Vera Chapman

Vera Chapman (8 May 1898 – 14 May 1996), also known as Vera Ivy May Fogerty, and within the Tolkien Society as Belladonna Took, was a British author and founder of the Tolkien Society in the United Kingdom, and also wrote a number of pseudo-historical and Arthurian books. She held the title of Pendragon of The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids from 1964 to 1991.

Life Chapman was born in Bournemouth, England on 8 May 1898, the daughter of Irish architect, John Frederick Fogerty. She lived in South Africa until she went to Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford where she was one of the first women to matriculate as a full member of Oxford University. In 1969, she founded the Tolkien Society in Britain of which she was the first secretary. She persuaded J. R. R. Tolkien to become the Society's honorary president in June 1972.

In 1975, Chapman, then aged 77, saw her first novel published, and she continued writing until her death in 1996. She wrote three fantasy novels based on Arthurian legend: The Green Knight (1975), King Arthur's Daughter (1976), and The King's Damosel (1976) "The Thread" (1980); in the 1980 anthology The Phoenix Tree, edited by Robert H. Boyer & Kenneth J. Zahorski "A Sword for Arthur" (1995); in the 1995 anthology The Merlin Chronicles “Belladonna by Belladonna” parts 1-4 (1985-87); in ‘’Weathertop Magazine 3-5’’, edited by Denis Bridoux