Rebecca Stratton

Rebecca Stratton was a romance novelist who wrote about 80 novels across two names for Mills & Boon and Harlequin between 1969 and 1982, first under the pseudonym Lucy Gillen and later under her own name.

Few personal details are published. According to her Open Library profile, she worked at a variety of jobs until an office post allowed her to save enough to write full time at the age of 45. Her first romance was accepted by Mills & Boon, and from 1969 she published as Lucy Gillen before switching to her own name.

As Lucy Gillen she produced 36 or 37 novels, the earliest North American edition being A Wife for Andrew (Harlequin Romance no. 1383, March 1970) and the last dated April 1981. Her first Harlequin title as Rebecca Stratton was The Golden Madonna (Harlequin Romance no. 1748, January 1974). The Romance Wiki credits her with 43 Harlequin Romance novels under the Stratton name and two Harlequin Presents titles, The Warm Wind of Farik and Yellow Moon (both 1975). Open Library says she wrote until 1982, and the Romance Wiki has Golden Spaniard and Charade in July and October 1982, though it also lists The Man From Nowhere in April 1983.

For collectors. Because she wrote under two names at the same time, a complete collection means looking under both Lucy Gillen and Rebecca Stratton. Her North American Harlequin Romance editions are numbered, which makes them easy to sequence; the Mills & Boon editions published in Britain should be checked for their own dates when establishing which printing came first.