Kay Thorpe

Kay Thorpe (b. England) is an internationally acclaimed British author of over 75 romance novels. She published her novels in Mills & Boon since 1968. All her novels have also been published under Harlequin Enterprises Limited. Over a period of four decades, she has produced a body of sensuous work that investigates heritage, family, class and love. Her forte is to encode the opposing reading within the classic Harlequin plot. A synopsis of the author that accompanies her publications notes that she researched the market for romance fiction before electing to write in this category. Her first book published in North America established her reputation as a gifted storyteller. She has a strong vital writing style.

As her career graph began in the late 1960's, Kay Thorpe, along with Charlotte Lamb and others, was one of the first writers to explore the boundaries of sexual desire, her novels often reflecting the forefront of the "sexual revolution" of the 1970s. As such she was also one of the first to create a modern romantic heroine: independent, imperfect, and perfectly capable of initiating a sexual or romantic relationship.
Biography
Kay Thorpe was born in England. After leaving school, she tried a variety of jobs, including dental nursing and a spell in the Women's Royal Airforce.

In 1960, Kay was married to Tony, and four years later they had a son John. Now, she and her husband live on the outskirts of Chesterfield in Derbyshire with a cat called Mad Max.

Her very first completed manuscript accepted — The Last of the Mallorys, was published in 1968. Since then she has written over 70 books.


[edit] A Word About the Author
Sometimes Kay Thorpe finds she has become two different people: the writer at her happiest when involved in the world of books and authors; and the housewife, turning her hands to the everyday needs of husband and son. Once in a while, she finds it difficult to step from one role to the other. She likes cooking, for instance, but she finds that it can be an irritating interruption when she's preoccupied with work on a novel, so the quality of her efforts in the kitchen tend to be a little erratic. She says, "As my husband once remarked, my writing gives life a fascinating element of uncertainly: one day a perfect coq au vin, the next day a couple of burned chops!"

Luckily Kay has daily professional help with her housework, and that leaves her time to indulge in her hobbies. Like many other Harlequin authors, she admits to being a voracious consumer of books, a quality she shares with her readers. She likes music and horseback riding, which she does in the countryside near her home. But her favorite hobby is travel - especially to places that will make good settings for her books.


[edit] Book Notes

[edit] Places and People
Kay Thorpe's stories are rich in details covering a diverse background.

Stories are based mainly on three locations, namely England, Canada and Africa. There are also stories based in Spain, Italy, South America, Greek Islands, Caribbean Islands, South Pacific Islands and Australia.

Her main characters always stand by their British heritage. As a result, stories set outside of England have an underlying subplot that explore how a new comer from Britain can come to accept making a home for herself with one of the long time British descendents settled in Canada or South Africa. For example, Safari South (1976), Timber Boss (1978) and Copper Lake (1981).

In Storm Passage (1977) and Time out of Mind (1987), there is mention of how islands in the South Pacific and in the Caribbean came to be under private ownership by a British descendant.

In Timber Boss (1978), there are references as to how Scottish settlers made the Canadian region of Nova Scotia their new home.

Keith in Safari South (1976) appreciates the expansiveness of South Africa and the promising future the country offers him. While Keir in Temporary Marriage (1981) founds his fortunes as an engineering whiz in Sydney, Australia half way around the world from his native English village.

British engineers working in remote locations of hot and steamy Sierra Leone, the deserts of Libya, or the outback of Tanzania make up the scenery for the Iron Man (1974), the Man from Tripoli (1979), and No Passing Fancy (1980).

The Man at Kambala (1973) gives the reader a taste for African wilderness. In Safari South (1976), readers are taken to the Kruger National Park.

The class division in British society provides the conflict for the love affair in Temporary Marriage (1981). Mention of public vs private schools, Manor born, Irish vs English blood, cockney vs upper-class accents that indicate subtleties in class background make their way into her stories from the very first the Last of the Mallorys (1968) to other stories down the years such as No Passing Fancy (1980), a Man of Means (1983), and Win or Lose (1986).

After man-woman relation, father-daughter and brother-sister relations take second place in many of her stories. While the Man at Kambala (1973) and No Passing Fancy (1980) have affectionate fathers indulging their daughters, the fathers in a Man of Means (1983) and the Land of the Incas (1983) prove self-serving.

In Safari South (1976), Keith and Karen rekindle their sibling affections after years of being apart. While in Opportune Marriage (1969), the young woman realizes with a pang that her even younger brother is coming into his own and doesn't need her as before.

