Obituary: Lucilla Andrews

Lucilla Andrews, who wrote more than 35 works of romantic fiction and whose memoir about wartime nursing inspired parts of Ian McEwan's celebrated novel, Atonement, has died at the age of 86.

Apart from her romantic fiction, which won her many awards from her peers, Andrews also published an academic biography of a leading Roman Catholic theologian, the Right Rev. Ronald Knox. Andrews was a founding member of the Romantic Novelists' Association, which recently honoured her with a lifetime achievement award.

Many of her books were set in hospitals, leading the Guardian newspaper to crown her "the brand leader in hospital fiction".