British Women Writers of Fiction 1910-1960 (L)

For more information about this list, please see the introduction, linked below.

INTRODUCTION
A	BA–BH	BI-BRA	BRE-BY	CA-CLA
CLE-CU	D	EA-FI	FL-GI	GL-HAR
HAS-HOL	HOO-I	J-K	L	MA
MC-MY	N-O	P-Q	R	SA-SM
SN-SY	T	U-WE	WH-Z
KEY & CITATIONS

You can download the entire list in a single PDF. Clicking on the link below will open a Google Docs page displaying the entire list in PDF. To save a copy of the PDF, just click on the little down arrow in the upper left. You can also print the list from the Google Docs page, but be warned that it now weighs in at 418 pages!

BRITISH WOMEN WRITERS OF FICTION 1910-1960 (PDF)

Updated 6/9/2017

[Current total: 1,893 writers]

LAING, DILYS [ANWYL] (1906 - 1960) (née Bennett) 1940s Born in Wales and immigrating to the U.S. after her marriage, Laing is primarily known as a poet—her Collected Poems appeared in 1967—but she published one novel, The Great Year (1948), about three generations of a Vermont fishing community.

LAING, JANET [RUSSELL] (1870 - 1953) (née Carstairs) 1900s – 1920s Author of eight novels, some of which appear to be light, humorous tales. Before the Wind (1918) is an energetic comedy about a young girl serving as companion to two eccentric women in wartime Scotland, while Wintergreen (1921) deals with a middle-aged servant who, having survived the sinking of the Lusitania, decides to begin a new life in the immediate postwar period. The others are The Wizard's Aunt (1903), The Borderlanders (1904), The Man with the Lamp (1919), The Honeycombers (1922), The Moment More (1924), and The Villa Jane (1929).

LAIRD, DOROTHY [STEVENSON] (25 Jun 1912 – 21 Jan 2000) 1930s Best known for her biography of the Queen, How the Queen Reigns (1959) a later bio of the Queen Mother (1975), and for her adventurous life in boating and horse racing, Laird also published two early novels, Double Cherry (1934), described as a romance, and Opening Meet (1934)

LAKE, EDNA (dates unknown) 1920s – 1940s Possibly Bessie MARCHANT's niece, according to Sims and Clare, and the author of just over a dozen children's books, including four school stories—The Right Rowena (1924), The Wraith of Raeburn (1925), The Mystery of Tower House School (1928), and Pamela of Peter's (1931). Other titles include The Merry Five And 'Toronto' (1920), The Mystery of the Manor (1924), Nan and the Rest (1927), Two Torments and Torrid (1927), and Mavis the Mysterious (1941). She had apparently published serial fiction in the 1910s.

LAKE, ELIZABETH (c1915 - 1976) (pseudonym of Inez Pearn, married name Madge, aka Inez Madge) 1940s – 1950s Wife of Mass Observation founder Charles Madge and author of five novels. The first two, Spanish Portrait (1945) and Marguerite Reilly (1946), seem to have appeared under her married name, the other three, The Lovers Disturbed (1949), The First Rebellion (1952), and Siamese Counterpart (1958), under her pseudonym. I reviewed The First Rebellion, set in a girls' convent school, here.

Lambe, Marjory E.           see TRENERY, GLADYS GORDON

LAMBERT, [ALICIA] DOROTHY (DOROTHEA) (1884 - 1967) (née Irwin) 1920s – 1950s Author of more than two dozen novels, which sound like humorous romances. Titles include Elizabeth, Who Wouldn't (1929), Aunts in Arcady: An Irish Idyll (1930), Moons and Magpies (1931), Scotch Mist (1936), Fish Out of Water (1937), Much Dithering: A Romance (1938), Two Birds and a Stone (1939), Birds on the Wing (1943), Music While You Work (1949), Harvest Home (1950), and Something in the Air (1953).

LAMBERT, ELISABETH (17 Jun 1915 – 27 Oct 2003) (full name Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz-Tinoco, aka Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz) 1950s Best known as a food writer, especially on Latin American cuisine, Lambert was born in the UK but lived in Jamaica and Australia in her childhood. She published poetry and two novels, The Sleeping House Party (1951), a mystery set at an Australian artist's colony, and Father Couldn't Juggle (1954), about a girl growing up in Jamaica.

