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ABBOTT, K[ATE]. N[ELSON]. (28 Mar 1874 – 24 Feb 1931)
1930s
Author of a single children's title, The
Camp at Sea View Meadow (1929), subtitled "A Girl Guide Story,"
as well as several stories included in collections of girls' stories.
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ABBOTT, NINA (1860 - 1930)
(pseudonym of Selina Sara Ellington Collinson, aka
Nana Collinson)
1930s -
1940s
Mother of novelist and memoirist Naomi JACOB. Her claim to be on this list is
shaky. Although she is credited as the author of three novels—Look at the Clock: A Yorkshire Novel
(1939), Shadow Drama (1940), and Balance Suspended (1942)—it seems that
the first was completed by her daughter after her death, and the other two
were written entirely by Jacob from Abbott's notes. Jacob wrote about her in
her memoir Robert, Nana and—Me: A Family
Chronicle (1952).
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ABBYFORDE, JOHN (1878 – 1933)
(pseudonym of Edith May Hollinshead, née Jenkin)
1920s
Author of a single novel, The Flaw
(1929), about industrial life in Yorkshire. She reportedly also published a
number of periodical stories using the same pseudonym.
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Aberconway, Baroness
see MACLAREN, CHRISTABEL
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ABERCROMBIE, P. B. (20 Jul 1917 – 7 May 2003)
(pseudonym of Patricia Barnes, née Abercrombie)
1950s –
1970s
Author of eight novels, some of which received acclaim from the likes of
John Betjeman, Marghanita Laski, and Angus Wilson, the last of whom called
her "the most interesting of our young novelists." Much of her work
is humorous, with darker underlying themes. I reviewed The Little Difference (1959), set in and around a girls' boarding
school, here.
Some of her later work, including Pity
(1965), about a kidnapped child, is more serious. Her sixth novel, Fido Couchant (1961, aka The Grasshopper Heart), was reviewed
at Neglected Books here. The
other novels are The Rescuers
(1952), A Lease of Life (1953), Victor and the Vanquished (1956), The Child of Fortune (1957), and The Brou-Ha-Ha (1972).
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ABRAHALL, CLARE [CONSTANCE MARIA] HOSKYNS (31 Jan 1900 - 29 Nov 1990)
(née Drury, aka C. M. Drury, aka Clare Constance
Maria Drury)
1930s –
1970s
Novelist and author of children's fiction and biography. Kit Norris, Schoolgirl Pilot (1937),
is in part a school story, as is Chris
of Crighton's (1964). Other fiction includes From Serf To Page (1939) and Priscilla's
Caravan (1939). In the 1940s she was divorced from her husband, who then
married another girls' author, L[ois]. J[ennet]. OGLE.
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Acland,
Alice
see MARRECO, ANNE
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ACLAND, ELEANOR [MARGARET] (1878 – 12 Dec 1933)
(née Cropper, aka Margaret Burneside)
1890s –
1930s
Friends, along with her husband,
with E. M. Forster. Author of the pseudonymous early novel The Delusion of Diana (1898), and two
more under her own name—In the Straits
of Hope (1904), about artists in Chelsea, and Dark Side Out
(1921), a multi-generational family saga. Her memoir, Goodbye for the Present, appeared in 1935.
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ADAIR, HAZEL (30 May 1900 - 1 Oct
1990)
(pseudonym
of Hazel Iris Addis, née Wilson, aka A. J. Heritage, aka H. I. Addis)
1930s – 1950s
Often confused with Hazel Joyce Willett below (including in the British
Library catalogue). Author of more than 20 novels, including Wanted a Son (1935), A Torch Is Lit (1936), Over the Stile (1938), Sparrow Market (1938), Mahogany and Deal (1940), Quoth the Raven (1947), and No Bells Rang (1953). See here
for information on both Hazel Adairs.
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ADAIR, HAZEL (9 July 1920 – 22 Nov
2015)
(pseudonym
of Hazel Joyce Willett, married names Mackenzie, Hamblin, and Marriott, aka
Clare Nicol)
1950s, 1980s
Television actress, producer, and writer, sometimes confused with Hazel Iris
Addis above. She co-wrote two novelizations from television programs, Stranger from Space (1953) and Life in Emergency Ward 10 (1959).
Later, she published an additional novel, as Clare Nicol, Blitz on Balaclava Street (1983),
about an ambulance driver in WWII. See here
for more information on both Hazel Adairs.
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Adair, Cecil
see EVERETT-GREEN, EVELYN
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ADAM, RUTH [AUGUSTA] (14 Dec 1907 – 3 Feb 1977)
(née King)
1930s – 1960s
Journalist,
historian, and author of nine socially
conscious novels. Her debut, War on
Saturday Week (1937), follows a group of siblings from childhood during
World War I to the outbreak of World War II (only a fear at the time the
novel was published, but it must have seemed inevitable). I'm Not Complaining (1938), which was
reprinted by Virago in the 1980s, is about a schoolteacher's growing
political involvement in Depression-era England. There Needs No Ghost (1939), humorously contrasts the reactions
of villagers and Bloomsburyites to the Munich Crisis. Murder in the Home Guard (1942) is Adam's only experiment with a
murder mystery, set in an English village which faces its first bombing raid
and the murder of a Home Guardsman on the same night. A House in the Country (1957) is a humorous look at a group of
friends living together in a former manor house. Her other novels, often
reflecting her concern about children of broken or unhappy homes, are Set to Partners (1947), So Sweet a Changeling (1954), Fetch Her Away (1954), and Look Who's Talking (1960). Adam also
published the important historical survey A
Woman’s Place, 1910-1975 (1975, reprinted by Persephone), and two girls'
stories—A Stepmother for Susan of St.
Bride's (1958) and Susan and the
Wrong Baby (1961). From 1944-1976, Adam wrote a women's page for the Church of England Newspaper, and her
perspective as a Christian socialist feminist was undoubtedly surprising on
occasion for that readership, but apparently popular, as she continued for
more than three decades. A House in the
Country was reprinted by Dean Street Press as a Furrowed Middlebrow book
in 2020. I've written about Adam here.
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ADAMS, AGNES [LOUISE LOGAN] (10 Aug 1891 – 6 Jun 1951)
(aka Agnes Logan)
1920s – 1930s
Author of more than a dozen works of fiction for children and adults. Doddles (1920) and Doddles Makes Things Hum (1927) are
two school-related stories mentioned by Sims & Clare. Other children's
titles include Our Lil: A Village Story
(1923), The Cottage in the Woods
(1925), and Those Shepton Children
(1928). Her three adult novels, published under her pseudonym (using her
mother's maiden name), were The
Necessary Man (1929), about a Bedfordshire farming family, There Is a Tide (1930), and Comfort Me with Apples (1936), about
apple growing, possible based on that of the village of Cockayne Hatley in
Bedfordshire.
