Caroline Bingham

Englishwoman who dedicated a large part of her career to the exploration of Scottish history, particularly the Stewart period.

From her first book, The Making of a King: the early years of James VI and I, published in 1968, to the recently published life of Darnley, consort of Mary Queen of Scots, which appeared two years ago, she produced a series of works dealing with those turbulent times.

A few weeks before she died she had finished writing her last book, on Robert the Bruce.

She did not set out to immerse herself in Scottish history and

it was only the chance gift of a book about the life and times of James VI which sparked her interest. Her enthusiasm was aroused at once, and in the end she realised that the only way to satisfy her growing curiosity was to research and write about the subject herself.

Her style of history writing was never narrowly academic, though it was painstaking. She wrote clear narratives enlivened by insight into the personalities involved, based on thorough research but easily accessible to a wide readership. Reviewing her first book, The Making of a King, the distinguished journalist J M Reid declared that ''Caroline Bingham's book is one of the best ever written about James, cer-tainly the most understanding by any English writer''.

Her interest was not confined to Scottish subjects. Among her topics was the life and times of Edward II and, in another work, she examined the early Plantagenet era.

She also ventured beyond the limits of historical writing. Highland history and culture were the subjects of her book Beyond the Highland Line, which appeared in 1991, and 10 years previously she had published a personal anthology of Scottish historical verse entitled The Voice of the Lion.

I met her at that time. Her train was nearly three hours late and

I remember her arriving at Wav-erley, a rather fragile-looking, auburn-haired woman, quite un-perturbed by the delay and amused by the irritation of her

fellow passengers.

Later, when I discovered that she did not know Glasgow, I drove her round part of the city on a brief sightseeing tour. She was fascinated by the Necropolis, the fine Victorian commercial buildings, and pleased to discover that Gorbals was not as bad as outsiders had often painted it.

In The Voice of the Lion she had included a poem of her own on the subject of the battle of Sauchieburn - and in Scots. ''I put it in because I felt that an anthologist is allowed to indulge herself to that extent,'' she said. ''And there isn't another poem I know of on that battle.'' She also, perhaps surprisingly, included some lines by Swinburne.

When I asked why her selection more or less stopped short at

Culloden, she answered that while Wallace, Bruce, Flodden, and

the Jacobite cause had ''released

a flood of verse'', no major

theme of historical interest after that seemed to have been sufficiently inspirational.

Caroline Bingham was born in Yorkshire, where she went first

to a Quaker school and then

to Cheltenham Ladies' College. She graduated in history at

Bristol University.

She married, then divorced. When I met her she was reticent about her private life, but happy to talk about her daughter, Frances, at that time a student. ''I have a great liking and respect for my daughter,'' she told me.

She has been described as unassuming and modest, and

she faced the last 11 years of her life, under the shadow of cancer, with fortitude.