Lamour, André           see BURKE, NORAH AILEEN

Lancaster, Vicky           see ANSLE, DOROTHY PHOEBE

Lance, Leslie           see SWATRIDGE, IRENE MAUDE

LANE, JANE (27 May 1905 – 6 Jan 1978) (pseudonym of Elaine Dakers, née Kidner) 1930s – 1970s Biographer, children's author, and author of three dozen historical novels known for their meticulous research and vivid detail. These include Undaunted (1934), Sir Devil-May-Care (1937), He Stooped to Conquer (1943), Gin and Bitters (1945, aka Madame Geneva), His Fight Is Ours (1946), London Goes to Heaven (1947), Parcel of Rogues (1948), about Mary Queen of Scots, Fortress in the Forth (1950), Thunder on St. Paul's Day (1954), Cat Among the Pigeons (1959), A Wind through the Heather (1965), The Questing Beast (1970), and A Secret Chronicle (1977). She also published ten children's titles, including Escape of the King (1950), Desperate Battle (1953), The Escape of the Princess (1962), and The Champion of the King (1966).

LANE, MARGARET [WINIFRED] (23 Jun 1906 – 14 Feb 1994) (married names Wallace and Hastings) 1930s – 1960s Journalist, biographer, children’s author, and author of nine novels. She was one of the few female journalists in London in the 1920s. Her novels are Faith, Hope, No Charity (1935), which won the Prix Femina-Vie Heureuse, At Last the Island (1937), Walk into My Parlor (1941), about a bogus spiritualist, Where Helen Lies (1944), A Crown of Convolvulus (1954), A Calabash of Diamonds (1961), A Night at Sea (1964), A Smell of Burning (1965), and The Day of the Feast (1968). Her short-lived first marriage was to the son of thriller writer Edgar Wallace, who became the subject of her first biography. She later published bios of Beatrix Potter and the Brontës, among others.

Lane, Temple           see LESLIE, MARY ISABEL

Lang, Frances           see MANTLE, WINIFRED

LANGBRIDGE, ROSAMOND (1880 - 1964) (married name Fletcher) 1900s – 1920s Wife of mystery writer J. S. (Joseph Smith) Fletcher. Author of eight novels, largely "marriage problem novels of a mildly racy kind" (OCEF). Titles are The Flame and the Flood (1903), The Third Experiment (1904), The Ambush of Young Days (1906), The Stars Beyond (1907), Imperial Richenda: A Fantastic Comedy (1908), The Single Eye (1924), The Golden Egg (1927), and The Green Banks of Shannon (1929). The Land of the Ever Young (1920) might be children's fiction.

Langford, Jane           see MANTLE, WINIFRED

LANGMAID, MARGARET (8 Aug 1903 – 27 Oct 1972) (née Tegetmeier) 1930s Author of five novels which appear to be humorous romances—This Charming Property (1934) is about village tensions surrounding a new housing development, The Yes Man (1935) deals with the uneven romance of a schoolteacher, and MacAdam and Eve (1936) is about the pairing of a Scottish doctor and a cheerful young actress. The others are Related by Marriage (1938) and Precious Burden (1938).

LANGSLOW, JANE (dates unknown) (possibly pseudonym of Maud Diver?) 1930s Unidentified co-author, with Margaret Rivers LARMINIE, of a single novel, Gory Knight (1937), a parody of the kind of "round robin" detective novels popular at the time. Martin Edwards discusses the novel here, along with the possibility that she is actually Larminie's sister, Maud DIVER.

LANGTON, JOY (9 Feb 1916 – 13 Apr 1991) (pseudonym of Edith Hermione Veryl Gordon Langton, married name Morris) 1930s - 1950 Author of seven novels, including Cannibal Feast (1937), set in the New Hebrides and based on the adventures of artist Charles Gordon-Frazer, an uncle of Langton. The others are Blind Arrows (1938), Sabina (1943), Pro Tem (1945), Broken Circle (1946), Thin Bread and Butter (1948), and Halt (1950).

LARMINIE, MARGARET RIVERS (6 Sept 1885 – 31 Mar 1964) (married name Tragett) 1920s – 1930s Cousin of mystery writer Margaret YORKE and author of eight novels. Bookman called her 1924 novel Deep Meadows a "very long novel concerning marriage and its ramifications." The others are Search (1922), Echo (1923), Soames Green (1925), Galatea (1928), The Visiting Moon (1932), Doctor Sam (1933), and Gory Knight (1937). The last is a parody mystery—see Martin Edwards' discussion of it here. Edwards—reading the novel with Yorke, a distant cousin of Larminie's—concluded: "The story parodies the celebrated detectives Hercule Poirot, Lord Peter Wimsey (and his manservant Bunter), Reggie Fortune, Dr Priestley and Inspector French—although the French character appears only in the final stages of the book. The sleuths gather, by improbable means, in an English country house, and are immediately greeted by the disappearance of the cook (the eponymous Ms Knight.) It is an entertaining piece of work. The plot is slight, and stretched out excessively, but to my mind there is much pleasure to be had in the way MRL and ‘Jane Langslow’ render the eccentricities of Poirot, Wimsey and Bunter in particular."

