1 If you were asked to name a famous spy novelist, would Helen Clark MacInnes be on your list? This Glasgow-born writer should be – she wrote 21 books, which have sold more than 23 million copies and been translated into over 22 languages, earning the nickname ‘queen of espionage’….

2 Helen was born in 1907, to Donald and Jessica MacInnes, and at the age of five, the family moved to Helensburgh. She went to the Hermitage School, then Glasgow’s High School for Girls, before graduating from Glasgow University in 1928 with an MA in French and German. She married fellow Glasgow Uni student Gilbert Highet in 1932.

Glasgow Times:

3 Glasgow University’s website states: “She played tennis for the University, was involved in Charities Week, and in 1928 began work in the University Library, cataloguing the Ferguson Collection. She was subsequently employed by the Dunbartonshire Education Authority to select books for its libraries, and in 1930 enrolled at University College, London, to study for a diploma in Librarianship.”

Glasgow Times:

4 The couple moved to the USA in 1937. (They became American citizens in 1952.) Helensburgh Heritage Trust’s website states: “Strongly influenced by the writing of George Orwell, her personal observations of events during the 1930s and 1940s, common sense, and intimate contact with a World War Two British intelligence officer — her husband Gilbert — provided her with a special insight into the nature and realities of Nazi tyranny and espionage.”

Glasgow Times:

5 She published her first novel, Above Suspicion, in 1941. Helen died in New York in 1985.