Diana Norman
British journalist Diana Norman also writes as Ariana Franklin.
Born Mary Diana Narracott, she grew up first in London and then in Devon, where her mother took her to escape the blitz. At the age of 15, she left school, but with journalism in her background (her father had been a Times correspondent)and her hardy intelligence, the lack of formal education proved no barrier and by 17 she was n London, working on a local newspaper in the East End.
Headhunted at 20 by the Daily Herald, Norman became the youngest reporter on Fleet Street, covering royal visits, donning camouflage to go on exercise with the Royal Marines, and missing her 21st birthday party because she was covering a murder on the south coast. When she protested about this to the news editor, she was told: "Many happy returns. Now get down to Southampton." Diana Norman became, at twenty years of age, the youngest reporter on what used to be Fleet Street.
She married the film critic Barry Norman in 1957, and they settled in Hertfordshire with their two daughters. She began writing fiction shortly after her second daughter was born. Her first book of fiction, Fitzempress's Law, was chosen by Frank Delaney of BBC Radio 4's Bookshelf as the best example of a historical novel of its year. She is now a freelance journalist, as well as a writer of biographies and historical novels.
She died at the age of 77 on January 27, 2011. She was best known for her historical crime series featuring the 12th-century medical examiner Adelia Aguilar, written under the pen name of Ariana Franklin. The first book in the series, Mistress of the Art of Death, was published to critical acclaim in 2007 and won the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger award in the UK, as well as prizes in the US and Sweden.
Norman is survived by her husband, their daughters, Samantha and Emma, and three grandsons. Mr. Norman wrote a wonderful tribute to his wife.
• Diana Norman, writer, born 25 August 1933; died 27 January 2011
“A small brazier glowed near the monk's left hand. On a lecturn before him lay pots of paints, brushes, a quill, a pen, a knife, a sizeable handbell, the tooth of some animal--and a piece of parchment. It was the parchment that commanded the room. Until he saw it Len didn't realize how starved he had been of colour. Villagers dressed in various shades of brown and beige, like their furniture and fields and now, here, was an irruption of the rainbow, as if a charm of goldfinches had landed on the manuscript and been transfixed.”