LASKI, MARGHANITA (24 Oct 1915 – 6 Feb 1988) (née Esther Pearl Laski, married name Howard, aka Sarah Russell) 1940s – 1950s Novelist, broadcaster, playwright, critic, biographer, and religious scholar. Though best known in her lifetime for her work as a BBC broadcaster on The Brains Trust and other programs, she is now known as one of Persephone's major rediscoveries. She wrote six extraordinarily diverse novels. Love on the Supertax (1944) is a satirical wartime work dealing with the decline of the upper classes and the wartime black market. To Bed with Grand Music (1946), written under her pseudonym, is the darker tale of a young wife whose boredom, while her husband is serving abroad, leads her into a series of affairs. Tory Heaven (1948, inexplicably published in the US as Toasted English) is a rollicking "mock utopia" set in a postwar world in which traditional class structures have been codified into law. Little Boy Lost (1949) is about a father searching for his missing son in postwar France. The Village (1952), my personal favorite, is about the aftermath of the war's breakdown of class relations, in the form of two families—an upper crust family and that of their former housekeeper—who have to come to terms with being united by marriage. And The Victorian Chaise-Longue (1953) is a harrowing novella about a woman who falls asleep on a chaise-longue and awakens in the body of a Victorian woman. Along similar lines, her short story, "The Tower" (1955), which appeared in Cynthia Asquith's The Third Ghost Book, is a terrifying timeslip tale of black magic haunting a tower in Italy. Apologies (1955) is a collection of humorous magazine pieces, with "apologies" indicating the clichés and pleasantries people use to avoid serious issues. I wrote about "The Tower" and Apologies here. Laski was reportedly horrified by the 1953 film version of Little Boy Lost, which unfathomably reinterpreted it as a musical starring Bing Crosby. Laski wrote one play, The Offshore Island (1959), set after a nuclear holocaust, several works of criticism, including works about George Eliot, Jane Austen, and Rudyard Kipling, and several intellectual works about religion, approached from the perspective of her own atheism. For several decades, Laski, was a voluntary reader for the Oxford English Dictionary supplement, researching old sales catalogues, crime fiction, periodicals, and other sources for arcane terms.

LATHAM, KATHERINE WRIGHT (1871 – 16 May 1941) (née Murray, aka Mrs. Albert G. Latham) 1900s – 1920s Author of children’s fiction—initially for younger readers, but later work includes books for older readers, such as The Young Crofters (1920), A Summer at “The Barn” (1923), and Those Two and the Queer Folk (1928).

LAVERTY, MAURA (15 May 1907 – Jul 1966) (née Kelly) 1940s Novelist, journalist, playwright, and soap opera screenwriter. Her first novel, Never No More (1942), based on her own childhood in Kildare, was enormously successful and critically acclaimed. Its sequel, No More Than Human (1944), followed her time as a young governess in Spain in the 1920s. Her most enduring work, however, was Lift up your Gates (1946, aka Liffey Lane), a novel about Dublin slum life which, along with additional plays continuing the story, was adapted for stage and for a television soap opera as Tolka Row. Her other novel was Alone We Embark (1943, aka Touched by the Thorn), and she also published two children's titles, The Cottage in the Bog (1946, aka Gold of Glanaree) and Green Orchard (1949), and three cookbooks—the wartime Flour Economy (1941), Kind Cooking (1946), and Full and Plenty (1960), the last of which was particularly successful. A collection of her fairy tales, The Queen of Aran's Daughter, was published in 1995 with illustrations by her daughter. A bit of trivia: In her youth, Laverty worked for a time as secretary to Elizabeth BIBESCO.

LAVIN, MARY (11 Jun 1912 – 25 Mar 1996) (married names Walsh and Scott) 1940s – 1990s Though born in the U.S., Lavin and her Irish parents returned to Ireland while she was a child, and her work focuses on women's lives in Ireland. She wrote primarily stories, publishing more than a dozen collections in all, including the much-praised Tales from Bective Bridge (1942), but she did publish two novels The House in Clewe Street (1945) and Mary O'Grady (1950), which were reprinted by Virago in the 1980s. In the 1950s and 1960s Lavin published a series known as the "widow stories," featuring a widow named Vera, based on Lavin's own experiences after her husband's death. She also published three children's books—A Likely Story (1957), The Second-Best Children in the World (1972), and The Story of the Widow's Son (1993).