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ADAMS, DORIS SUTCLIFFE (1920 – 8 Aug 2015)
(aka Grace Ingram)
1950s – 1970s
Author of six well-regarded historical novels, the first four under her own name,
the last two under her pseudonym. Desert
Leopard (1958) and No Man's Son
(1961) are set in the time of the Crusades, The Price of Blood (1962) in the days of Viking attacks on
England, and Power of Darkness
(1967) during the reign of King John. The two novels as Grace Ingram—Red Adam's Lady (1973) and Gilded Spurs (1978)—appear to have a
bit more of a romantic focus.
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Adams, Lily Moresby
see BARRINGTON, E.
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ADAMSON, MARGOT ROBERT (1898 – 15 Feb
1979)
1930s – 1960s
Scottish poet, travel writer, and novelist. She published two novels in the
1930s—Render Unto Caesar (1934) and
Chapter & Verse (1937), the
latter described as "[a] dramatic novel set in a Scottish Highland
village"—then waited nearly three decades to publish her third and final
novel, A Rope of Sand (1965), about
Mary Queen of Scots.
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ADCOCK, ALMEY ST. JOHN (15 Mar 1894 –
19 Feb 1986)
(married name Arundel, aka Hilary
March)
1920s – 1940s
Sister of Marion St. John WEBB. Author of nearly a dozen novels under her own
name and three under her pseudonym. Reviews suggest they tend toward the
bleak. Titles are The Man Who Lived
Alone (1923), This Above All
(1924), Master Where He Will
(1926), Winter Wheat (1926), Wet Weather (1927), The Judas Tree (1928), Simon Wisdom (1929), Poacher's Moon (1929), A Widow on Richmond Green (1930), The Street Paved with Water (1930), Up Hill (1932), The Woman at Iron Crag (1934), Tin Town (1939), and The
Warped Mirror (1948).
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Addis,
H. I.
see ADAIR, HAZEL (1900-1990)
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ADENEY, GLADYS ELLEN (39 Mar 1884 – 16 Jan 1977)
(married name Easdale, aka Francis Adoney, aka Gladys Ellen Killin)
1950s
Described in her archives as having spent her life "on the margins of
the London literary and musical scene," Adeney numbered Virginia WOOLF
and Vita SACKVILLE-WEST among her friends. Her colorful memoir, Middle Age, 1885-1932 (1935), was
originally published anonymously, then under her Killin pseudonym. Her one
novel, Don't Blame the Stars
(1951), was published under her Adoney pseudonym.
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ADENEY,
[MARJORIE] NOËL (19 Dec 1890 – 24 Jan 1978)
(née
Gilford)
1950s
Artist and
author of a single novel, No Coward
Soul (1956), based in part on her relationship with novelist and artist
Denton Welch. She attended the Slade and was a member of the London Group of
artists.
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Adler, Irene
see STORR, CATHERINE
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Adoney, Francis
see ADENEY, GLADYS ELLEN
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AGAR,
WINIFRED [MABEL] (11 Nov 1901 – 25 Apr 1984)
(married
name Mackintosh)
1930s - 1940
Born in Buenos
Aires to mixed Irish/American/British parents, married a Brit and lived most
of her adult life in London. Her first novel, Living Aloud (1938), was a biting, critically acclaimed satire of
Bright Young Things. Her second, Mermaids
Sleep Alone (1940), appeared after she had evacuated to the U.S. with her
children.
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AGNEW, [ALEXANDRA] GEORGETTE (11 Jun 1865 – 12 Jun 1957)
(née Christian, aka Nevin
Halys)
1890s – 1910s
Playwright,
poet, and author of five volumes of light romantic fiction—Marianna and Other Stories (1899), The Countess: A Summer Idyll (1905), The Night that Brings Out Stars
(1908), The Bread Upon the Waters
(1911), and Elaine's Party (1913).
After 1913, she appears to have written mostly poetry and drama, some using
her pseudonym.
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AGUTTER, KAY (KATHLEEN) [MARY MELITA] (19 Feb 1900 – 8 Feb 1965)
(aka M. J. Stuart)
1920s - 1930s
Journalist and author of four novels. Three novels appeared pseudonymously in
the 1920s—The Valiant Gentleman
(1924), which sounds like a romantic comedy, Grafted Stock (1925), and Brass
Pot and Clay (1927). One final novel, Nothing
Is Past (1939), a dark tale of a man whose past traumas turn him into a
murderer, appeared under her own name.
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AIKEN, JOAN [DELANO] (4 Sept 1924 – 4 Jan 2004)
(married names Brown and
Goldstein)
1950s – 2000s
Novelist and children's author whose first story collection, All You've Ever Wanted, appeared in
1953. Best known for The Wolves of
Willoughby Chase (1962), set in an alternate historical version of
England, and the series of nearly a dozen sequels that followed it, Aiken
also wrote ghost tales, including The
Haunting of Lamb House (1991), which features Henry James and E. F.
Benson as characters, a series of mysteries including Trouble with Product X (1966), and a series of Jane Austen
sequels.
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Ainsworth, Harriet
see CADELL, ELIZABETH
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Airlie,
Catherine
see MACLEOD, JEAN SUTHERLAND
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Alan, Jane
see CHISHOLM, LILIAN MARY
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ALAN, MARJORIE (22 Jun 1905 – 25 May 1968)
(pseudonym of Doris
Marjorie Bumpus)
1940s – 1950s
Mystery novelist about whom little seems to be known. Author of eight novels
in all—Masked Murder (1945, aka Dark Prophecy), set at a prewar house
party, Murder in November (1946,
aka Rue the Day), Murder Next Door (1950), Murder at Puck's Cottage (1951), The Ivory Locket (1951), Dark Legacy (1953), Murder Looks Back (1955), and Murder in a Maze (1956).
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ALBANESI, ADELAIDE MARIA (1859 – 16 Oct 1936)
(pseudonym of Effie
Albanesi, née Henderson, aka Effie Rowlands)
1890s – 1930s
Author of more than 200 romantic novels, which seem to have been
characterized by gushing prose and fainting heroines. Titles include Peter, A Parasite (1901), The Brown Eyes of Mary (1905), The Mistress of the Farm (1910), Poppies in the Corn (1911), The House That Jane Built (1921), Out of a Clear Sky (1925), Claire and Circumstances (1928), Princess Charming (1931), and The Top of the Tree (1937).
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ALCOCK, DEBORAH (1835 – 15 Jan 1913)
1870s – 1910s
Victorian novelist whose final works appeared in 1910. Her most famous novel,
The Spanish Brothers (1870), dealt
with Protestant martyrs in the 16th century. Others include The Roman Students (1883), Geneviève (1889), By Far Euphrates (1897), Done
and Dared in Old France (1907), No
Cross, No Crown (1910), and The
King's Service (1910).
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ALDINGTON, [JESSIE] MAY (1872 - 1954)
(née Godfree, later
married name Watkins)
1900s – 1910s
Mother of novelist Richard Aldington and innkeeper at the Mermaid Inn in Rye.
Author of several novels of Kentish village life, including Love Letters That Caused a Divorce
(1905), Meg of the Salt-Pans
(1909), A Man of Kent (1913), and The King Called Love (1913).
