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Scottish writer and journalist William Black [11] is buried in a large vault close to the church door, despite tenuous links with the village. Black's many novels and short stories were popular and commercially successful in their day, but fell out of fashion soon after his death in 1898. Whilst his work was compared favourably with Anthony Trollope at the time, the novels are typically melodramas set in idealised rural settings, and titles such as "The Beautiful Wretch", "Stand fast, Craig-Royston!", "The Monarch of Mincing Lane",  "Mr. Pisistratus Brown MP in the Highlands", and "Madcap Violet" would be unlikely to appeal to modern readers in large numbers. His 1874 book "A Princess of Thule" was later adapted into a musical play called "The Maid of Arran" by the young L. Frank Baum, who went on to write "The Wizard of Oz".  Black lived for many years at 1 Paston Place [view] close to Kemp Town seafront, and he described walking from there across the downs to Rottingdean and its church as part of his creative process. There is a working lighthouse on the Isle of Mull which was built as a memorial by his friends and devoted readers.

_{'McCleod of Dare & Sunrise'  by William Black}