LAW, JOHN (28 Feb 1854 – 10 Dec 1923) (pseudonym of Margaret Elise Harkness) Journalist and novelist involved with socialism in her youth and later with the Salvation Army. Best known for In Darkest London (1890), focused on the Salvation Army and how London's temptations can lead youth astray. She published at least seven novels, many reflecting her interest in politics and labour, including A City Girl (1887), Out of Work (1888), set around the events of "bloody Sunday", A Manchester Shirtmaker (1890), George Eastmont: Wanderer (1905), Captain Lobe (1915), The Horoscope (1915), set in Sri Lanka, and A Curate's Promise: A Story of Three Weeks, September 14-October 5, 1917 (1921). She travelled a lot in India and published Glimpses of Hidden India (1909, revised as Indian Snapshots in 1912). She was a second cousin of Beatrice Webb and trained with her to be a nurse.

LAWRENCE, MARGERY (8 Aug 1889 – 13 Nov 1969) (married name Towle) 1920s – 1970s Author of more than three dozen volumes of fiction, many featuring supernatural or uncanny themes. These include the collections Nights of the Round Table (1926), The Terraces of Night, Being Further Chronicles of the Club of the Round Table (1932), Strange Caravan (1941), and Number Seven Queer Street (1945). The Madonna of Seven Moons (1931) is a novel dealing with split personality, and The Bridge of Wonder (1939) with spiritualism. The Rent in the Veil (1951) is a timeslip tale, and The Tomorrow of Yesterday (1966) deals with Atlantis. Other fiction includes Red Heels (1924), Fine Feathers (1928), Madame Holle (1934), Emma of Alkistan (1953), Skivvy (1961), The Yellow Triangle (1965), and Autumn Rose (1971).

LAWS, BETTY (BESSIE) (17 Apr 1899 – 28 Jan 1981) 1920s – 1930s Author of five girls' school stories, the first four—The New Head—and Barbara (1925), The Girls of Dormitory Ten (1926), Pam and the Fearless Fourth (1927), and The Girls of Stornham Central (1929)—praised by Sims & Clare, the last—Kidnappers at Elmhurst School (1939)—distinctly not.

LAYCOCK, MARGARET (dates unknown) 1930s Untraced author of three school stories which, according to Sims & Clare, are as focused on staff as on students—Form IV Does Its Bit (1934), Ann's Difficult Term (1935), and Fifth Form Crisis (1937). She was apparently a teacher herself in a London day school.

Lazarus, Marguerite           see GILBERT, ANNA

LE FEUVRE, AMY (AMELIA) [SOPHIA] (1861 – 29 Apr 1929) (aka Mary Thurston Dodge) 1890s – 1920s Prolific author of fiction for children and adults, most with Christian themes. Titles include On the Edge of a Moor (1897), The Carved Cupboard (1899), Odd Made Even (1902), The Chateau by the Lake (1907), Four Gates (1912), Joan's Handful (1915), and A Madcap Family, or, Sybil's Home (1916).

LE PLA, LILLIE (1894 – 12 Feb 1957) 1920s Author of seven children’s adventure tales—The Call of the Dawn (1922), Round the Corner (1924), The Secret Shore (1925), The Secret of Desborough House (1926), Tangletrees (1927), The Treasure of Monk's Burn (1928), and The Secret of the Wood (1928).

LEA, JOCELYN CLARE (23 Jul 1889 – 8 Jun 1971) (née Lea) 1920s Poet and author of four humorous novelss—Bringing Up Dinah (1927), Waste (1929), Cork the Conqueror (1929), described by the Spectator as "wild farce," and Cinderella's Country House (1930), about a woman reluctantly running a residential hotel. Her maiden and married names were the same because she married a cousin.

LEACH, D. L. (dates unknown) 1940s Definitely a woman writer, but otherwise unidentified. Author of two novels—Cleveland View (1944), set in the Cleveland Hills in Yorkshire, not in Cleveland, Ohio, and Restless Tides (1947)—as well as one children's book, Sally the Hare (1947).

