Emma Blair

Author Information
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  • Bibliography:
    29 Books
  • First Book:
    April 1982
  • Latest Book:
    February 2008
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About the Author

Iain Blair was born on 12 August 1942 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. He was an actor and writer, married with the also writer Jane Blanchard. Initially he wrote plays for theatre and television, but later began to write novels. He started out writing suspense novels as Iain Blair, but after being unsuccessful with this genre, switched to writing popular historical romance fiction sagas. But according to his Web site, Iain Blair's publishers decided he'd sell far more books simply by being published as a woman because is a women's fiction genre. "I was given absolutely no choice in the matter. They'd decided on a sex change and even the name. So that was that. Emma I became and Emma I've stayed." His true identity remained a secret until 1998 when his novel Flower of Scotland was nominated for the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association Awards, which required him to admit to being the author. He passed away on 3 July 2011 in Torquay, Devon, England.

Book List in Order: 29 titles

  • Where No Man Cries

    Glasgow between the wars is a town divided, taut with violence and steeped in hardship - a town with no time for dreams. And Angus McBain knows that better than most: being poor in Glasgow has killed his father and aged his mother before her time. An...

  • Nellie Wildchild

    Glaswegian Nellie Thompson is born into a poor, desperate city, divided by religion and class. She knows what it is like to be hungry and hopeless and to live a lie with the man she hates. But she holds onto her dreams of leaving the city, even if it...

  • Hester Dark

    Hester arrives in Glasgow determined to make this cruel and inhospitable city the home of her dreams. She is lucky to have a wealthy uncle to take her in and all the advantages money can buy. But Hester's new, bright world holds dark secrets, jealous...

  • This Side of Heaven

    When she was sixteen, Sheila Beattie knew exactly what her future would be. She would marry her sweetheart Eric, a fisherman like her father, and they would raise their family and dream their simple dreams in the village which they'd been born. Her l...

  • Jessie Gray

    Set in Glasgow, just after World War II, this love story is set against the cultural upheavals of the 40s and 50s. Jessie, the daughter of a church minister falls for a boy from the wrong side of the tracks who is determined to prove himself to the w...

  • The Princess of Poor Street

    They called it Black Friday in Parr Street when the factory closed. And whole families in the slums of Glasgow during the Depression felt the cruel sting of despair. Vicky Devine's father, George, was devastated. But young Ken Blacklaws had steel in ...

  • Street Song

    Susan's parents had wanted a son . . . and they did little to hide their disappointment. As soon as was decently possible they packed her off to boarding-school. If only they could have known . . . For in the tradition-bound Scotland of the 1920s, t...

  • When Dreams Come True

    Norma McKenzie's bubbly, irrepressible Glaswegian spirit ensured that she would never remain downtrodden. When her family are forced to move into a Glasgow tenement, it is not long before she meets popular, handsome, blue-eyed Midge Henderson. Captiv...

  • A Most Determined Woman

    For Sarah Hawke, daughter of an impoverished miner, life offered little beyond the grime of Glasgow in the 1890s and the eternal drudgery of back-breaking work. Until a mysterious stranger entered her life. A stranger who turned out to be her real fa...



  • The Blackbird's Tale

    A story of three women united in their love for books, for life and for their men. The book is set in Glasgow and follows the life of Cathy, a war bride, Hannah, her daughter and Robyn, her granddaughter and their little bookshop called "The Blackbir...

  • Maggie Jordan

    When most of Maggie Jordan's family are killed in a freak flood in the small coastal village of Heymouth, she is forced to find work in one of Glasgow's carpet mills. She becomes engaged to Nevil Sanderson, who suddenly decides he must go to Spain an...

  • Scarlet Ribbons

    Born with a degenerative hip, Sadie grows up in a Barnardo's home with only a pair of scarlet ribbons to remind her of her mother. In 1927, fully cured, she is offered the opportunity of a lifetime: to start a new life in Canada. But life seems f...

  • The Water Meadows

    A story of a family's struggle against the devastating hardships of the 1920s depression. Made redundant from his factory job in Glasgow and with no prospects of employment, John Forsyth moves with his family to a new life in rural Devon....

