Ian Blair

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.