Leader, Barbara           see BLACKBURN, [EVELYN] BARBARA

LEAR, WINIFRED (28 Jan 1907 – 14 Jun 2002) (full name Winifred Lear Heap) 1940s Schoolteacher and principal and author of two novels. The Causeway (1948) is set just before and during the Blitz—according to Saturday Review, "Most of the action is centered about a rectory that conceals briefly madness, cancer, love, hate, and frustration." Shady Cloister (1950) is set at a girls' boarding school in South London. Lear also published a memoir, Down the Rabbit Hole (1975), about her own early school days in Crewe during and after World War I. She appears to have also privately published at least three more books, which seem to be short sketches and observations.

LEE, MARY (dates unknown) 1920s Untraced author of one novel, 'It's a Great War!' Reality of Actual Experience (1929), but no other information is available.

Lee, Rowena           see BARTLETT, MARIE

LEES, EDITH [MARY OLDHAM] (1861 – 14 Sept 1916) (married name Ellis, aka Mrs. Havelock Ellis) 1890s – 1910s Activist and wife of sexologist Havelock Ellis (though she was also openly lesbian, and Ellis wrote about their open relationship in his memoir, My Life [1939]). She published several novels, including Seaweed: A Cornish Idyll (1898), My Cornish Neighbours (1906), Attainment (1909), The Imperishable Wing (1911), Love-Acre (1914), and Love in Danger (1915).

Lees, Marguerite           see BAUMANN, MARGARET

LEESON, MAUDE (dates unknown) 1910s – 1920s Untraced author of six novels. The earlier titles, like The Fords of Hilton Langley (1913) and The Marriage of Cecilia (1914), seem to be cheerful romances for young girls, while later works, such as God's Price (1920) and Still Waters (1922), are more serious. The others are The Discretion of Decima (1912) and The Stepsister (1915).

LEGGE, MARGARET (1872 – 3 Apr 1957) 1910s – 1920s Author of seven novels, which OCEF compares with those of May SINCLAIR. Titles are A Semi-Detached Marriage (1912), The Price of Stephen Bonynge (1913), The Rebellion of Esther (1914), The Wane of Uxenden (1917), A Tempestuous Daughter (1924), The Spell of Atlantis (1927), and The Crystal Rabbit (1929).

LEGION, A. (dates unknown) 1920s Untraced author of a single girls' school story, The Three Helens (1927), which traces the evolution of a school over time, from the points of view of three successive girls.

LEHMANN, BEATRIX (1 Jul 1903 – 31 Jul 1979) 1930s Successful actress, sister of Rosamond LEHMANN and publisher John Lehmann, and author of two novels, But Wisdom Lingers (1932) and Rumours of Heaven (1934), the latter of which was reprinted by Virago in the 1980s and is, according to Kirkus, "a story of a family escaping life into a dream world of their own." I wrote about both novels here.

LEHMANN, ROSAMOND [NINA] (3 Feb 1901 – 12 Mar 1990) (married names Runciman and Philipps) 1920s – 1950s, 1970s Sister of Beatrix LEHMANN and publisher John Lehmann. Seen as the quintessential “women’s writer” during her lifetime, Lehmann’s critical reputation has improved significantly since many of her novels were reprinted by Virago. Dusty Answer (1927) was controversial for its portrayal of lesbianism but also a popular success. Her second novel, A Note in Music (1930), was poorly received, but then followed her four most famous works—Invitation to the Waltz (1932), about a young girl's experiences at her first dance, The Weather in the Streets (1936), a sequel following her into adulthood and an affair with a married man (Carmen Callil of Virago famously called it her generation's Bridget Jones's Diary), The Ballad and the Source (1944), set in the early years of the 20th century, and The Echoing Grove (1953), which makes use of Lehmann's own experiences of Blitz and wartime conditions. Following the sudden death of her daughter in 1958, Lehmann only rarely published, moving toward spiritualism in her life and her remaining works. Her memoir, The Swan in the Evening, appeared in 1967, and she published one final novel, the poorly-received A Sea-Grape Tree (1976). She also published one story collection, The Gypsy’s Baby and Other Stories (1949).

LEIGH, MARGARET MARY (17 Dec 1894 – 7 Apr 1973) 1920s – 1930s Poet, memoirist, and novelist who often wrote about crofters in Scotland. She published two novels, The Passing of the Pengwerns (1924) and Love the Destroyer (1938), as well as several memoirs of farm life, including Highland Homespun (1936), Harvest of the Moor (1937), Spade Among the Rushes (1949), and The Fruit in the Seed (1952). Leigh entered a convent in 1950.

