Gwendoline Butler

Gwendoline Williams Butler, born on August 19, 1922, in South London, England, was a renowned British author of romance and mystery fiction. She was the daughter of Alice and Alfred Edward Williams and spent her childhood years in south London. Gwendoline's younger twin brothers are also authors, making writing a family affair for the Williamses.

Gwendoline attended Lady Margaret Hall School in Oxford, where she majored in History studies. After her time as a student, she became a lecturer and taught in the same institution. She is popularly attributed for introducing "woman police procedural," which is depicted in her Charmian Daniels and John Coffin book series.

In 1949, Gwendoline married Dr. Lionel Harry Butler, a professor of medieval history at the University of St. Andrews and historian, Fellow of All Souls and Principal of Royal Holloway College. The couple had a daughter, Lucilla Butler. In 1956, Gwendoline started to publish John Coffin novels under her married name, Gwendoline Butler. In 1962, she decided to use her grandmother's name, Jennie Melville, as a pseudonym to sign her Charmian Daniels novels.

In addition to her mystery series, Gwendoline also wrote romantic novels. In 1981, her novel "The Red Staircase" won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association. She was credited for inventing the "woman's police procedural" and became a prominent figure in the genre. Gwendoline Butler died on January 5, 2013, at the age of 90, leaving behind a legacy of influential and groundbreaking work.