  • The Sweetest Thing

    When Cully Stewart dies during morning service, his family is devastated. And when further tragedy follows, the family is forced to split up, but gradually they learn that love, in its different guises, is undoubtedly the sweetest thing....

  • The Daffodil Sea

    14-year-old Roxanne, a farmer's daughter, runs away to London and to a life in showbusiness. But at the height of her career disaster strikes, and she returns to Devon, where she learns to accept that love is a thing of the past - or so she likes to ...

  • Passionate Times

    Returning home from war with memory loss, Corporal Reith Douglas finds comfort with Catie Smith. Reith soon realizes that he could well recapture his passionate past....

  • Half Hidden

    Holly loses her fiance at Dunkirk and throws all her energy into nursing and hating the Germans who have taken away her beloved, and have invaded her home, Jersey. But she is forced to admit she respects and admires Dr Peter Schmidt and they begin a ...

  • Flower of Scotland

    A family's triumphs and tragedies, from life as privileged distillery owners to the horrors of the trenches in France. Charlotte becomes engaged to Lieutenant Geoffrey Armitage as the Great War breaks out,. The war takes its toll on all her fmaily, a...

  • An Apple from Eden

    Bridie gets a job as a maid on Sir Ian of Seaton's estate and, much against her better judgement and will, falls in love with Sir Ian's brother's step-son, also called Ian. Ian optimistically feels that his father will understand and let them marry b...



  • Goodnight, Sweet Prince

    Emma Blair once again richly evokes the setting and characters of Scotland during the 30s. Continuing the story she began in Flower of Scotland, Emma invites the reader back into the lives of the Drummond family, who are still dealing with the afterm...

  • Wild Strawberries

    Maizie and her husband, Sam, run the Paris Hotel in Coverack, Cornwall, but when World War II starts Sam joins up and leaves Maizie to run the hotel. Struggling to keep the hotel going, Maizie is further troubled when she takes on Rosemary and Bobby,...

  • Forget-Me-Not

    Following her husband's death, Minna runs a small boarding house in Torquay and brings up her son, Tim. Tim becomes a journalist for the local paper, struggling to get by-lines and hoping to make it to a national some day.However, the outbreak of the...

  • Moonlit Eyes

    When Pee Wee Poston and his wife Beulah are offered the chance to swap New York for London, they jump at the chance. Pee Wee, a highly talented saxophonist, has been asked to help launch a new jazz club in Soho. By accepting, the couple can be clos...

  • Finding Happiness

    Sandy McLean is training to be a doctor to follow in his father's footsteps - indeed, to surpass his father who is just a general practitioner: Sandy is to become a top surgeon. Or so his father insists. Sandy feels he has no choice, though knows he ...

  • Twilight Time

    Sisters Crista and Maggs work in a Devon village paper mill. Life is hard - the Great War has recently ended, money is scarce and days are long. Even the Saturday night dances are same-ish. But they are happy enough, particularly when love comes alon...

  • Little White Lies

    For sixteen-year-old Lizzie McDougall, life in the Glasgow tenements comes as a culture shock after her sheltered upbringing in the Highlands. But for her father, who has just lost his job in the tiny town of Tomintoul, Glasgow offers employment. Her...

  • Three Bites of the Cherry

    Georgie Mair's first husband's dies tragically from leukaemia. Three years later love comes once more into her life. Charlie Gunn saves her after an explosion in the factory at work. Like her, Charlie is widowed with a young child. As their relations...

  • Sweethearts

    For Lexa and Cordelia Stewart the late 1930s bring changes that neither could have dreamed of. For as well as the onslaught of war, the death of their father leaves them ill equipped to run the family business. Cordelia falls recklessly in love with ...

  • Arrows of Desire

    When Steve is killed during enemy action, Beth is devastated. They were due to elope to Gretna Green the following week, and their happiness was complete with the news that Beth is pregnant. But now, alone and unmarried and with a baby on the way, Be...



Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Emma Blair has published 29 books.

Emma Blair does not have a new book coming out soon. The latest book, Arrows of Desire, was published in February 2008.

The first book by Emma Blair, Where No Man Cries, was published in April 1982.

No. Emma Blair does not write books in series.
Pseudonyms / Co-Author
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