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ALEXANDER, MIRIAM (1879 - ????)
(married name Stokes)
1910s – 1920s
Author of five novels, at least some of them historical in theme and most
focused on Ireland. Her debut, The
House of Lisronan (1912, aka Beyond
the Law), set during the 17th century Williamite War, went through six
editions in 1912 alone. Others are The
Port of Dreams (1912), The Ripple
(1913), Miss O'Corra, M.F.H.
(1915), and The Green Altar (1924).
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ALEXANDER, RUTH (1879 – 18 Aug 1958)
(married name Rogers)
1920s – 1950s
Editor,
literary agent, travel writer, and novelist. Author of more than a dozen
novels in all, though several of her earliest works were among the first
novelizations of plays and films, including Blackmail (1929), Rome
Express (1932), and The Man Who
Knew Too Much (1936). Her own novels include Thirst (1925), The Human
Element (1926), Morning Glory
(1934), Give Me Your Heart (1944), Engagement with a Star (1945), What Thing Is Fairest (1947), Beyond the Desert (1948), The Heart's Journey (1950), and Comes in the Light (1951).
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Alien
see DAWSON, LOUISA ALICE
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ALLAN, DOT (13 May 1886 – 3 Dec 1964)
(pseudonym of Eliza
McNaughton Luke Allan)
1920s – 1950s
Scottish author of 10 novels. Hunger
March (1934) explores class in Glasgow during the Depression, while Makeshift (1928) is about the troubled
adolescence of an aspiring writer. The others are The Syrens (1921), The
Deans (1929), Deepening River
(1932), Virgin Fire (1935), John Mathew, Papermaker (1948), Mother of Millions (1953), The Passionate Sisters (1955), and Charity Begins at Home (1958). See here for more information.
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ALLAN, MABEL ESTHER (11 Feb 1915 – 14 May 1998)
(aka Jean Estoril, aka
Priscilla Hagon, aka Anne Pilgrim)
1940s – 1990s
Prolific author of nearly 200 books, many of them for children and young
girls, including school stories (usually focused on progressive schools and
unconventional heroines), career stories, coming-of-age tales, holiday
adventures, ballet stories, murder mysteries, and suspense. Some of her
children's titles have been reprinted by Girls Gone By and Fidra in recent
years, and several previously unpublished works for adults were released by
Greyladies. Titles include The Glen
Castle Mystery (1948), Over the Sea
to School (1950), The MacIains of
Glen Gillean (1952), Here We Go
Round (1954), Margaret Finds a
Future (1954), The Vine-Clad Hill
(1956, aka Swiss Holiday), Black Forest Summer (1957), Catrin in Wales (1959), The Ballet Family (1963), and many,
many more. She is also particularly known for her "Drina" series of
ballet stories, written under her Jean Estoril pseudonym. I've written about
some of her work here.
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ALLAN, MEA (MARY ELEANOR) (23 Jun 1909
– 29 Aug 1982)
1940s – 1960s
Journalist, war correspondent, editor, writer on gardening and botany, and
author of four novels. According to Wikipedia, Allan "was the first
female war correspondent accredited by the British military and the first
female news editor on Fleet Street." Her novels are Lonely (1942), Change of
Heart (1943), which imagines the Allies winning WWII only to find Nazism
regaining ground, Rose Cottage
(1961), and Base Rumour (1962),
apparently set on the Suffolk coast. Later work includes several books about
gardening, as well as biographical works about well-known botanists and
gardeners, such as The Tradescants:
Their Plants, Gardens and Museum, 1570-1662 (1964) and The Hookers of Kew, 1785-1911 (1967).
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ALLARDICE, ANNE (8 Jan 1895 – 8 Dec
1983)
(pseudonym of Alice Maude Ellen Sampson)
1930s
Author of two novels—Unwillingly to
School (1930) and The Opening Gate
(1932), the latter about "an English family before the First World
War."
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Allardyce, Paula
see TORDAY, URSULA
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ALLATINI, ROSE [LAURE] (23 Jan 1890 – 22 Nov 1980)
(aka R. Allatini, aka A.
T. Fitzroy, aka Eunice Buckley, aka Lucian Wainwright, aka Mrs. Cyril Scott)
1910s – 1970s
Author of
nearly 40 novels over a staggering 64 year career, most under her several pseudonyms
and many highlighting enlightened views on social issues. Best known for her
pacifist novel Despised and Rejected
(1918), also an early sympathetic portrayal of homosexuality, which was
widely banned. During World War II, she published a thematically-linked
trilogy of novels about Jewish refugees from Hitler, including Family from Vienna (1941), Destination Unknown (1942), and Blue Danube (1943). I reviewed the
first of these here. A number of her other works deal to a greater or
lesser extent with her beliefs in Theosophy. Other titles include Happy Ever After (1914), Requiem
(1919), When I Was a Queen in Babylon
(1921), Girl of a Good Family
(1935), Oracle (1937), Rhapsody for Strings (1945), Dark Rainbow (1955), Instead of a Rocking Horse (1957), Conjuring Trick (1963), Wonder-Worker (1975), and Work of Art (1978). She was the
companion of Melanie MILLS for a number of years.
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ALLDRIDGE,
ELISABETH (dates unknown)
1940s
Illustrator of
Barbara Euphan Todd's Wurzel Gummidge
books and author of a single children's title of her own, The Blue Feather Club (1940), about
London children discovering the wonders of the countryside. Despite her
well-known work in the Gummidge books, attempts to identify her have so far
failed.
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ALLEN, ALICE MAUD (24 Jan 1881 – 22 Oct 1965)
(aka Allen Havens)
1920s – 1930s
Author of at least four novels, including the politically-engaged Silhouette (1923), set at a post-WWI
"Working Women's Conference," and The Trap (1931), which focuses on a wide range of characters and
their experiences with and reactions to the war. The latter was published by
the Hogarth Press. Others include Baxters
o' the Moor (1922), One Tree
(1926), a volume of poetry, The Upland
Field (1937), and a biography of Sophy Sanger (1958).
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Allen,
Barbara
see FINLAY, VIOLET VIVIAN
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ALLEN, GWENDOLINE (dates unknown)
1940s
Untraced author of one girls' school story, The Fourth Form at White Abbey (1945), which was reprinted later
the same year in an expanded edition.
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ALLEN, PHOEBE [ANNE] (1850 – 18 Feb
1933)
1870s – 1930
Author of more than 30 volumes of fiction for children and adults. Her debut,
Gilmory (1876), appeared while she
was in her teens. Other titles include The
Black Witch of Honeycritch (1886), The
Boys of Prior's Dean (1891), Whispering
Tongues (1896), Mafeking Day
(1901), Granfer Garland (1906), The Mystery of Coxfolly (1908), and Minon, or, The Cat That the King Looked At
(1930).
