Malcolm Macdonald

Malcolm Macdonald
[full name: Malcolm John Ross-Macdonald]

born 29 February 1932 in Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire; eldest son of a Scottish power engineer and a Welsh mother.

educated Chipping Sodbury infants, Market Drayton junior (1939), Prestwick Academy (1940), Greys College, Port Elizabeth (1941-44), Chipping Sodbury Grammar (1945), Bedford School (1945-50: Higher Certificate in Physics, Zoology, Botany, Art); Falmouth School of Art (1950-54: National Diploma in painting) [interruption for national service, 1954-56]; Slade School, UCL, 1956-58; studied under Claude Rogers, Lucian Freud: Slade diploma in painting.

career
1958: Taught English as a foreign language in London; shared a flat with the poet Jon Silkin, the playwright David Mercer, and novelist Bernice Rubens (our landlady); wrote The Big Waves, a roman à clef. Left the ms with David Mercer.
1958-61: Taught English as a foreign language in Umeå, Sweden; helped organize Kopparhatten, an art-and-crafts cooperative; also several art exhibitions at the Länsmuséet. Wrote The Big Waves, a roman à clef. Left the ms with David Mercer, who sent it to Tom Maschler at Jonathan Cape, who accepted it.
1961: Returned to Cornwall, wrote a sequel (later rejected); took a job as encyclopedia editor with Rathbone (later Aldus) Books, London.
1962: Married Ingrid Giehr of Hamburg; published The Big Waves; wrote another sequel (also rejected).
1963: Moved to Hertfordshire, where we had two daughters. Worked as editor, series editor, executive editor at Aldus until 1965-72: Became freelance. Wrote guidebooks for BOAC, brochures for Alcan, newspaper and magazine articles, and, with Donald Longmore (consultant at the National Heart Hospital) Spare Part Surgery, Machines in Medicine, (both Aldus) The Heart (Weidenfeld). Other publications: The World Wildlife Guide (Threshold Books); Beyond the Horizon (Grolier); Every Living Thing and Life in the Future (Grolier - the first and last of a 12-volume series for which I was consultant editor, too); Doors, Doors, Doors (Alcan). Also consultant on future projects for Readers Digest Books Division in the great days of Peter Glemser. Also radio plays: Kristina's Winter and The Truth, Tomorrow - Maybe, Conditional People (and others that were rejected). Taught graphic design at Hornsey College of Art.
1973: Was encouraged by Richard Imison, Head of Radio 4 drama, to write four radio plays, intended as a pilot for an 8-part Victorian saga - The World from Rough Stones, about a railway engineering dynasty. BBC dithered so I turned it into a novel with the same title - accepted by Hodder & Stoughton (UK) and Knopff (USA).
1974: Moved to Ireland with Ingrid and daughters. Hodder published The World from Rough Stones. The BBC finally broadcast 3 of the four original plays. Became full-time historical novelist, publishing under the name Malcolm Macdonald (henceforth MM):
1975: The Origin of Johnny (non-fiction - Dorling Kindersley's first title, published under my full name, M.J. Ross-Macdonald). An Irish TV play, Kevin's Home, was commissioned and bought by RTE but never produced.
1977: The Rich Are With You Always (MM). 1978: Sons of Fortune (MM).
1979: Abigail (MM).
1981: Goldeneye (MM).
1982: The Dukes (writing as Malcolm Ross - henceforth MR). Won Romantic Times award for Historical Novelist of the Year.
1983: Tessa d'Arblay (MM).
1984: In Love and War (aka For They Shall Inherit) (MM).
1986: Mistress of Pallas (aka On a Far Wild Shore) (MR)
1987: The Silver Highways (MM).
1988: The Sky with Diamonds (aka Honour and Obey) (MM)
A Notorious Woman (MR)
1989: His Father's Son (MM)
An Innocent Woman (MR)
1990: A Woman Alone (MR)
Hell Hath No Fury (an Irish tale, writing as M. R. O'Donnell - henceforth MRO'D)
1991: The Captain's Wives (MM)
A Woman Scorned (MRO'D)
1992: A Woman Possessed (MR)
1993: Dancing on Snowflakes (MM)
All Desires Known (MRO'D)
1994: For I have Sinned (MRO'D)
To The End of Her Days (MM)
Kernow & Daughter (MR)
1995: Crissy's Family (aka The Trevarton Inheritance) (MR)
1996: Tomorrow's Tide (MR)
1997: The Carringtons of Helston (MR)
1998: Like a Diamond (MR)
1999: Tamsin Harte (MR)
2001: Rose of Nancemellin (MR)
2011: The Dower House (MM)
2012: Strange Music (MM)
Promises to Keep (MM)
2013: All of the above republished in ebook formats
2014: Wrote a detailed editorial critique of Dickens's Oliver Twist and published Dickens's imagined 2nd edition in response