Kay Thorpe also takes a stab at the role of the mother, especially when mothers are relatively young compared to their daughters. In Never Trust a Stranger (1983) a forty-something lead actress Emily worries that casting her daughter Gemma in the same broadway production with herself may bring out the advances in her age. The mother-daughter relationship becomes more poignant when Gemma accuses Logan of being a past lover of her mother. Although Logan denies the charge, there is no denying that the mother in Floodtide (1981) solicits sex from her son-in-law, which he declines albeit politely giving her the benefit of the doubt as needing for herself a full blooded affair. Somewhere in her books Kay Thorpe throws in that British men think nothing much of their middle aged wives, who still yearn for the love and romance of their not so far away youth.

In the Iron Man (1974), Dave says that all wives are kept women. Dave's statement not withstanding, Kay brings to life predatory women who elect to live off men. In This Side of Paradise (1979), Marie travels to a Caribbean resort with the purpose of securing for herself a moneyed man. In Bitter Alliance (1978) and in Never Trust a Stranger (1983), there are women who marry for money. Nonetheless, these women, promiscuous as their case is, are strong individuals who play by their own rules. A charismatic Ailsa in Full Circle (1978), knowing that her looks will not support her in the long run, has a Swiss bank account to fall back on for her olden days.

Theater is a backdrop Kay Thorpe takes up in several of her novels over ensuing decades. For example, Devon Interlude (1968), Curtain Call (1971), Never Trust a Stranger (1983) and Land of Illusion (1988). In Never Trust a Stranger (1983), it is Logan's use of the word role that clues in would-be actress Gemma to who he is, a theater producer.

In Full Circle (1978), Sara, in an unsteady galley kitchen, dishes out a savory coq au vin albeit with too much wine, which still draws Steve's complement. This story along with others such as Not Wanted on Voyage (1972), and Storm Passage (1977) opens a window to life aboard ocean going watercrafts be it in a ketch powered by sails or in an ice-breaking whaling ship.

She also uses the sport of horse show jumping in Rising Star (1969), the circus world in Sawdust Season (1972), Corporate takeover in Dividing Line (1979), the international game of snooker in Win or Lose (1986), professional writing in This Side of Paradise (1979) and Skin Deep (1989), professional sculpting in Floodtide (1981), restoration of historical homes in Opportune Marriage (1969).

Interwoven in the love stories, there are these varied interests shared by the main protagonists that lend a richness to the quality of the plots and educate the readers no less.


[edit] Love and Marriage
Kay Thorpe explores many factors contributing to successful male-female intimate relationship, love and finally marriage and her writer's voice comes across strongly in each of her novels.

Her narratives give the hero many advantages over the heroine, a trait found in stories of other renowned series novelists such as Violet Winspear, Charlotte Lamb, Robyn Donald just to name a few. However, the harlequin readers anticipate resistance from their heroine until the man confesses his undying love for her. An emotionally secured heroine can, in turn, confess her love for the man.

Kay Thorpe's women, on the other hand, confess their love to men without first securing for themselves any safety net, emotional or otherwise. In such one-sided confessions, the women commit to stay with these men, willing to pay any price and to go with them just anywhere. For example, the Iron Man (1974), Bitter Alliance (1978), and Temporary Marriage (1981).

In Olive Island (1972) Nikos Alexandros explains to Nickey that she will never be happy if the man does not dominate her. Nickey comes back smartly saying that British women are not as accommodating as Greek women. Jaime in Bitter Alliance (1978), on the other hand, admits to the dominant streak in Liam. But in the wake of her first admission comes a second one that Liam would love her like no other man can. This admission does not readily surface in Kay's other heroines. Therefore, the primary struggle is to fight it like a bad premonition. Ramon observes in Apple in Eden (1973) that a woman constantly baits the man, riling him on purpose. This is all but an attempt to meet up with her match in a man, who then wins her submission.

In Safari South (1976), Brad is let down by Karen's answer to the question of compatibility between man and woman. Karen believes that she has to like what he likes and he has to like what she does. Brad counters that by saying what about personal likings and individual freedom? In This Side of Paradise (1979), Ryan responds to the same query by saying if two people are of the same mind, then one becomes superfluous, Gina's tentative answer to which is that one can agree to disagree.

Men, as sexual drivers, are the quickest to recognize the significance of sexual compatibility so to use it like a mantra over and over in Kay Thorpe's stories that as long as the couple is sexually compatible it is a foundation from which they can build on. For example, in the Man From Tripoli (1979), Bryn expresses this sentiment to bolster up a simple marriage of convenience.

Hence, the consensus that Kay establishes across her stories is that without sexual compatibility, there is no man-woman association to begin with. However, Steve in Full Circle (1978) tells Sara that a man can have sex with a woman with no strings attached. Therefore, for such an association to mature into any kind of relationship, women have to realize their own sexual potential to the fullest. Cynicism not withstanding, Nick in Storm Passage (1977) tells Tara that it is not enough that she makes herself available but that she needs to be all woman in order to let their sexual chemistry work for the benefit of their marriage.