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ALLINGHAM, EMMIE [EMILY JANE] (1879 –
5 Mar 1960)
(née Hughes)
1920s
Mother of mystery writer Margery ALLINGHAM and author of nine novels—Betty's Triumph (1925), The Quiet One of the Family (1926), The Path She Chose (1928), The Opening Door (1928), The One She Betrayed (1928), and Joyce the Second (1929).
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ALLINGHAM, MARGERY [LOUISE] (20 May
1904 – 30 Jun 1966)
(aka Maxwell March, née Hughes)
1920s – 1960s
Prominent "Golden Age" mystery writer, best known for her series
featuring detective Albert
Campion (and his manservant, Lugg), of which The Tiger in the Smoke (1952), which vividly portrays the
underworld of postwar London, is often considered her best. Allingham's own
favorite was reportedly The Beckoning
Lady (1955), which may have been partially autobiographical. Other
mysteries include The Crime at Black
Dudley (1929), Police at the
Funeral (1931), Sweet Danger
(1933), The Fashion in Shrouds
(1938), Traitor's Purse (1941), More Work for the Undertaker (1949),
and Hide My Eyes (1958). During
WWII, she wrote three books not featuring Campion—the thriller Black Plumes (1940), a historical
family tale, Dance of the Years
(1943), and The Oaken Heart (1941),
a non-fiction look at the early days of the war in a small Essex village.
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ALLINSON, FRANCESCA (20 Aug 1902 – 7 Apr 1945)
(pseudonym of Enid Ellen
Pulvermacher Allinson, nicknamed Fresca)
1930s
Musician, composer, and scholar of English folk songs, Allinson's single
autobiographical novel, A Childhood
(1937), was published by Virginia and Leonard Woolf at Hogarth Press. A
biography of Allinson appeared in 2017.
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Amber, Miles
see COBDEN, ELLEN
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Ames,
Rachel
see GAINHAM, SARAH [RACHEL
STAINER]
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AN OLD GIRL (dates unknown)
(pseudonym of ????)
1920s
Pseudonym of an unknown author who published a single school story some time
in the 1920s (even the exact date is elusive) called Susie's Schooldays in France.
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ANCROFT, AGNES (3 Aug 1890 – 20 Sept
1982)
(pseudonym of Agnes Mary Batty)
1930s
Sister of Anne HEPPLE and author of three novels—As One of the Family (1938), No
Divorce (1939), and Boarding House
(1940). Reviewing the last of these, the Observer
said it was "in the same delightful style as her famous sister's novels,
and displays a flair for clever characterization."
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Anderson,
Ella
see MACLEOD, ELLEN JANE
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ANDERSON, HELEN M[AUD]. (25 Jun 1879 –
8 Dec 1947)
1920s – 1930s
Not to be confused with Helen Anderson, American author of the lesbian-themed
Pity for Women (1937). Scottish
author of four novels of the 1920s and 1930s—Domenico (1922), Kelston of
Kells (1927), Golden Lads
(1928), and Sons of the Forge
(1932).
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ANDERSON, KATHLEEN
[AGNES CICELY] (21 Jan 1888 – 14 Apr 1972)
(aka Sister Mary Catherine)
1930s – 1940s
Biographer and author of four novels, including Brother Petroc's Return (1937), The Dark Wheel (1939), The
Spark in the Reeds (1941), and The
Flight and the Song: A Tale of Old Devon (1946), the last co-written with
her sister, novelist Lilian M. ANDERSON. She also wrote four biographies—Henry Suso, Saint and Poet (1947), Steward of Souls: A Portrait of Mother
Margaret Hallahan (1952), Margaret,
Princess of Hungary (1954), and The
Chronicles of Thomas Frith (1957).
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ANDERSON, LILIAN M[AY]. (7 Nov 1889 – 30 Dec 1984)
(married name Robertson)
1920s – 1930s
Sister of
Kathleen ANDERSON and author of a dozen novels, probably romantic in nature.
Titles are The Taming of Becky
(1920), A Lass Worth Winning
(1920), The Rainbow Girl (1921), Breaking Her In (1921), Solo Voyager (1921), A Little Nobody (1922), A Contract of Marriage (1927), Misjudged (1929), Motherless Beauty (1931), The
Village Vamp (1934), Betty Miller
(1934), and Second Best (1937).
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ANDERSON, RUTH [MARY CLEMENTI] (26 Mar 1908 – 18 Feb
1986)
(married name Fasnacht)
1930s
Author of a single novel, Commercial
Hotel (1936), praised by the likes of Cyril Connolly and L. P. Hartley,
about the comings and goings in a Midlands hotel over the course of one week.
She also published The Roads of England
(1932), subtitled "Being a Review of the Roads, of Travellers, and of
Traffic in England, from the Days of the Ancient Trackways to the Modern
Motoring Era."
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ANDERSON, VERILY (12 Jan 1915 – 16 Jul 2010)
(née Bruce, later married
name Paget)
1950s – 1970s
Author of six
humorous memoirs, including Spam
Tomorrow (1956), about her adventures in World War II, and subsequent
tales of family and school life—Our
Square (1957), Beware of Children
(1958), Daughters of Divinity
(1960), The Flo Affair (1963), and Scrambled Egg for Christmas (1970). I
wrote about most of those titles here, and Spam
Tomorrow has been reprinted as a Furrowed Middlebrow book by Dean Street
Press. She also wrote the Brownies series
of children’s fiction (1960-1977), three children's books focused on the York
family—Vanload to Venice (1961), Nine Times Never (1962), and The Yorks in London (1964)—a girls'
story called Clover Cloverdale (1974),
and three biographical works about her own family's history—The Northrepps Grandchildren (1968), The Last of the Eccentrics: A Life of
Rosslyn Bruce (1972), Friends and
Relations (1980), and The De Veres
of Castle Hedingham (1993). Beware
of Children, about the Andersons' time running a holiday home for
children, was filmed as No Kidding
in 1960, and, oddly, featured Geraldine McEwan in the lead and Joan Hickson
as the cook who liked her drink rather too much. Both actresses, of course,
are best known now for playing Agatha Christie's Miss Marple in two different
television adaptations of the novels.
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ANDREW, PRUDENCE [HASTINGS] (23 May 1924 - )
(née Petch)
1960s – 1980s
Novelist and author of children's titles, including works for reluctant
readers. Her Ginger series, beginning with Ginger over the Wall (1962) focuses on a group of working class
children, and was among the first British series to prominently feature black
characters. Later books, though acclaimed for their compelling plots, also
wrestle with social issues, disability, and neglect. She published several
novels for adults, some historical in subject, including The Hooded Falcon (1960)—which qualifies her for this list, A Question of Choice (1962), A New Creature (1968), and A Man with Your Advantages (1970). Her
last publication was in 1984, but from public records it seems possible she
is still alive.
