Occupation Novelist Children 3 Spouse Mr. Clark Parents Denise Robins | Role Novelist Nationality British Name Patricia Robins | |
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Pen name Patricia Robins,Claire Lorrimer,Susan Patrick Books Mavreen, The Dynasty: Rochford, The Chatelaine, The Wilderling, A Voice in the Dark | ||
Grandparents Kathleen Clarice Groom | ||
Patricia Robins (1 February 1921 – 4 December 2016) was a British writer of short stories and over 80 romance novels, also known under the pseudonym Claire Lorrimer, she had sold more than ten million copies. She also served as Women's Auxiliary Air Force officer during World War II tracking Nazi bombers.
Robins came from an artistic family. Her maternal grandfather was Herman Klein, a musician and her maternal grandmother was the writer K. C. Groom. Her mother was the popular romance writer Denise Robins, who was the first president of the Romantic Novelists' Association (1960–1966). Her maternal uncle was Adrian Cornwell-Clyne, who wrote books on photography and cinematography, another uncle was an artist, as is her daughter.
Biography
Patricia Denise Robins was born on 1 February 1921 in Hove, Sussex, England, the second daughter of Arthur Robins, a corn broker on the Baltic Exchange and Denise Robins, an prolific author, who sold more than one hundred million copies, and the first president of the Romantic Novelists' Association (1960–1966). She had two sisters, Eve Louise and Anne Eleanor. She was educated at Parents' National Educational Union at Burgess Hill, Sussex, and also in Switzerland and Germany.
Her mother encouraged her to write, and at 12 she published her first children's novellas. She worked as junior editor in a woman's magazine editorial.
Thanks to her knowledge of German, she served as Women's Auxiliary Air Force officer during World War II. She tracking Nazi bombers with the fledgling British radar system. Not until 2013 she received recognition, because of the confidential nature of her work.
During the war she also went on to write contemporary romance novels like her mother, she also pubished some children's stories.
In 1947, she married former RAF pilot Donald Clark, they had three children, Ian, Nicky and Graeme. Because her husband's job, the family lived in many countries, including Libya. After their divorce, she startd a relation with Mel Hack and moved to 400-year-old former barn in rural Kent.
In the 1967 she started to use the pseudonym Claire Lorrimer to write Gothic romances, and later family sagas. Some of her early novels were reedited under different titles as Clare Lorrimer.
In her late years, she devoted more time to her eight grandchildren, Emily, Jemma, Polly, Charlotte, Thomas, Arthur, Max and Tilly, but she continued writing until her death.
In March 2016, she was given the Outstanding Achievement Award at the Romantic Novelists' Association. She died on 4 December 2016 in Hove.