As in the matching libido found between Jaime and Liam in Bitter Alliance (1978), when men find their own libido matching with that of the women, only then the relationship promises to be a lasting one. An older Annette in Sawdust Season (1972) tells young Toni that men are not the marrying type; that they only choose to do so when they find a woman whom they can’t get out of their skin.

Towards this end, Ross in Dividing Line (1979) tells Kerry that what she perceives as love is mostly made up of sexual attraction. Ross would not be appealing to Kerry if he couldn't arouse her sexually. Dave in Win or Lose (1986) tells Sara that she is there with him to get laid. This reciprocal exchange of sexual needs places both men and women on an equal plane.

However, as emotional drivers, women focus on security and so love becomes just another mean to this basic end. Steve in Full Circle (1978) also tells Sara that a woman cannot have sex with a man without being emotionally attached. Women, when they engage in sexual activity, anticipate some measure of security from men by way of love and then either regret giving into their sexual fulfillment or refuse sex altogether. Ross in Dividing Line (1979) confirms to Kerry that the latter wants to hold off sex until she has a ring on her finger and their signature on a paper.

Since men respond to women who match their libido and women hedge their sexual response to men over emotional security, the two sexes arrive at cross purposes with each other. In Storm Passage (1977), Nick voices just such a frustration to Tara who he says, doesn't even recognize this difference.

A lack of understanding of the divergent currents driving men and women easily transpire into mistrust so much so that in the Man from Tripoli (1979), despite the security blanket provided by her marriage, Lisa elects to leave Bryn because without marital fidelity, she finds sexual love unconvincing. Sexual jelousy, albeit of her own sister, sows mistrust in Lyn's relationship with Andreas in Dangerous Moonlight (1985).

In Curtain Call (1971), Ryan tells Kerry that for men a career would suffice whereas women want a home and a family. Therefore, Kay's men don't see the point in marriage unless it lasts. While proposing marriage to Gemma in Never Trust a Stranger (1983), Logan wants to convince himself that he can stay in it indefinitely and as such can't help but talk only about himself: Gemma doesn't bore him, she doesn't fill the place with clutter, to which Gemma secretly smiles thinking to herself that just give her time.

The married men in Kay's stories show steadfastness in their commitment and no amount of ambivalence from their wives can shake them out of the will to make the marriage work. For example, in Remember This Stranger (1973), the wife, suffering from amnesia, refuses to accept the man as her husband despite all evidence pointing to this fact. The man, suffering from rejection, refuses to give up on her.

However, keeping with the assertion made in Full Circle (1978) that a man's spontaneous attraction to a woman does not come with strings attached, Bryn, in the Man from Tripoli (1979), doesn't apologise to Lisa for flirting with other women. And Dave, in the Iron Man (1974), answers Kim's question about marital infidelity with a question that if another woman takes undue interest in him, then what is she doing about it? Kay weaves this complexity into the couple's relationship to counter the paranoia she finds in women of jumping to suspect their partners of infidelity.

In an opposite situation when Brad in Opportune Marriage (1969) suspects Lisa of infidelity, he confronts her directly but his emotions go flat when he asks whether she is in love. This is in keeping with another assertion made in Full Circle (1978) that vast majority of women can't commit to sexual relationship without some emotional attachment. In Full Circle (1978), the couple's marriage falls apart when Steve is unable to tolerate Sara's infidelity on the basis that sex aside, she must have been emotionally attached to the other man.

Lisa in Opportune Marriage (1969) acknowledges that she was emotionally unfaithful to her husband if not sexually. She went to this other man for friendship that meant gentleness, tenderness and kindness, which for her construed an emotional cocoon. As Brad in Opportune Marriage (1969) says for everything that he was not. While Brad realizes what was lacking in him, Sara convinces Steve in Full Circle (1978) that her past indiscretion was an attempt at stark revenge for which she had no emotional attachment and that she reserved her deep love for him only.

Having established marital relationship on the basis of sexual compatibility and fidelity, the couple's personal knowledge of each other's virtues and vices come only with time. Soon after their marriage In Dangerous Moonlight (1985), Andreas asks Lyn that she doesn't really know him, does she? Although she is mortified by this discovery, he is unperturbed. Lyn finally realizes that she has all the years ahead of her to find out the answer to his query.

To Sara's assertion in Full Circle (1978) that men are at their most vulnerable in the aftermath of sexual intercourse, a more experienced Ailsa tells her that men even then know what make them tick. It is In No Passing Fancy (1980) that a father advises his daughter, who demands more alone-time with her husband, saying that a man's work is his pride, and so not to get him away from it. A failure at work constitutes actual vulnerability in men.

