Anne Rice, who has died aged 80 after a stroke, was one of the foremost writers of supernatural fiction, and the author of more than 30 novels.
She plumbed the depths of her own grief and terrors to write, saying in a Rolling Stone interview in 1995 that, “I think all my writing has been part of a battle with my fears.
Rice said that fantasy writing allowed her to talk about her own life whereas writing a “realistic novel” would be too raw.
The Mayfair Witches series, beginning with The Witching Hour was written by Rice with her son, Christopher, and a third collaboration– what will be Rice’s last book – is scheduled for 2022.
Her mother died in 1956, when Anne was 15, from the effects of alcoholism and the family moved into the former home of her maternal grandmother, who had also died with an alcohol problem.
Rice has said that she was inspired to be a writer by her father who, returning from the second world war and realising he barely knew his infant daughters, Anne and her sister, Alice , wrote a novel, The Impulsive Imp, for them.
She had met Stan Rice at Richardson high school and they rekindled their relationship, marrying in 1961.
Their daughter Michele was born in 1966, and in 1970 was diagnosed with leukaemia – the same year that Rice returned to her studies at San Francisco State University.
Although she was brought up a Catholic and her books – the Lestat novels especially, as well as two books fictionalising the life of Christ – included strong elements of the Christian mythos, Rice had a complicated relationship with her faith.
“She always saw herself starkly at odds with whatever the literary trends of the moment were,” he said.