English writer Mary Renault was BOTD in 1905. Born Eileen Mary Challans in London, she studied English at Oxford University, where her tutor J. R. R. Tolkien encourage her to write historical fiction. After graduation, she trained as a nurse where she met her life partner Julie Mullard. Her first novel Purposes of Love was published in 1939, followed by lesbian love story The Friendly Young Ladies. After winning a literary prize for Return to Night, she and Mullard emigrated to South Africa, at the time a haven for gay and lesbian expatriates escaping the sexually repressive climate of England. Her 1953 novel The Charioteer, a romance between two servicemen, became a bestseller, praised for its positive portrayal of gay relationships, though her US publisher refused to release it until 1959. Renault switched to writing historical fiction set in Ancient Greece. The Last of the Wine, her greatest commercial success, was followed by a series of novels about Alexander the Great and his many boyfriends. Her fans included John F. Kennedy, though Noël Coward was less impressed, writing “I do, do wish well-intentioned ladies would not write books about homosexuality“. Renault became president of the South African chapter of PEN and participated in the Black Sash protests against apartheid. In later life, she angered her gay fans by rejecting the gay liberation movement (“Congregated homosexuals waving banners are really not conducive to a goodnatured ‘Vive la difference!‘”, she wrote) and was reluctant to publicly identify herself as a lesbian. She died in 1983 aged 78. Her work continues to be read and debated by novelists and historians. American writer Suzanne Collins cited Renault’s work as a major influence for her Hunger Games novel trilogy.