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ANDREWS, LUCILLA [MATHEW] (21 Nov 1919 – 3 Oct 2006)
(aka Diana Gordon, aka Joanna Marcus, aka Lucilla
Crichton)
1950s – 1990s
Author of more than 30 romances, most with hospital settings, and of a
powerful memoir, No Time for Romance
(1977), about nursing in London during World War II, heavily relied upon by
Ian McEwan in writing Atonement and
reviewed by me here. She was reportedly asked by her publisher to
revise her first novel, The Print
Petticoat (1954), to remove intense wartime content based on her own
experiences. However, she was later able to set several novels in wartime,
including One Night in London
(1979) The Phoenix Syndrome (1987),
and Frontline 1940 (1990). Other
works include The Quiet Wards
(1956), A House for Sister Mary
(1966), Highland Interlude (1968), In Storm and In Calm (1975), A Weekend in the Garden (1981), and The Sinister Side (1996).
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ANNESLEY, MAUDE (11 Jan 1871 – 6 Nov 1930)
(pseudonym of Maude
Gertrude Webster-Wedderburn, married names Hadden, Rider, and Brownlow)
1900s – 1920s
Author of at least ten novels, most famously The Wine of Life (1907), about a divorced woman, which was
accused of "flagrant outrages against good taste," and Wind Along the Waste (1910), both of
which became early silent films. If online accounts can be believed, her
personal life was a dramatic one, including adultery, drugs, and the occult,
and she apparently died in an asylum. Her other novels are The Door of Darkness (1908), This Day's Madness (1909), Shadow Shapes (1911), All Awry (1911), Nights and Days (1912), The
Sphinx in the Labyrinth (1913), Blind
Understanding (1916), and Where I
Made One (1923). She also wrote a memoir, My Parisian Year: A Woman's Point of View (1912).
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ANSLE, DOROTHY PHOEBE (27 Jul 1890 – 7 Jan 1983)
(married name Keogh, aka
Laura Conway, aka Hebe Elsna, aka Vicky Lancaster, aka Lyndon Snow)
1920s – 1970s
Prolific author, under multiple pseudonyms, of romantic fiction, including
such titles as Child of Passion
(1928), Other People's Fires
(1930), All Swans (1932), Brief Heroine (1937), This Clay Suburb (1938), Sometimes Spring Returns (1940), Everybody Loves Lorraine (1941), None Can Return (1942), The Happy Cinderella (1943), The Gilded Ladder (1945, reviewed by
Leaves & Pages here), The Door Between (1950), Strange
Visitor (1956), and Minstrel's
Court (1963).
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ANSON, KATHLEEN (30 Oct 1870 – 22 Jan
1955)
(pseudonym of Katharine Addison)
1920s
Author of a single novel, Deep Waters
(1922), about which little information is available.
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ANSTRUTHER. E[ILEEN]. H[ARRIET]. (25
Jun 1884 – 17 May 1970)
(née Wilkinson, aka Mrs. J. C. Squire)
1910s – 1920s
Author of three novels—The Farm Servant
(1916), a love story set partly in pre-war Paris, The Husband (1919), which deals humorously with women's suffrage,
and Five in Family (1924), which
seems to be a humorous family story. A contemporary review suggests that all
three may feature the same family or at least overlapping characters.
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ANTHONY, EVELYN (3 Jul 1928 – 25 Sept 2018)
(pseudonym of Evelyn
Bridgett Patricia Ward-Thomas, née Stephens)
1950s – 1990s
Author of nearly three dozen volumes of historical fiction and romantic
suspense. Her career began with a "Romanov trilogy" comprised of Imperial Highness (1953, aka Rebel Princess), Curse Not the King (1954, aka Royal
Intrigue), and Far Flies the Eagle
(1955, aka Far Fly the Eagles).
Regarding her later suspense fiction, the St.
James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers noted: "The action of her
plots often involves more romance than intrigue. … Anthony's lovers in each
novel are immediately identifiable to the reader by the strong and immutable
sexual attraction they feel for each other. No matter how the book ends, the
characters have no choice but to be motivated and controlled by that
attraction." Other titles include Charles
the King (1961), The Heiress
(1964), Anne of Austria (1968, aka The Cardinal and the Queen), The Assassin (1970), The Silver Falcon (1977), Albatross (1982), The Relic (1991), and Bloodstones
(1994). Her 1971 novel The Tamarind
Seed was made into a film starring Julie Andrews and Omar Sharif.
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ANTONY, JONQUIL (5 Oct 1912 – 6 Dec
1980)
(married name Wyse)
1940s – 1950s
Best known as the main scriptwriter for "Mrs Dale's Diary," a
popular BBC radio serial for more than two decades, Antony also published
several novels, some linked to the series, such as Mrs. Dale at Home (1952). Other titles include The Robinson Family (1948, co-written
with Lesley Wilson), The Malindens
(1951), and Paradise Square (1952).
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APPLETON, MARJORIE [IRENE] (17 Jan 1897 – 21 Aug 1963)
1940s
Journalist, historian, and author of at least two novels, Anything Can Happen (1942), about a
domestic servant conscripted into work in a munitions factory, and Under One Roof (1943), about which
I've found no details. She also published a non-fiction work, East of Singapore (1942), and a later
work of history, They Came to New
Zealand: An Account of New Zealand from the Earliest Times up to the Middle
of the Nineteenth Century (1958).
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ARBOR, JANE (8 Sept 1903 – 4 Feb 1994)
(pseudonym of Eileen Norah Owbridge)
1940s – 1980s
Author of more than two dozen romantic novels, including This Second Spring (1948), No
Lease for Love (1950), Flower of
the Nettle (1953), City Nurse
(1956), Lake of Shadows (1964), The Other Miss Donne (1971), Roman Summer (1973), and Handmaid to Midas (1982).
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ARCHER, [GERTRUDE] MARGARET (5 Dec 1913 - 2001)
(née Temple)
1940s – 1950s
Author of eight novels, the first two of which, at least—Canter's Chase (1945) and Gull
Yard (1947)—are mysteries. The latter is set in the Victorian period.
Other titles are Flowers for Teacher
(1948), The Silent Sisters (1950), Jonathan Guest (1952), The Gentle Rain (1952), See a Fine Lady (1955), and Pardoned in Heaven (1956).
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ARDEN, CLIVE (8 Feb 1888 – 4 Oct 1973)
(pseudonym of Lily Clive Nutt)
1920s – 1930s
Author of eight novels, which look like melodrama. Sinners in Heaven (1923), according to a blurb, contrasts
"life in a country village with its smallness of outlook, snobbishness,
and spite, and life in the wild places of the world, where convention and
tradition are unknown." That novel and her follow-up, Enticement (1925), were made into
films. The others are The Veil of
Glamour (1926), The Spider and the
Fly (1928), The Fetters of Eve
(1931), The Enchanted Spring
(1935), The Eagle's Wing (1938),
and Anthony Keeps Tryst (1940).
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ARDEN, MARY (26 Dec 1900 – 30 Mar 1931)
(pseudonym of Violet
Murry, née le Maistre)
1920s
Second wife of John Middleton Murry (the first being Katherine Mansfield).
Murry published only one story collection, Luck and Other Stories (1927), reviewed warmly by Naomi ROYDE-SMITH,
before she—like Mansfield—succumbed to tuberculosis. Not to be confused with
the untraced author from the 1940s, below.
