Dorothy Dunnett

Dorothy Dunnett was a Scottish novelist widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of historical fiction in the English language. Born Dorothy Halliday in Dunfermline, Scotland, in 1923, she studied at the Edinburgh College of Art and worked in the Civil Service and as a journalist before turning to fiction. She was also an accomplished portrait painter. Dunnett is best known for two monumental novel sequences: the Lymond Chronicles, a six-book series following the adventures of Francis Crawford of Lymond across sixteenth-century Europe, and the House of Niccolò, an eight-book prequel series set in the fifteenth century. Caprice and Rondo is the seventh book in the House of Niccolò series. Both sequences are celebrated for their dazzling erudition, intricate plotting, complex characters, and the extraordinary breadth of their historical and geographical scope. Dunnett died in 2001, but her novels have maintained a passionate international readership and are frequently described as the finest historical fiction ever written. Her audiobooks and books offer listeners and readers fiction of unmatched ambition and intelligence — historical novels that reward rereading and reveal new depths with every encounter.