MISS ANNA BUCHAN
Miss Anna Buchan, J.P., a sister of John Buchan, the first Lord Tweedsmuir, and whose entertaining novels, written under the pen name “O. Douglas,” will be remembered, died at her home at Peebles yesterday.
One of the six children of the Rev. John Buchan and Helen, daughter of John Masterton, of Broughton Green, Peeblesshire, she was for many years “the daughter at home,” helping in the work of the parish. It was from this experience, and from the resources of a shrewdly humorous mind, that she drew the material of her novels. They are pleasant and unexacting reading, even in tone, and informed by lively observation and kindly sentiment. Her first book, “Olivia in India,” appeared in 1913, and four years later came “The Setons.” in which the incidents and characters she had observed in the course of visiting tenement flats and coping with the Band of Hope served her to entertaining advantage. Perhaps “O. Douglas’s” most successful works were “Pink Sugar” (1924) and “The Proper Place” (1926).
In 1945 the name of Anna Buchan appeared on the title-page of “Unforgettable, Unforgotten,” described as a family chronicle. She wrote modestly of her own abilities, filling many of her pages with glimpses of a famous brother, more particularly in youth, and with a striking portrait of a mother who was a rare housekeeper, a perfect minister’s wife, and a witty and truly dominating personality.
— The Times, London, England. Thursday, Nov. 25, 1948 p. 7.