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ARDEN, MARY (dates unknown)
1940s
Untraced author of two wartime novels, The
House of Mystery (1940) and The
Woman in Black (1944). Details are scarce, but she cannot be Violet
Murry, who published one story collection as Mary Arden (see above). Murry,
second wife of Katherine Mansfield's widower, died in 1931.
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ARLEN, TRUDI (dates unknown)
(pseudonym of ??????)
1930s – 1940s
Author of two entries in the "Shirley Flight, Air Hostess" series,
as well as at least two romantic novels, Beware
My Heart (1956) and Never Love Me
Less (date unknown). Arlen is credited with Shirley Flight, Air Hostess in Hawaiian Mystery (1960) and Shirley Flight, Air Hostess in Spain
(1960), while other titles in the series were credited to Judith Dale, a
known pseudonym of Edward Reginald Home-Gall. Several sources note that Arlen
is also a pseudonym, but his/her true identity has so far eluded me.
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ARMISTEAD, LORNA [MARGARET] (27 May 1906 – 25 Sept 2001)
(married name Marsden)
1930s
Author of one
novel, Death of Henrietta (1934), a
dark tale of war and family life which was scathingly reviewed in The Bookman. The critic bemoaned the
fact that authors were still producing the type of book satirized by Stella
GIBBONS in Cold Comfort Farm.
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ARMITAGE, MARIGOLD [PATRICIA] (29 Nov
1920 – 29 Nov 2001)
(née Harris)
1950s – 1960s
Daughter of Sir Arthur “Bomber” Harris and author of two novels of postwar
Irish hunting life—A Long Way to Go
(1952), described by Lionel Gamlin as a "vastly entertaining story of a
gloriously unbalanced hunting community in County Tipperary," and its
sequel, A Motley to the View
(1961). She reportedly worked on a third volume, to be called A Run for My Money, but it was never
completed.
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ARMOUR, MARGARET (10 Sept 1860 – 13
Oct 1943)
(married name MacDougall)
1910s, 1940s
Scottish poet, novelist, and compiler of a significant ghost story
compilation, The Eerie Book (1898).
She appears to have written only two novels—Agnes of Edinburgh (1911), which deals with women's suffrage, and
the much later The Imposter and the
Poodle (1940).
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ARMSTRONG, JULIET (21 Sept 1895 – 28
Nov 1979)
(pseudonym of Nancy Violet Campbell, née Morison)
1930s – 1970s
Author of more than 40 romantic novels for Mills & Boon, including Single Ticket (1938), The Singing Flame (1940), Frail Amazon (1941), Who Pays the Piper (1943), I'll Never Marry! (1945), Caught in a Moonbeam (1950), The House of the Swallows (1955), Mirror to Miranda (1960), and Wind Through the Vineyard (1969).
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ARMSTRONG, MAVIS (dates unknown)
1930s
Untraced author of two novels, presumably romantic in nature—Her Wonderful Love (1930) and An Empty Triumph (1932).
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ARMSTRONG, M. VERA (dates unknown)
1940s - 1950s
Author of the school story Maris of
Glenside (1953) and of two other books for children that were focused on
Guiding—Twenty Tales (1949) and Rival Camps (1950). She could
conceivably be the Mary Vera Armstrong (22 Apr 1904 – 1992), but there are
other possibilities.
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ARNOLD, MRS. J[OHN]. O[LIVER]. (1860 - 1933)
(pseudonym of Adelaide
Victoria Arnold, née England [listed in British Library catalogue as
"Mrs. A. V. Arnold"])
1910s – 1920s
Author of ten
novels. Fire i' the Flint (1911)
was described as "Hardyesque" by one source, while Megan of the Dark Isle (1914) was
described as "unnecessarily gruesome." The Woman in Blue (1922) and The
Merlewood Mystery (1928) seem to be supernatural thrillers. The others
are The Fiddler (1911), Honours Easy (1912), Requital (1913), Garth (1921), 'Scutcheon
Farm (1926), and The Clue
(1927).
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ARNOLD, LILIAN S[ARAH]. (22 Jan 1872 –
5 Oct 1950)
1900s – 1930s
Author of nine novels, about which little information is available. Titles
are Liege Lady (1903), Also Joan (1911), The Storm-Dog: A Romance of Cornwall (1912), The Enchanting Distance (1915), The Something Better (1921), Draped
Idols (1923), The Second Wife
(1924), The Sinner that Repented
(1925), and Earthquake in Surrey
(1932).
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Arnold, Lyn
see WOOD, MOLLY
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ARNOLD, MARGOT (1 Aug 1879 – 1 Dec 1969)
(full name Marguerite
Marie Dominique Arnold, née Monro, aka Mrs. Matthew Arnold)
1930s – 1940s
Author of six novels which are very scarce and about which little information
is available. Titles are The Wall
(1935), Evolution of Elizabeth
(1936), Fun for Felicity (1937), "—I Had No Shoes" (1938), Birds of Sadness (1940), and A Different Drummer (1941). A later
title, Portrait of Caroline (1958),
may also be by Arnold. She is not, however, to be confused with American author
Petronelle Cook, who wrote a mystery series and other novels under the name
Margot Arnold. On the 1939 England & Wales Register, she reported her
birth year as 1881, but as she's on the 1881 census, age 2, she was clearly
adjusting her age a bit.
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Arnold,
Mrs. Matthew
see ARNOLD, MARGOT
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ARTHUR, FRANCES BROWNE (c1855 – 16 Feb
1920)
(aka Ray Cunningham)
1880s – 1930s
Niece of poet Frances Browne. Author of Scottish-themed novels and children's
fiction under her own name and her pseudonym. Titles include Two Little Travellers (1903), The Laidlaws of Lammerlaw (1913), Mother Maud (1922). Several titles
published in the 1930s, well after Arthur's death, appear to be reprints or
serial stories published separately.
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Arundel, Edith
see MAYBURY, ANNE
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ARUNDALE, PAMELA [CONSTANCE] (22 Apr 1919 – 28 Oct 2003)
(née Paige)
1950s
Author of a single novel, Bread and
Olives: A Light-Hearted Tale of a Mediterranean Island (1957), set in a
village on Cyprus, the main character of which The Spectator compared to Aunt Dot from Rose MACAULAY's The Towers of Trebizond.
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Ashby, R[uby]. C[onstance].
see FERGUSON, RUBY
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ASHE, ELIZABETH (3 Dec 1924 – 14 Feb 1987)
(pseudonym of Lavender Beryl Hyde, née Lloyd)
1950s
Author of a single novel, One Man's
Island (1959), about a man running away from domestic difficulties to an
island in the Indian Ocean, only to find greater problems there. Born to
British parents in Peshawar, Pakistan.
