Outlander is a series of historical fantasy novels by American author Diana Gabaldon.  Gabaldon began the first volume of the series, Outlander, in the late 1980s, and it was published in 1991. She has published nine out of a planned ten volumes. The ninth novel in the series, Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone, was released on November 23, 2021.

The Outlander series focuses on 20th-century British nurse Claire Randall, who time travels to 18th-century Scotland and finds adventure and romance with the dashing Highland warrior Jamie Fraser. The books have sold over 50 million copies worldwide as of 2021.

Among the many derived works are two short stories, three novellas, a novel series featuring recurring secondary character Lord John Grey, a graphic novel, a musical album, and two television series.

Claire Beauchamp Randall Fraser is a nurse, later a doctor, and a time-traveler who has lived both in the 20th century and the 18th century. While on a second honeymoon in Scotland with her husband, Frank Randall, Claire inadvertently travels two hundred years into the past, where she meets and eventually marries Jamie Fraser. As the primary (and sole first-person) narrator of the Outlander novels, Claire is compas.sionate but medically ruthless, with a quick tongue that tends to get her into trouble.

Claire Beauchamp was born to Julia and Henry Beauchamp on October 20, 1918. She was baptized as a Catholic. Her parents died in a car accident when she was only five, and Claire was adopted by her uncle, Quentin Lambert Beauchamp, an archaeologist and historian whose work took him all over the world. He attempted to enroll her at an English boarding school, but she stubbornly refused to attend.

"Faced with the necessity of prying my chubby fingers off the car's door handle and dragging me by the heels up the steps of the school, Uncle Lamb, who hated personal conflict of any kind, had sighed in exasperation, then finally shrugged and tossed his better judgment out the window along with my newly purchased round straw boater."

Claire consequently spent her childhood traveling the world with her uncle while he worked, becoming accustomed to fairly primitive conditions. Over the years, Claire recalls various places she had lived, including South America, Persia and Egypt. She later claims that her first kiss was at the age of eight, in Egypt with the dragoman's nine-year-old son.

Claire met Frank Randall, a historian, when he came to consult her uncle about his work. They were married in 1937, and spent a brief two-day honeymoon in the Scottish Highlands. During the early years of their marriage, Claire continued her nomadic life with Frank, who was junior faculty at the time. They lived in a succession of hired flats until the outbreak of World War II in Europe, at which point both Claire and Frank committed themselves to the war effort – Frank as an officer with MI6 and Claire as a combat nurse. They each served for the duration of the war, and thus spent very little time together during those years.

Claire began her nurses training at Pembroke Hospital, and by 1943 she was a senior nurse, supervising junior nurses and orderlies. She was later stationed at Caen and a field hospital in Amiens, France. Claire recalls that the field hospital had been shelled three times while she was there, and her experience of treating the wounded men stays with her, even many years later. She returned to Pembroke Hospital at the end of the war.

Once the war was over, Claire and Frank reunited and decided to go on a second honeymoon in Scotland to reestablish their marriage in 1945. They stayed at Mrs. Baird's bed-and-breakfast in Inverness, a city in the Scottish Highlands situated near an ancient stone circle called Craigh na Dun.