Pauline Gedge is a Canadian novelist best known for her historical fiction novels, including the best-selling Child of the Morning, The Eagle and the Raven, her fantasy novel Stargate, and her Egyptian trilogies, Lords of the Two Lands and The King’s Man. She also writes science fiction, fantasy and horror. Her 13 novels have sold more than six million copies in 18 languages. Her first four novels were published with cover art by Leo and Diane Dillon. The Dillons almost never authorized their work for sale beyond that directly commissioned, but reproductions of their covers of Gedge's novels were made available for sale via an agreement between Gedge and Diane Dillon, who met in the late 1970s.
Life and career
Pauline Gedge was born December 11, 1945 in Auckland, New Zealand. She spent part of her childhood in Oxfordshire, England, before her family moved to Manitoba and then settled in Alberta in 1966. She studied at the University of Manitoba and at a teachers' college in New Zealand. Gedge wrote unpublished poetry for years. She tried to write contemporary mainstream fiction in the early 1970s and then gave up, turning to ancient Egypt for inspiration. She based her first published novel, Child of the Morning, on the historical figure of Hatshepsut, Egypt’s only female pharaoh. She wrote the novel in six weeks and went on to win the Alberta Search-for-a-New Novelist Competition in 1977. The Eagle and the Raven received the Jean Boujassy award from the Société des Gens de Lettres in France and The Twelfth Transforming won the Writers Guild of Alberta Best Novel of the Year Award. She has also written in other genres. Stargate is science fiction, The Covenant is contemporary horror fiction, and Scroll of Saqqara incorporates some fantasy elements. Gedge's ex-husband, Bernie Ramanauskas, provided the historical research for many of her later novels. Gedge has two sons, Simon and Roger.
Prizes and honours
1977 Alberta Search-for-a-New Novelist Competition