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Ashe, Mary Ann
see BRAND, CHRISTIANNA
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ASHFORD, DAISY (7 Apr 1881 – 15 Jan 1972)
(nickname of Margaret Mary
Julia Ashford, married name Devlin)
1910s
Best known for The Young Visiters (1919), a short
novel written when she was 9 years old, published—spelling errors and
misunderstanding of adult culture intact—to enormous success when she was in
her late 20s. It was reprinted 18 times the year it was published, and was
dramatized and made into a musical and a film. Several of her other childhood
writings appeared in Daisy Ashford: Her
Book (1920) and The Hangman's
Daughter and Other Stories (1983). Ashford was reportedly rather
bewildered by the phenomenal success of her work, and felt that the praise
belonged "to a Daisy Ashford of so long ago that she seems almost
another person." She did not publish as an adult, though she began a
memoir late in life, which she destroyed before her death.
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ASHLEY, CHRISTINE (dates unknown)
1920s – 1930s
Untraced author of more than a dozen romantic novels, including The Marriage Lie (1921), A Just Impediment (1924), For Better, For Worse (1925), Her Wastrel Wooer (1928), The Price of Her Silence (1928), The Heart of a Humbug (1929), The Man She Wanted (1930), and Her Tangled Life (1931).
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ASHTON, HELEN [ROSALINE] (18 Oct 1891 – 27 Jun 1959)
(married name Jordan)
1910s – 1950s
A trained doctor (though she stopped practicing when she married) and author
of nearly 30 novels. Pierrot in Town
(1913) and Almain (1914) deal with
bohemian life in London, while several later titles have hospital settings,
including the bestseller Doctor
Serocold (1930), a Book-of-the-Month Club selection, Hornets' Nest (1935), and Yeoman's
Hospital (1944, later filmed as White
Corridors). Bricks and Mortar
(1932, reprinted by Persephone), is about the life of a London architect,
while The Half-Crown House (1956),
which I discussed here, is about a dramatic day
in the life of a family struggling to maintain its estate. I also discussed
her wartime novel Joanna at Littlefold (1942)—see
here. A Background for Caroline (1928) reportedly draws on Ashton's own
experiences nursing during WWI. Several later novels are fictionalized
biographies, including William and
Dorothy (1938), about the Wordsworths, and Parson Austen's Daughter (1949), about Jane herself. Other titles
include Marshdikes (1917), A Lot of Talk (1927), Far Enough (1928), Mackerel Sky: A Conversation Piece
(1931), Belinda Grove (1933), People in Cages (1937), Tadpole Hall (1941), Footman in Powder: A Panorama (1954),
and Return to Cheltenham (1958).
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ASHTON, MARY GRACE (11 Aug 1908 – 9
Jul 1980)
(married name Hills)
1920s – 1930s
Author of six novels, several of which, including her acclaimed debut Race (1927) and her third novel, The Sons of Jacob (1929), deal with
relations between Jews and Gentiles in England. The others are Shackles of the Free (1928), The Lonely Journey (1931), The Eye of a Needle (1938), and The Gates of Luthany (1939).
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ASHTON-JINKS, [ALICE] CICELY (4 Nov
1881 – 24 Oct 1972)
(née Hawley, married name Jinks [she added the
Ashton], originally Alice Jane Hawley, she legally changed name to Alice
Cecilia, which morphed into Alice Cicely)
1940s
Author of three historical novels—Child
of Promise (1944), about Richard III and Anne Neville, A Heart Like Mine (1946), about Louise
de la Vallière, mistress of Louis XIV, and The Rise of Françoise Scarron (1950), featuring the second wife
of Louis XIV and the child murderer Catherine Voisin.
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ASKEW, ALICE [JANE DE COURCY] (18 Jun 1874 – 6 Oct 1917)
(née Leake)
1900s – 1910s
Novelist who co-authored with her husband Claude an astonishing 90+ popular
novels between 1904 and their deaths in 1917. Titles include The Shulamite (1904), Eve—and the Law (1905), The Plains of Silence (1907), The
Devil and the Crusader (1909), Scarlet
Town (1910), Helen of the Moor
(1911), Bess of Bentley's: A True
Shop-Girl Story (1912), The Golden
Girl (1913), The Tocsin: A Romance
of the Great War (1915), Nurse
(1916), The Inscrutable Miss Stone
(1917), Lavender's Inheritance
(1920), and Evelyn (1924). In WWI,
they worked together in a British field hospital in Serbia, publishing a
memoir of their experience, The
Stricken Land: Serbia as We Saw It (1916), and they were killed the
following year when their ship was torpedoed by a German submarine.
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ASKWITH, BETTY [ELLEN] (26 Jun 1909 – 10 Apr 1995)
(married name Jones)
1930s – 1960s
Biographer, poet, humorist, and novelist. She published five successful works
with Theodora BENSON, including the novels Lobster Quadrille (1930) and Seven
Basketfuls (1932) and three works of humor, beginning with Foreigners: or, The World in a Nutshell
(1935). She published eight novels on her own—If This Be Error (1932), Green
Corn (1933), Erinna (1937), The Admiral's Daughters (1947), A Broken Engagement (1950), The Blossoming Tree (1954), The Tangled Web (1960), and A Step Out of Time (1966). I wrote
about the last here. Late in her career, she
focused on biography, particularly of prominent Victorian families. Askwith
was the daughter of Edwardian novelist Ellen Graham, who published two novels
as Mrs. Henry Graham, using her first husband's name.
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ASPINALL, [HONOR] RUTH [ALASTAIR] (31 May 1922 – 13
Nov 2012)
1950s – 1970s
Daughter of Clare SCARLETT. Author of more than a dozen novels, most romantic
in nature. Her debut, Mine Own to Give
(1955) is set in Cornwall and follows three friends from their idyllic
childhood to a more troubled adulthood. In High Hunter (1957), a yount woman takes a job as secretary to a
successful author, while in A Song on
the Wind (1967), a young woman gives up her job as a secretary and takes
a job as a gardener for a mysterious singer who has a breakdown. Some of
Aspinall's plots seem to border on melodrama, as with The Dark Side of Magic (1971), about the terrible consequences of
a woman's decision to attend a pot party. Others include Hellweather (1959), Yesterday's
Kingdom (1961), Cross Current
(1964), Sin, and Nicholas Vernon
(1966), Lee Shore (1975), and The Sand Clock (1979)
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ASQUITH, CYNTHIA [MARY EVELYN] (27 Sept 1887 – 31 Mar 1960)
(née Charteris)
1910s – 1940s
Daughter-in-law
of Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, best remembered for her Diaries 1915-1918 (1968), an important
addition to World War I literature, and for her popular anthologies of ghost
stories, including The Ghost Book
(1926), Shudders (1929), When Churchyards Yawn (1931), The Second Ghost Book (1952), and The Third Ghost Book (1955). She
published two novels—The Spring House
(1936), set during WWI and focused on the emotional turmoil of a soldier's
wife, and One Sparkling Wave
(1943), about four generations of women.
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ASQUITH, MARGOT (MARGARET) [EMMA ALICE] (2 Feb 1864 – 28 Jul 1945)
(née Tennant)
1920s
Wife of Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith and mother of Elizabeth BIBESCO.