LEIGH, MARY (dates unknown) (pseudonym of Beryl or Beyrl Randall?) Untraced author of three novels—Pure Palace (1944), False World, Goodnight (1946), and The Company's Servant (1947)—but details are as elusive as the author herself. Her possible real name above stems from a signed copy of one of the books listed on Abe Books, described as having the inscription "…best wishes from Beyrl 'Mary Leigh' Randall," but we're not certain if the bookseller misspelled "Beryl" or if Beyrl, apparently an actual name as well, was correct. No likely candidates for either name appear in public records.

Leigh, Olivia           see CLAMP, HELEN MARY ELIZABETH

Leigh, Ursula           see GWYNN, URSULA [GRACE]

LEIGHTON, MARIE [FLORA BARBARA] (Feb 1865 – 28 Jan 1941) (née Harris, aka Mrs. Robert Leighton, aka Marie Connor Leighton) 1880s – 1930s Mother of Ronald Leighton, Vera BRITTAIN's fiancé who was killed in WWI and features prominently in her classic memoir Testament of Youth. Author of 60+ volumes of fiction, many of them mysteries or crime-related potboilers. OCEF singles out several with female protagonists, including Joan Mar, Detective (1910), The Bride of Dutton Market (1911), and Lucile Dare, Detective (1919). Others include Beauty's Queen (1884), The Harvest of Sin (1898), A Napoleon of the Press (1900), Her Ladyship's Silence (1907), Justice! (1910), Ducks and Drakes (1913), Human Nature (1916), Every Man Has His Price (1917), Her Fate and His (1921), The Torry Diamonds Mystery (1930), and The Silence of Dr Duveen (1937). She also wrote her own memoir of her son, Boy of My Heart (1917), which seems to be as gushing and sentimental as the title would imply. Steve at Bear Alley unearthed her correct maiden name and a lot more information here.

LEITH, MRS. DISNEY (1841 – 19 Feb 1926) (pseudonym of Mary Charlotte Julia Leith, née Gordon) 1860s – 1910s Poet, translator (from Icelandic), children's author, and novelist. Much of her work is Victorian, but her late novels, including A Black Martinmas (1912) and its sequel Lachlan's Widow (1913), fall within my scope. She was a cousin of Algernon Charles Swinburne.

Lenanton, C.           see OMAN, CAROLA

Lennox, Edward           see MAYER-NIXSON, EDITH MAY

LEONARD, BERTHA (1883 - ????) (pseudonym of Bertha Howick, married name Fry) 1920s – 1940s Mother of Leonora FRY. Author of about eighteen children's titles, of which several are girls' school stories. Titles include Stella's Victory (1926), Daphne the Day Girl (1927), An Upper Fourth Feud (1928), The Rivals of Redlands (1931), Silverways Manor School (1936), and The Castle School Mystery (1938). Steve at Bear Alley did research on Leonard and her daughter here.

Leonard, Charles L.           see HEBERDEN, MARY VIOLET

LESLIE, DORIS (9 Mar 1891 – 31 May 1982) (née Oppenheim, later married names Cookes and Hannay) 1920s – 1970s Author of more than 30 novels, many historical in subject. Full Flavour (1934) is about a woman who takes over her father's business with great success. Fair Company (1936) traces multiple generations of one family. House in the Dust (1942) deals with a house, bombed in the Blitz, which triggers a woman's memories of her Victorian childhood. She also published several novels based on the lives of well-known figures. Other titles include The Starling (1927), The Echoing Green (1929), Puppets Parade (1932), Concord in Jeopardy (1938), Polonaise (1943), The Peverills (1946), That Enchantress (1950), Peridot Flight (1956), I Return (1962, aka Vagabond's Way), The Marriage of Martha Todd (1968), The Dragon's Head (1973), and Crown of Thorns (1979). Later in life, she published several well-received biographies, whose subjects include François Villon, Elizabeth Chudleigh, and Richard the Lionheart.

Leslie, Henrietta           see SCHUTZE, GLADYS HENRIETTA

Leslie, Josephine           see DICK, R. A.

LESLIE, MARY ISABEL (1899 - 1978) (aka Jean Herbert, aka Temple Lane) 1920s – 1950s Irish nationalist, lecturer, poet, and author of more than 30 romantic novels, including Burnt Bridges (1925), Watch the Wall (1927), Blind Wedding (1931), The Trains Go South (1938), House of My Pilgrimage (1941), Curlews (1946), The Magnolia Flower (1950), Desert Locust (1951), Hall of Lost Footsteps (1953), The Desert's a Woman (1955), and French Violet (1956).

