Elizabeth Chater

Elizabeth Chater, born in Canada, was a novelist, poet, and university professor who became especially prolific in historical romance. Born Elizabeth Eileen Chater in 1910, she also published under the name Lee Chaytor and taught at San Diego State University. Her fiction career expanded rapidly after the late 1970s, producing more than twenty novels in a relatively short period. The Random Gentleman appeared in 1981 as a traditional Regency novel in Fawcett’s Coventry series. It follows Belinda Sayre, who resists an arranged marriage and retreats to Devon, unaware that the duke she hopes to avoid has followed in disguise. Chater used familiar Regency structures such as mistaken identity, family obligation, social rank, and courtship while giving Belinda room to challenge an inherited plan. Her other novels include The Gamester, Gallant Lady, A Delicate Situation, and The Reformed Rake. The Random Gentleman is representative of her sustained work in compact, character-driven historical fiction.