Catherine Spencer

Catherine Spencer is a Canadian romance novelist, a former high school English teacher, who wrote more than 40 novels for Harlequin Mills & Boon between 1986 and 2009.

She taught high school English and began writing in middle age; she has four grown children. She lives with her husband in White Rock, British Columbia, south of Vancouver, and co-sponsors the biennial Singletree workshop for romance writers with the novelist Judith Bowen. Her publisher's author note says she was the first Harlequin Presents author to become a finalist for the Romance Writers of America's RITA award. Her birth year is uncertain: Wikipedia gives both 1950 and 1937.

Her first novel, A Lasting Kind of Love, was published by Harlequin in 1986. In the same year she began writing as Kathy Orr, with Seductive Deceiver (1986), The Drifter's Revenge (1987) and An Invitation to Love (1987). Open Library records later Spencer titles including Fires of Summer (1989), The Loving Touch (1990), Winter Roses (1991), Elegant Barbarian and Dear Miss Jones (1992), and Naturally Loving (1993). She wrote mainly for the Presents line, with titles such as the Christmas story Zachary's Virgin (Harlequin Presents 2143, 1999).

For collectors. Her books were paperback originals published by Harlequin in Canada and by Mills & Boon in Britain, and Open Library also records editions of some titles from Macmillan. Because the same story can carry different dates in each market, buyers should compare the imprint and date on the copyright page.