Saturday 18 July 2015
Recorded live at HIF’s Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival

Scottish comedian and presenter, Fred MacAuley delves into Beaton’s extraordinary career.

Marion Chesney is known primarily for the more than 100 historical romance novels. M.C. Beaton is the pseudonym she reserves for crime fiction, including the much-loved Agatha Raisin and Hamish Macbeth novels.

Born in Glasgow, she was a bookseller, theatre critic and fashion editor before joining the Scottish Daily Express, where she mostly reported crime. A move to Fleet Street followed with the Daily Express before leaving for America, working for The Star in New York.

She took up writing romances to spend more time with her son. A holiday in Sutherland at a fishing school inspired her first Hamish Macbeth story. Beaton returned to Scotland, where husband Harry reared black sheep, before a move to the Cotswolds, which inspired the brilliant Agatha Raisin.