Lucilla Andrews

Who was Lucilla Andrews?

Lucilla Matthew Andrews Crichton was a British romantic novelist who wrote as Lucilla Andrews.

She joined the British Red Cross in 1940 and later trained as a nurse at St Thomas' Hospital, London, during World War II.

She was a founder member of the Romantic Novelists' Association, which honoured her shortly before her death with a lifetime achievement award.

As a writer of thirty-five novels over the period 1954–96 she specialised in hospital romances. Her noms de plume included Diana Gordon and Joanna Marcus.

In late 2006, Lucilla Andrews' autobiography No Time for Romance became the focus of a posthumous controversy. It has been alleged that the novelist Ian McEwan plagiarised from this work while writing his novel, Atonement. McEwan has protested his innocence.