In Full Circle (1978), we learn that when a man is sick, depressed, or faces a setback, is also when the woman can penetrate into his ego. And more than anyone else, a woman in the role of his wife, who knows the man from the inside, has the upper hand to witness him at his most vulnerable and then use the knowledge to her advantage.

Kay charts the progress of desire, from curiosity to intimacy, and then writes about how sexual chemistry can blossom into tenderness, which she reveals in Floodtide (1981) is love.

Although Kay makes her heroines accept love for its own sake as an unconditional emotion, the result is not humiliation but empowerment as the men reciprocate with sensitivity and depth. Here, Kay appreciates the fact that emotive words don't come easily to most men. Therefore, in Timber Boss (1978), and in Bitter Alliance (1978) after women have made their confessions of love, men contribute to it with cryptic but pregnant remarks such as there is no going back and don’t say anymore to seal their relationship.

As strong willed women submit to even stronger willed men, happiness follows.


[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Single Novels
The Last of the Mallorys (1968)
Devon Interlude (1968)
Opportune Marriage (1969)
Rising Star (1969)
Curtain Call (1971)
Not Wanted on Voyage (1972)
Sawdust Season (1972)
Man in a Box (1972)
Olive Island (1972)
Remember This Stranger (1973)
Apple in Eden (1973)
Man at Kambala (1973)
Iron Man (1974)
The Shifting Sands (1975)
Sugar Cane Harvest (1975)
Royal Affair (1976)
Caribbean Encounter (1976)
Safari South (1976)
River Lord (1977)
Storm Passage (1977)
Lord of La Pampa (1977)
Timber Boss (1978)
Wilderness Trail (1978)
Full Circle (1978)
Bitter Alliance (1978)
Man from Tripoli (1979)
This Side of Paradise (1979)
Dividing Line (1979)
Chance Meeting (1980)
No Passing Fancy (1980)
Copper Lake (1981)
Floodtide (1981)
Temporary Marriage (1981)
New Owner (1982)
Man of Means (1982)
The Land of the Incas (1983)
Never Trust a Stranger (1983)
Master of Morley (1983)
The Inheritance (1984)
No Gentle Persuasion (1985)
Double Deception (1985)
No Gentleman Persuasion (1985)
South Seas Affair (1985)
Dangerous Moonlight (1985)
Win or Lose (1986)
Jungle Island (1986)
Time Out of Mind (1987)
Land of Illusion (1988)
Tokyo Tryst (1988)
Skin Deep (1989)
Steel Tiger (1989)
Intimate Deception (1990)
Against All Odds (1990)
Night of Error (1990)
Trouble on Tour (1991)
Wild Streak (1991)
Lasting Legacy (1991)
The Alpha Man (1992)
Past All Reason (1992)
Left in Trust (1992)
The Spanish Connection (1993)
Worlds Apart (1994)
Trial in the Sun (1994)
The Wedding Deception (1995)
The Rancher's Mistress (1997)
All Male (1997)
Contract Wife (1998)
The Thirty-Day Seduction (1998)
Virgin Mistress (1999)
A Mistress Worth Marrying (2000)
Bride on Demand (2000)
The Italian Match (2001)
A Reckless Attraction (2002)
Mother and Mistress (2003)
The Billion-Dollar Bride (2004)
Bought by a Billionaire (2005)

[edit] Engagement of Convenience Series
Mistress to a Bachelor (2002)

[edit] Latin Lovers Series Multi-Author
The South American's Wife (2004)

[edit] Omnibus In Collaboration
Wayaway / The Way Through the Valley / Not Wanted on Voyage (1977) (with Dorothy Cork and Jean S. MacLeod)
Stranger in the Glen / The Man At Kambala / Lord of the Sierras (1978) (with Flora Kidd and Anne Weale)
Dolphin Bay / Festival Summer / Safari South (1981) (with Gloria Bevan and Charlotte Lamb)
The Shifting Sands / Portrait of Jaime / Touched by Fire (1982) (with Jane Donnelly and Margaret Way)
Villa Faustino / Girl At Dane's Dyke / Sugar Cane Harvest (1982) (with Katrina Britt and Margaret Rome)
Rising River / Tree of Promise / The River Lord (1985) (with Linden Grierson and Juliet Shore)
Latin Lovers (2006) (with Anne Mather and Michelle Reid)
The Innocence Collection (2007) (with Penny Jordan and Carole Mortimer)

[edit] References and Resources
[1] Curtain Call by Kay Thorpe
[2] Kay Thorpe Collection in French
Kay Thorpe's Webpage in Mills & Boon's Website
Harlequin Enterprises Ltd