LESSING, DORIS [MAY] (22 Oct 1919 – 17 Nov 2013) (née Taylor, earlier married name Wisdom, aka Jane Somers) 1950s – 2000s 2007 Nobel Prize winner, author of more than 30 works of fiction, as well as memoirs and other non-fiction. Best known for The Golden Notebook (1962), a classic novel about a woman attempting to unite her political, emotional, sexual, and creative lives. Some of her early fiction makes use of her childhood and youth in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and she later experimented with the science-fiction genre in the series Canopus in Argos: Archives (1979-1983) and in Memoirs of a Survivor (1973). Other novels include The Grass Is Singing (1950), Briefing for a Descent into Hell (1971), The Diary of a Good Neighbour (1983, as Jane Somers), The Good Terrorist (1985), The Fifth Child (1988), and The Sweetest Dream (2001). Her memoirs include Under My Skin: to 1949 (1994) and Walking in the Shade: 1949-1962 (1997),

LESTER, CAROLINE (dates unknown) 1940s Untraced author of a single girls' school story, Pat on Her Own (1949).

LESTER, LOUISE (dates unknown) 1930s Untraced author of a single short romance, A Ladies' Man (1931).

LETHBRIDGE, OLIVE (1885 - 1971) (married name Banbury) 1910s, 1930s, 1950s Author of nine novels in all, including two early collaborations—The Marriage Maze (1911, with Gerald Beresford Fitzgerald) and The King's Master (1912, with John de Stourton), six Mills & Boon romances in the 1930s, most set in exotic locales—The Dancer of El Touran (1931), As a Lioness That Sleeps (1931), Where Caravans Pass By (1935), African Orchestra (1936), The Ladies of Shalm-a-Dar (1936), and Tropical Island (1937)—and one late novel, The Black Parrot (1950), based on a play by H. Fletcher Lee.

LETHBRIDGE, SYBIL [MCGREGOR] CAMPBELL (c1873 – 20 Jan 1945) (née Allen, earlier married name Lonergan) 1910s – 1940s Author of forty volumes of fiction. Gnats and Camels (1924) is about a young woman rebelling against her stuffy family. Bookman described The Wild Feather (1933) thus: "Here is a villain of a builder who seeks to destroy the beauty of an unspoilt seaside place in Cornwall; here is the heroine, fifty-five years of age but still beautiful and admired—a Lady Bountiful, who has in the past outwitted him." Other titles include The Shoreless Sea (1912), The Marauders (1917), Hard and Fast (1923), The Odds Against Her (1925), Tawny Eyes (1929), The Long Day's Task (1931), Sweet Fruit (1935), Won by Fraud (1937), Old Hillersley's Heiress (1940), A Runaway Wife: The Winning of Lady Tory (1942), and The Golden Snare (1946). Steve at Bear Alley researched her life here.

LETTS, MARY FELICIA S[IMEON]. (1875/6 – 15 Mar 1959) 1910s Co-author, with her sister Winifred LETTS, of a single volume of stories, Helmet & Cowl: Stories of Monastic & Military Orders (1913).

LETTS, WINIFRED M[ABEL]. (Feb 1882 – 7 Jun 1972) (married name Verschoyle) 1900s – 1930s Playwright, biographer, poet, children's author, and novelist. Her children's titles include Waste Castle: A Book for Girls (1907), Bridget of All Work (1909), Naughty Sophia (1912), Pomona and Co. (1934), and The Gentle Mountain (1939). Adult novels include The Story-Spinner (1907), The Rough Way (1912), Christina's Son (1915), What Happened Then? (1921), and Knockmaroon (1933). With her sister Mary Felicia LETTS, she published Helmet & Cowl: Stories of Monastic and Military Orders (1913).

LEVERSON, ADA [ESTHER] (10 Oct 1862 – 30 Aug 1933) (née Moses) 1900s – 1910s Literary hostess, friend of Oscar Wilde, and author of six witty social comedies, including those Virago published as The Little Ottleys—Love's Shadow (1908), Tenterhooks (1912), and Love at Second Sight (1916)—as well as The Twelfth Hour (1907), The Limit (1909), and Bird of Paradise (1914). According to her ODNB entry, she was one of Wilde's few defenders when the scandal surrounding his homosexuality broke, taking him into her home during the trial and greeting him outside the prison when he was released. Among her other friends were Aubrey Beardsley, Max Beerbohm, the Sitwells, and Ronald Firbank. Her fiction is said to have influenced the work of Firbank and Evelyn Waugh, among others.

