Pen name Kay Thorpe Genre Romantic novel Occupation Novelist Children 1 | Nationality British Name Kay Thorpe Period 1968–2006 Role Author | |
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Books Bought By A Billionaire, The Italian match, The South American's Wife, The Billion‑Dollar Bride, The Spanish Connection | ||
Kay Thorpe (born 1935 in England, United Kingdom) is a British author of more than 75 romance novels. She published her novels in Mills & Boon since 1968. All her novels have also been published under Harlequin Enterprises Limited. Over a period of four decades, she has produced a body of sensuous work that investigates heritage, family, class and love. Her forte is to encode the opposing reading within the classic Harlequin plot. A synopsis of the author that accompanies her publications notes that she researched the market for romance fiction before electing to write in this category. Her first book published in North America established her reputation as a gifted storyteller. She has a strong vital writing style.
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As her career graph began in the late 1960s, Kay Thorpe, along with Charlotte Lamb and others, was one of the first writers to explore the boundaries of sexual desire, her novels often reflecting the forefront of the "sexual revolution" of the 1970s. As such she was also one of the first to create a modern romantic heroine: independent, imperfect, and perfectly capable of initiating a sexual or romantic relationship. However, under Kay Thorpe's expert analysis, the modern romantic heroine had to re-evaluate her age old perceptions of what constituted love and marriage: she had to accept love unconditionally without looking for security in marriage.
Biography
Kay Thorpe was born in 1935 in England. After leaving school, she tried a variety of jobs, including dental nursing and a spell in the Women's Royal Air Force.
In 1960, Kay was married to Tony, and five years later they had a son John. Now, she and her husband live on the outskirts of Chesterfield in Derbyshire.
Her very first completed manuscript accepted, The Last of the Mallorys, was published in 1968. Since then she has written over 70 books.
A Word About the Author
Sometimes Kay Thorpe finds she has become two different people: the writer at her happiest when involved in the world of books and authors; and the housewife, turning her hands to the everyday needs of husband and son. Once in a while, she finds it difficult to step from one role to the other. She likes cooking, for instance, but she finds that it can be an irritating interruption when she's preoccupied with work on a novel, so the quality of her efforts in the kitchen tend to be a little erratic. She says, "As my husband once remarked, my writing gives life a fascinating element of uncertainly: one day a perfect coq au vin, the next day a couple of burned chops!"
Luckily Kay has daily professional help with her housework, and that leaves her time to indulge in her hobbies. Like many other Harlequin authors, she admits to being a voracious consumer of books, a quality she shares with her readers. She likes music and horseback riding, which she does in the countryside near her home. But her favorite hobby is travel - especially to places that will make good settings for her books.