Best known for her Autobiography
(Volume 1, 1920, Volume 2, 1922), which was based on her diaries. Those
diaries have now begun to be published as well, with the WWI diaries released
in 2014. She also wrote a single novel, the semi-autobiographical Olivia (1928). She published several
other memoirs, including My Impressions
of America (1922), Places &
Persons (1925), Lay Sermons
(1927), More Memories (1933), and More or Less About Myself (1934).
Rumor has it that she was the inspiration for E. F. Benson's Dodo.
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Astley, Juliet
see LOFTS, NORAH
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ATHEN, ASTOR (dates unknown)
1940s
Unidentified author of a single thriller, The
Ladies Leave the Castle (1948) set in a castle in the Austrian Tyrol and
featuring a young woman in peril. Although the author is unidentified and the
name is probably a pseudonym, I'm confident having read it that the author is
a woman.
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ATKINSON, MARY EVELYN (20 June 1899 – 3 Dec 1974)
(married name Frankau)
1930s – 1960s
Author of more than 20 children's titles, including a series featuring the
Lockett children, beginning with August
Adventure (1936), and a later series featuring Fricka Hammond and her
cousins, beginning with Castaway Camp
(1951). Others include Mystery Manor
(1937), The Compass Points North
(1938), Challenge to Adventure
(1941), The Monster of Widgeon Weir
(1943), Chimney Cottage (1947), Hunter's Moon (1952), Unexpected Adventure (1955), and Where There's a Will (1961). Atkinson
also wrote numerous one-act plays for women.
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ATTENBOROUGH, G[LADYS]. M[ARY]. (7 Feb
1879 – 17 Feb 1954)
(married name Linaker)
1920s - 1930s
Author of seven romantic novels, of one of which the Guardian said, "The author gives us a little, select world,
full of sweetness, romance, and whimsicality." Titles are The Rich Young Man (1929), Lady of Daylight (1930), The Little Virgin (1932), Honeymoon House (1934), Uncle Charles to Cherubina (1935), Hoop of Cold (1936), and Unfinished Song (1937).
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AUSTEN-LEIGH, LOIS [EMMA] (10 Jul 1883 – 14 Feb 1968)
1930s
Granddaughter of one of Jane Austen's nephews and author of four mystery
novels in the 1930s—The Incredible
Crime (1931), The Haunted Farm
(1932), Rude Justice (1936), and The Gobblecock Mystery (1938). Incredible Crime is set at Cambridge,
and is reportedly being reprinted for the first time in the British Library
Crime Classics series.
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AUSTIN, ALMA (dates unknown)
1920s – 1930s
Untraced author of five romantic novels—Miss
Magnificent (1923), A Laggard in
Love (1929), Beth Plays Up
(1932), The Make-Believe Heiress
(1933), and A Hard Man's Daughter
(1933).
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AUSTIN, PHYLLIS M[URIEL MARY]. (4 Apr 1888 - 1979)
(married name Coke, aka
Rigby [husband's stage name])
1920s – 1930s
Wife of actor
Edward Rigby and author of around 20 novels, most if not all cheerful
romantic comedies. Titles include The
Grass Eater (1921), The Gold Fish
Bowl (1922), The Lovable Lunatic
(1923), The Dream-Spell (1924), Valentine (1926), The Sloping Garden (1931), Sunblinds
(1932), Concerto (1934), and Punch and Judas (1937).
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AVERY, ELIZABETH (15 Sept 1913 - 2005)
(pseudonym of Nancy Edith Scott, née Avery)
1950s – 1960s
Registered nurse and author of four novels which make use of her professional
experiences, including The Margaret
Days (1959), The Marigold Summer
(1960), Nurse Has Four Cases
(1961), and Sister Bollard (1963).
She was the wife of novelist Paul Scott. Scott's Wikipedia page includes this
sad tidbit: "Scott's wife Penny had supported him throughout the writing
of The Raj Quartet, despite his
heavy drinking and sometimes violent behaviour, but once it was complete she
left him and filed for divorce."
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AVERY, GILLIAN [ELISE] (30 Sept 1926 – 31 Jan 2016)
(married name Cockshut)
1950s – 1980s
Author of nearly 20 children's books, including The Warden's Niece (1957), about a Victorian girl fighting for an
education and having adventures in and around Oxford, and The Elephant War (1960), also set in
Victorian Oxford, about a girl whose aunt recruits her into a campaign to
save a London Zoo elephant from being sent to the circus. Others include Trespassers at Charlcote (1958), The Greatest Gresham (1962), The Italian Spring (1964), A Likely Lad (1971), and Sixpence! (1979). In the early 1980s,
she stopped writing children's fiction and published two adult novels, The Lost Railway (1980) and Onlookers (1983), then turned her
attention to history and criticism. Non-fiction includes Nineteenth Century Children: Heroes and Heroines in English
Children's Stories 1780-1900 (1965), Childhood's
Pattern: A Study of the Heroes and Heroines of Children's Fiction 1770-1950
(1975), The Best Type of Girl: A
History of the Girls' Independent Schools (1991), and Behold the Child: A History of American
Children and Their Books 1621-1922 (1994).
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AYRES, RUBY M[ILDRED] (28 Jan 1883 – 14 Nov 1955)
(married name Pocock)
1920s – 1950s
Bestselling author of well over 100 romantic novels (publishing as many as 12
novels in a single year). She had her first major success with Richard
Chatterton, V.C. (1915), a
wartime romance which spawned a sequel later the same year, The Long Lane
to Happiness (1915). Other notable titles are Castles in Spain
(1912), Invalided Out (1918), A Bachelor Husband (1920), The
Second Honeymoon (1921), The Uphill Road (1921), The Man the
Women Loved (1923), The Man Without a Heart (1923), Wynne of
Windwhistle (1926), Spoilt Music (1927), By the Gate of Pity
(1927), Life Steps In (1928), Heartbreak Marriage (1929), Silver
Wedding (1937), The Little Sinner (1940), Nothing Lovelier
(1942), Love Comes Unseen (1943), Love Without Wings (1953),
and Dark Gentleman (1953). Many of her titles were reprinted decades
after her death with only minor revisions to update them.
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AYRTON, ELISABETH [EVELYN] (2 Feb 1910 – 15 Nov 1991)
(née Walshe, other married
name Balchin)
1950s – 1970s
Best known for
her cookbooks—among the first to utilize an historical approach—Ayrton also wrote four novels, including The Cook’s Tale (1957), described as
“a love story with recipes,” The Cretan
(1963), a darker novel of peasant life on Crete, Two Years in My Afternoon (1972), about a woman facing up to her
husband's extramarital affairs, and Day
Eight (1978), set in Kenya.
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I love this- so much detail in one place- a one stop shop for information. As a writer I often need a book or a title to place in the hand of a character- instant temporal cache! And here it is- just lifted Ruby M. Ayres and put it down next to my 'Miss Golden' 's bed. Thanks for that.
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