Dorita Fairlie Bruce

Dorita Fairlie Bruce (1885–1970) was a British children's author, most notably of the Dimsie books published between 1921 and 1941. Her books were second in popularity only to Angela Brazil's during the 1920s and '30s.

She was a pioneer in creating series of books which followed a group of girls throughout their schooldays and even beyond. Her Dimsie, Nancy and Springdale series all follow this pattern, which was widely imitated.[1]

The Colmskirk sequence, a set of nine novels for young adults, widens her scope, dealing with a group of families in the Scottish countryside around Largs from the seventeenth century to the twentieth. [2]

Bruce was involved with the Girls' Guildry for over thirty years. She contributed factual articles to the Lamp of the Girls' Guildry magazine and Girls' Guildry plays a role in her Nancy series and gets a mention in her Dimsie series. The Girls' Guildry later merged with similar organisations to become the Girls' Brigade.

The Dimsie books

• The Senior Prefect (1921) (title changed in 1925 to Dimsie Goes To School)
• Dimsie Moves Up (1921)
• Dimsie Moves Up Again (1922)
• Dimsie Among the Prefects (1923)
• Dimsie Grows Up (1924)
• Dimsie Head Girl (1925)
• Dimsie Goes Back (1927)
• Dimsie Intervenes (1937)
• Dimsie Carries On (1941)

Scouting portal

External links

• The Dorita Fairlie Bruce Homepage
• The History of Girls' School Stories

Persondata
Name	Bruce, Dorita Fairlie
Alternative names	Bruce, Dorothy Morris Fairlie
Short description	Children's writer
Date of birth	20 May 1885
Place of birth	Palos, Spain
Date of death	21 September 1970
Place of death	Upper Skelmorlie, North Ayrshire, Scotland