Children's author and creator of the beloved Maisie books

Born: November 30, 1934;

Died: March 23, 2018

FIFE-born Aileen Paterson, who has died aged 83, became one of Scotland's best-loved children's authors and illustrators through her 30-book series chronicling the colourful adventures of the fictional Edinburgh kitten Maisie Mackenzie, "the best-kent Kitty in Scotland."

Maisie was, and indeed still will be for future generations of children, from Edinburgh's Morningside district and that's where her high-jinks started in Maisie Comes to Morningside (1984). Mrs Paterson followed that up with Maisie's Mystery Tour the same year, in which the author uses her feline heroine to recall the author's own childhood in Burntisland, Fife, enjoying a '99 or a slider in the local ice cream parlour.

However, the kilted kitten with the Fair Isle jumper, who lives with her granny, sure got around during 30 years of intrepid travels, including to London, Hollywood, the Himalayas, Japan and New York (Maisie Bites the Big Apple).

These made Mrs Paterson and Maisie loved not only in Scotland but by fans of all ages around the world, making the loveable kitten one of Scotland's greatest exports. In Maisie Goes to Glasgow (1984) the feline explorer discovered Scotland's biggest city, just a train ride but a far cry from Morningside, and visited some of Glasgow's most-famous landmarks.

Although Mrs Paterson's books were aimed essentially at children, many a parent fell in love with Maisie and couldn't wait to get their hands on her latest escapade, sneaking a first peak before their children got hold of the latest book. Although Maisie's world is essentially one of cats - except for the belligerent budgie belonging to the matronly cat Mrs McKitty - her stories reflect the human condition through fun, pithy wit and keen social observation. Maisie and her cat cohorts gave a distinctive Scottish, and especially Edinburgh feel to their adventures by using good old Scots words like dreich, guddle or perjinkt.

Maisie's adventures were turned into an animated STV series, titled Meeow!, produced in both English and Gaelic with the great Scottish comic genius Stanley Baxter doing the voices in the English version and actor Tony Kearney in the Gaelic.

Aileen Francis Henderson Paterson was, appropriately, born on St Andrew's Day 1934 in what was then the village of Burntisland, Fife, on the northern shores of the Firth of Forth and famous for its Highland Games dating back to the 17th century.

"My father was a shipwright and a communist," she recalled, "but we didn't keep greyhounds or coals in the bath; instead I had violin and elocution lessons and read books!" She recalled wearing a kilt and a Fair Isle jumper when she was a child and that's the outfit she would give to her creation Maisie nearly 50 years later.

She went to Burntisland Primary School before her family moved to Kirkcaldy when she was 12 where she attended Kirkcaldy High School. Aged 17, she arrived in the Scottish capital to study at the Edinburgh College of Art, specialising in pottery and ceramics. On graduation, she became an art teacher at Muirhouse Primary School in Edinburgh, lived in Glasgow and Renfrewshire for spells and ran a solo pottery studio in Dublin. She also made life-size ragdolls and other craft works.

While at Muirhouse, she was hit by tragedy in 1980 when her 11-year-old son Max died of leukaemia. Already in her late forties, the loss pushed her to take up writing and illustrating and she created the Maisie idea in 1982. Such was its popularity in Edinburgh that the Lothian Bus company decorated the sides of its Number 5 buses, travelling through Morningside, with images of Mrs Paterson's loveable brainchild, or rather braincat.

Mrs Paterson was humble and self-effacing. "I'm no JK Rowling," she once said. But she loved to be invited to give talks at primary schools, always carrying her home-made Maisie puppet and enchanting the pupils with her stories. In addition to the Maisie series, she wrote and illustrated several other books including a children's guide to Edinburgh.

Mrs Paterson was awarded an MBE in 2015 for services to children's literature and received the investiture from Prince William (said to have been a Maisie lover as a child) at Buckingham Palace on November 17 that year. "He is handsome, I must say," she laughed later. "I am an 81-year-old woman but I did think 'wow!'"

Aileen Paterson died in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. She was twice married and is survived by her son Liam and five daughters.

PHIL DAVISON