Radford, Irene (1944– )
Irene Radford is the pseudonym of Phyllis Ann
Karr, who wrote fantasy under that name from
1974 to 1986 and sporadically since, although
most of her fantasy fiction since 1994 has been as
Radford. After a small number of short stories,
Karr published two connected novels, Frostflower
and Thorn(1980) and Frostflower and Windbourne
(1982), which feature a sorceress and a warrior
who have various adventures, completing a quest
in the first and solving a mystery in the second vol-
ume. Karr, who is an authority on the subject of
King Arthur and Camelot, next turned to that set-
ting for a blend of fantasy and detective fiction in
Idylls of the Queen(1982), in which Guinevere is
framed for a murder. Wildraith’s Last Battle(1982)
resembles the Frostflower novels and is traditional
sword and sorcery, but At Amberleaf Fair(1986) is
another detective story, this one featuring a recur-
ring character from her short fiction, Torin the
Toymaker, who must solve the crime in order to
prove his own innocence.
From 1986 forward Karr used her own name
primarily for Arthurian works such as The Follies of
Sir Harald(2001), the humorous story of a minor
knight at Camelot, and occasional short stories, of
which “Babbitt’s Daughters” (1995) and “Cold
Stake” (1991), a vampire story, are the most inter-
esting. After a gap of several years Karr returned to
novels, with the first under the Irene Radford
name, The Glass Dragon(1994), which began the
Dragon Nimbus series. In the opening volume a
wizard investigates the mysterious deaths of most

of the dragons in the world, a disaster because in

their absence magic will not work. The story con-

tinues in The Perfect Princess(1995) and comes to a

temporary conclusion in The Loneliest Magician

(1996), culminating with the return of the dragons

just in time to alter the balance of power and de-

feat the villains. The series resumed for another se-

ries consisting of The Dragon’s Touchstone(1997),

The Last Battlemage(1998), The Renegade Dragon

(1999), and The Wizard’s Treasure(2000). The

story line is very similar, but the story is told on a

much broader scale.

The most interesting work to appear under

Radford’s name is the Merlin’s Descendants series,

which is obviously influenced by the author’s inter-

est in Arthurian history. The premise is that the

children of Merlin for generations have had a sa-

cred role in protecting the world from evil. The se-

quence opens with Guardian of the Balance(1999),

in which Merlin’s daughter realizes her destiny. In

Guardian of the Trust(2000) two later descendants

must use their magical talents to oppose an aristo-

cratic troublemaker with a demon in his ancestry,

and in Guardian of the Vision(2001) another gener-

ation questions its duties and almost falls prey to

demonic mischief. Elizabethan werewolves provide

the menace in Guardian of the Promise(2003), the

best in the series to date. One additional title,

Guardian of the Freedom,was published in 2005.

Karr is also the author of the nonfiction book

The King Arthur Companion(1983) and completed

the unfinished Jane Austen novel Lady Susan

(1980). Although much of her later work has been

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