Alice Elizabeth Burton or Aitken (4 October 1908 – 20 July 1990)[1] was a British-Canadian novelist and popular historian.
Life edit
Born in Cairo to Richard Burton and Alice Gwendolyn (née Kerby, later Duck),[2][3] she grew up in Windsor, Ontario. She later studied privately in Rome.[4] In 1935 Burton married John Theodore Aitken at Windsor, Ontario.[2] In the 1940s she wrote comic fantasy novels under the pseudonym Susan Alice Kerby. In Miss Carter and the Ifrit (1945), a Muslim spirit helped a spinster to find love during the Second World War.[5] In Mr Kronion (1949), a Greek god defended English village life.
From 1945 to 1965, she was the London correspondent of a Canadian daily, the Windsor Star.[6] Changing her surname by deed poll from Aitken to Burton in 1950,[7] she published her historical writing as Elizabeth Burton.
She died in Witney, Oxfordshire, in 1990.[8]
Works edit
Novels edit
- As Alice Elizabeth Burton
- Cling to her, waiting. London: A. Dakers, 1939.
- As Susan Alice Kerby
- Fortnight in Frascati. London: A. Dakers, 1940.
- Miss Carter and the Ifrit. London: Hutchinson, 1945.
- Many Strange Birds. London: Hutchinson, 1947. Published in the US as Fortune's Gift. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1947.
- Gone to Grass: a novel. London: Hutchinson, 1948. Published in the US as The Roaring Dove. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1948.
- Mr Kronion: a novel. London: Werner Laurie, 1949.
Historical writing edit
- The Elizabethans at Home. Secker & Warburg, 1958. Illustrated by Felix Kelly. Published in the US as The Pageant of Elizabethan England, Scribner, 1959.
- The Jacobeans at Home Secker & Warburg, 1962. Illustrated by Felix Kelly. Published in the US as The Pageant of Stuart England, Scribner, 1962.
- Here is England. New York: Ariel Books, 1965.
- The Georgians at Home, 1714-1830. London: Longman, 1967. Illustrated by Felix Kelly. Published in the US as The Pageant of Georgian England, Scribner, 1967.
- The Early Victorians at Home, 1837-1861. London: Longman, 1972. Illustrated by Felix Kelly. Published in the US as The Pageant of Early Victorian England, Scribner, 1972.
- The Early Tudors at Home, 1485-1558. London: Allen Lane, 1976. Illustrated by Felix Kelly. Published in the US as The Pageant of Early Tudor England, Scribner, 1976.
References edit
- ^ England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916–2007
- ^ a b "[Marriage registration]". Ancestry.co.uk. 23 Nov 1935. Retrieved 16 May 2021.
- ^ "[Marriage registration]". Ancestry.co.uk. 9 Oct 1911. Retrieved 16 May 2021.
- ^ Burton, The Georgians at Home, Arrow Books, 1973.
- ^ Colin Manlove (2016-07-27). The Fantasy Literature of England. Springer. p. 128. ISBN 978-1-349-27499-4.
- ^ The Writers Directory 1980-1982. Springer. 1979. p. 178. ISBN 978-1-349-03650-9.
- ^ The London Gazette, 14 July 1950, p.3658
- ^ England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858–1995
External links edit
- Elizabeth Burton at Library of Congress, with 16 library catalogue records as Elizabeth Burton and Susan Kerby
- Susan Alice Kerby at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
  | This article about a writer or poet from the United Kingdom is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |