Mary Renault (4 Sep 1905 – 13 Dec 1983), born Eileen Mary Challans, was an English writer best known for her historical novels set in ancient Greece. In addition to fictional portrayals of Theseus, Socrates, Plato, and Alexander the Great, she wrote a non-fiction biography of Alexander. In 1948, after her novel Return to Night won an MGM prize worth $150,000, Renault and Mullard emigrated to South Africa, where they remained for the rest of their lives. Less