Read more of this interview.

Website: http://www.malcolmmacdonald.org

http://www.malcolmmacdonald.org

a moneypit    a small hotel    adoption    adultery    against all odds    amateur opera    ambition    ancestry    ancient feud    angloirish landlords    art    art school    artists models    b and b    baby boomers    bankruptcy    banquets    bastardy    bed and breakfast    bereavement    betrayal    bitter truths    brush with death    burlesque    capital punishment    carefree youth    castles    catholic priest    cavalleuira rusticana    class war    comic character    communal living    confession    conflicted love    cork    cornwall    creating a garden    crime    crimean war    criticism    cunning    dam building    death    death of edward vii    decadence    dedication    dickens rewrite    divided loyalties    downton abbey    drury lane    dublin    dublin castle    dublin mountains    early automobiles    easter rising    edwardian cornwall    edwardian ireland    electricity pioneers    elite catholic girls school    english public school    entrepreneur    estates    eton    fagin    falmouth    family destroyed    family feud    farming    farming techniques    female friendship    femenine resourcefulness    feminism    feminist struggle    fenians    fierce love    fighting the law    final triumph    financial collapse    first chapters    first world war    fishing    fitup theater    forbidden love    french maids    friendship among women    gay men    genteel prostitution    georgian country house    grand hotel    hanging    happiness    happy marriage    hatred    helston    hidden love    high society    home entertainment    horseriding    hospitality business    hypocrisy    incest    inheritance    ireland    irish art    irish home    isles of scilly    jealousy    king edward vii    king george v    ladys maid    landlords    lands end    legal chicanery    liberals    life in service    life in the big house    lineage    london courtesans    london fog    london season    london theatre    love    love and loss    love conquers all    lovehate    loveless marriage    loves crosscurrents    madness    male chauvinism    marriage    married womens property    massacre    masters and servants    member of parliament    moneylenders    movie idol    murder    music hall    new edition    north sweden 58    nude bathing    nursing    oceania    old flame    opening lines    ostrich farming    oul daycency    pageturners    pauper burial    pawnshops    pedigree    penzance    pioneer america    pioneer photography    politics    poor law    port elizabeth    poverty    power    powerful love    prostitutes    prostitution in edwardian london    punishment    puppy love    queen victoria    readable writing    redruth    rejection    reunited    revenge    rivalry    rorkes drift    ruin    ruined maid    sailing    sebastopol    secret courtship    secret deals    secret love    secret loves    secret police    secrets and lies    seduction    selfreliance    sibling rivalry    silent movies    singletrack mind    sinn fein    skinny dipping    slade school of art    smuggling    snobbery    social class    south africa    stag hunting    steadfast love    stubborn female    summer stock    the angloirish    the big house    the final solution    the friendship of women    the great war    the land league    the midwest    the poor law    the thirties    the titanic disaster    the twenties    the workhouse    tin mining    torpedoed    transatlantic liners    travel to the holy land    travelling theatre    tribal hate    tribal love    trinity college dublin    trouble with girls    true love    tungsten mining    unfaithfulness    upstairs downstairs    upward middle classes    vast estates    vendettas    victoria cross    victorian    victorian aristocracy    victorian brewing    victorian cornwall    victorian ireland    victorian law    victorian publishing    village prostitutuion    vow of revenge    wannsee conference    war diary    war invalid    wayward girls reformatory    wealth    west end stage    workhouse    working class poverty    world war one    world war two    writing bestsellers    writing novels    ww2 adventure    yachting    zulu war