbreak. Reader, don’t forget to breathe. When they reach Timbuktu, the description of it is nothing short of amazing. Dunnett is also being sarcastic about Europeans not expecting to find such a centre of learning.
”Light pounced like a lion through the vaults and arcades of Ma’Dughu… [ ] Inside was another dusk, made of gold.”
I loved Gelis’s chapters when she was alone in Timbuktu, making a life for herself, learning new things, learning Arabic.
I loved Nicholas’ journey across the Sahara, seeking absolution for things in his past.
”Understanding, and vision, and peace with oneself. You have to win that war, Nicholas, before you can win any other.”
”He had sailed as an army would sail, to seize its objectives. […] And he had not thought at all, of what that would do to people around him. Many were dead. All were altered. Most of all, late and laggard, himself.”
It is hard, very hard, to come back from a journey such as this. You might be changed, but your old world is the same.
”Nicholas said abruptly, ”Do you have peace?” He said it in Arabic.
She looked up, her lashes aghast like a doll’s. When she answered, it was in harsh Arabic, and not with the called-for response. ”No,” she said. ”I don’t know who I am.”
At the end, Dunnett breaks my heart and gleefully indulges in some character assassination. Team Gelis in my head is standing there, looking forlorn and confused, having dropped all the pom poms. You can wave them at the angsty stuff that is surely to follow in the next book, I tell Team Gelis.
I am also beginning to think that the Crawfords of Dunnett's Lymond Chronicle have nothing on the van der Poeles, de St Pols, van Borselens etc. What a stupid mess this is, really.
Yes, I will be there for the next book. I will be there for all the storytelling joy. show less
Nicholas has been persuaded to travel to the fabulous far-off city of Trebizond, last outpost of an ancient empire. The machinations surrounding this expedition run deeper than the complexities of trade - which Nicholas views as a game - and the politics of European city states and eastern potentates, and are more subtle than the unexpected rivarly of sea-prince Pagano Doria and his apalling marriage, who keeps Nicholas and Co busy with assorted acts of sabotage, some deadlier than others. show more While lawyer Gregorio and wife Marian try to sort things out at home, Nicholas makes the perilous voyage to the Black Sea and the decadent court of the Emperor, with one eye on the caravans carrying raw silk and another on the army and navy of the Ottomans, who can't possibly threaten Trebizond, or so they are assured.
Brilliant, epic, breathtaking, this twists and turns and has heartberaking tragedy and utterly maddening bad guys and characters that aren't actually bad but still quite maddening in their own way, and laugh out loud humour and Dunnet's penchant for characters playing dangerous games that aren't just trade and politics and intrigue, but actual sports, albeit from which the other games are not entirely absent. A confident second volume in which Nicholas embarks on his first great adventure, still callow and with much to learn, and with friends and companions who aren't aways comfortable with what they learn about him. show less
Brilliant, epic, breathtaking, this twists and turns and has heartberaking tragedy and utterly maddening bad guys and characters that aren't actually bad but still quite maddening in their own way, and laugh out loud humour and Dunnet's penchant for characters playing dangerous games that aren't just trade and politics and intrigue, but actual sports, albeit from which the other games are not entirely absent. A confident second volume in which Nicholas embarks on his first great adventure, still callow and with much to learn, and with friends and companions who aren't aways comfortable with what they learn about him. show less
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