Vera Chapman


Vera Chapman, also known as Vera Ivy May Fogerty, and within the Tolkien Society as Belladonna Took, was a British author and founder of the Tolkien Society in the United Kingdom, and also wrote a number of pseudo-historical and Arthurian books. She held the title of Pendragon of The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids from 1964 to 1991.

Life

Chapman was born in Bournemouth, England on 8 May 1898 and lived in South Africa until she went to Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford where she was one of the first women to matriculate as a full member of Oxford University. She founded the Tolkien Society in Britain of which she was secretary. She persuaded J. R. R. Tolkien to become the Society's honorary president. She wrote her first novel in 1975 and continued writing until her death in 1996. Chapman wrote three fantasy novels based on Arthurian legend: The Green Knight,King Arthur's Daughter, and The King's Damosel

Works

Novels

The 1995 anthology The Merlin Chronicles also contains stories by Chapman