{{Short description|Scottish author and broadcaster}} {{Use British English|date=July 2016}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2022}} {{Infobox writer |birth_name = Elizabeth Dodd |honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|MBE|size=100%}} |image = Lavinia_Derwent_of_Jedburgh.jpg |imagesize = |caption = |pseudonym = Lavinia Derwent |birth_date = 1909 |birth_place = Cheviot Hills, Scotland |death_date = 1989 |occupation = Writer and broadcaster |nationality = British |genre = Children's fiction, adult fiction |notableworks = The Sula quartet |spouse = |children = }}
'''Elizabeth Dodd''' MBE (1909–1989), better known by her pen name '''Lavinia Derwent''', was a Scottish author and broadcaster.<ref name=jed>{{Cite web|url=http://www.jedburgh.org.uk/famous-people-lavinia-derwent|title=Lavinia Derwent – 1909 – 1989|work=Jedburgh Historic Town|date=2012|accessdate=23 July 2016}}</ref>
==Life== Derwent was born in an isolated farmhouse in the Cheviot Hills, seven miles from Jedburgh and began making up stories about animals at an early age. She wrote a version of Greyfriars Bobby. Her autobiographical books include her ''Border'' and ''Manse'' series. ''Border Bairn'' is set around Jedburgh, while ''Lady of the Manse'' has a Berwickshire setting. Derwent's ''Manse'' books drew on her experiences keeping house for her Church of Scotland minister brother.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.scotlitlocations.com/scottish-borders/author/elizabeth-dodd/|title=Elizabeth Dodd (Lavinia Derwent)|work=Scottish Literary Locations|date=2009|accessdate=23 July 2016}}</ref><ref>[https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/74090 Moira Burgess: "Dodd, Elizabeth (pseud. Lavinia Derwent)", ODNB (Oxford, UK, 2005). Retrieved 23 February 2020.]</ref>
==Broadcasting== Derwent's first successes were her ''Tammy Troot'' stories, which were read out in the 1920s on Auntie Kathleen's Children's Hour on Scottish Radio.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://booksfromscotland.com/bfs-author/lavinia-derwent/|title=Lavinia Derwent|work=Books from Scotland – The Best of Scottish Books|date=2016|accessdate=23 July 2016}}</ref> The first of the books was published in 1947. They were still being reprinted in the 1970s, when Derwent, alternating with Molly Weir and Cliff Hanley, co-presented the series ''Teatime Tales'' on the STV (TV network), recalling stories taken from her own childhood.<ref name=jed/>
==The Sula books== Derwent books about a fictional island called ''Sula'' later featured in BBC's Jackanory, read by John Cairney.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Radio Times 1923 – 2009|publisher=BBC|date=2016|url=http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bbcone/london/1974-05-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141017171858/http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bbcone/london/1974-05-07|url-status=dead|archive-date=17 October 2014|accessdate=21 July 2016}}</ref> These were also made into a television series.
The original novels were: ''Sula'',<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Derwent|first1=Lavinia|title=Sula|publisher=Victor Gollancz Ltd|date=1969|isbn=0862410681}}</ref> ''Return to Sula'',<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Derwent|first1=Lavinia|title=Return to Sula|publisher=Victor Gollancz Ltd|date=1971|isbn=0862410738}}</ref> ''The Boy From Sula''<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Derwent|first1=Lavinia|title=The Boy from Sula|publisher=Victor Gollancz Ltd|date=1973|isbn=9780863154003}}</ref> and ''Song of Sula''.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Derwent|first1=Lavinia|title=Song of Sula|publisher=Victor Gollancz Ltd|date=1976|isbn=9780863154386}}</ref>
==Bibliography== {{Div col|colwidth=30em}} *”My Own Book of Birds” (1937) *''Tammy Troot'' (1947) *''Tammy Troot's Capers'' (1947) *'' Huffy Puffy the little red engine '' (1951) *''Macpherson'' (1961) *''Further Adventures of Tammy Troot'' (1975) *''Sula'' (1969) *''Return to Sula'' (1971) *''The Boy from Sula'' (1973) *''Song of Sula'' (1976) *''Macpherson's Island'' (1970) *''Macpherson's Skyscraper'' (1978) *''A Breath of Border Air'' (1977) *''Another Breath of Border Air'' (1978) *''God Bless the Borders'' (1981) *''A Border Bairn'' (1980) *''Beyond the Borders'' (1989) *''The Tale of Greyfriars Bobby'' (1985) *''The Lady of the Manse'' (1985) *''A Mouse in the Manse'' (1987) {{Div col end}}
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Portal|Children's literature}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Derwent, Lavinia}} Category:1909 births Category:1989 deaths Category:20th-century Scottish novelists Category:British women children's writers Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire Category:People from the Scottish Borders Category:Scottish children's writers Category:Scottish novelists Category:Scottish television presenters Category:Scottish women television presenters Category:Scottish writers Category:Writers from the Scottish Borders Category:20th-century Scottish women novelists