Mary Stewart, born Mary Florence Elinor Rainbow on 12 September 1916 in Sunderland, England, was a renowned British author. She was a graduate of Durham University, where she later became a lecturer in English Language and Literature. In 2009, she was awarded an honorary D.Litt from the same university.

In 1945, she married Sir Frederick Stewart, who was the chairman of the Geology Department at Edinburgh University, and he passed away in 2001.

Lady Mary Stewart authored twenty novels, a volume of poetry, and three books for young readers. She is particularly admired for her contemporary romantic suspense stories as well as her historical novels. Her most original and celebrated work is the Merlin Trilogy, an Arthurian saga comprising The Crystal Cave (1970), The Hollow Hills (1973), and The Last Enchantment (1979). The first of these novels was adapted into a children’s television series in 1991.

Mary Stewart spent many years residing in Scotland, notably between Edinburgh and the West Highlands, and she passed away in Loch Awe, Argyll and Bute, Scotland, on 9 May 2014.