LEWIS, [JANET] EILUNED (1 Nov 1900 – 15 Apr 1979) (married name Hendrey) 1930s – 1940s Welsh author of two novels—Dew on the Grass (1934), an autobiographical view of the Welsh countryside through the eyes of a 9-year-old girl, and The Captain's Wife (1945), set in a 19th century cathedral town in Pembrokeshire. The novels have received increased attention in recent years thanks to their reprinting by Honno Classics. Lewis also published poetry and several books about the Welsh countryside, including The Land of Wales (1937), written with her brother Peter, and Honey Pots and Brandy Bottles (1954). Her memoir is The Old Home (1981). I wrote about The Captain's Wife here.

LEWIS, ETHELREDA (1875 – 1 Aug 1946) (née Ethel Howe, married name Smith, aka R. Hernekin Baptist) 1920s – 1930s Best known for editing (or perhaps ghostwriting) the memoirs of Alfred Aloysius Horn, a prominent African trader, Lewis also wrote several adventures making use of her own knowledge of Africa. Titles are The Harp (1925), The Flying Emerald (1925), Mantis (1926), and Wild Deer (1933).

Lewis, Gwendolen Hudson           see FORREST, NOEL

Lewis, H. H.           see BURLEIGH, HILARY

LEWIS, HILDA [WINIFRED] (9 Mar 1896 - 1974) 1930s – 1970s Historical novelist and children's author best known for The Ship That Flew (1939), about a toy ship that travels in time, which was reprinted in the Oxford Children's Modern Classics series in the 1990s. She only wrote a handful of other children's books—The Gentle Falcon (1952), Here Comes Harry (1960), and Harold Was My King (1970). Her primary focus was historical fiction for adults, though a few were based on notorious real-life crimes. The latter include Said Dr. Spendlove (1940, aka Case of the Little Doctor), focusing on the Crippen case, Strange Story (1945), a tale of two twin girls, one of whom murders the other, and A Mortal Malice (1963), which deals with the 17th century poisoning of Sir Overbury in the Tower of London. The last is one of historian Alison Weir's favorite novels—see what Weir has to say about Lewis, and about her other favorites, here.  Lewis's other titles include Pegasus Yoked (1933), Imogen Under Glass (1943), The Day Is Ours (1947), More Glass Than Wall (1950), Wife to Henry V (1954), I, Jacqueline (1957), Call Lady Purbeck (1951), Wife to the Bastard (1966), and Rose of England (1977). The Witch and the Priest (1956) was reprinted in recent years by Valancourt Books and deals with the ghost of a witch who tells her story to a priest condemning other women to death for witchcraft.

LEWIS, LORNA [CONCANEN] (24 Jun 1900 – 27 Nov 1962) 1930s – 1960s Secretary (and roommate for a time) of E. M. DELAFIELD and author of more than two dozen children's books, including some early titles for young children. Tea and Hot Bombs (1943) follows a teenage girl as she begins work with the Mobile Canteen Corps during the Blitz in London. Feud in the Factory (1944) is also set during World War II. Lewis also wrote biographies for young readers, girls' career stories—including June Grey: Fashion Student (1953), Valerie: Fashion Model (1955), and Judy Bowman: Therapist (1956)—and what looks like a school story, Spring School (1958), not mentioned in Sims and Clare. Other titles include Mystery at Lock House (1947), Marriotts Go North (1949), Mystery at Winton's Park (1952), Hotel Doorway (1953), Shirley Goes Travelling (1959), and Shirley Goes to America (1961). I reviewed Tea and Hot Bombs here.

LEWTY, MARJORIE (8 Apr 1906 – 21 Jan 2002) (née Lobb) 1950s – 1990s Author of about three dozen romances for Mills & Boon, including Never Call It Loving (1958), The Imperfect Secretary (1959), Alex Rayner, Dental Nurse (1965), Flowers in Stony Places (1975), To Catch a Butterly (1977), A Girl Bewitched (1981), Makeshift Marriage (1982), Riviera Romance (1984), A Kiss Is Still a Kiss (1989), Step in the Dark (1994), and A Real Engagement (1999). A couple of gaps in her publishing history make me wonder if there are more under an as-yet-unknown pseudonym.

LEY, ALICE [MARY] CHETWYND (12 Oct 1913 – 4 Oct 2004) (née Humphrey) 1950s – 1980s Author of nearly 20 historical romances, including The Jewelled Snuff Box (1959), The Georgian Rake (1960), Letters for a Spy (1970), The Beau and the Bluestocking (1975), and The Intrepid Miss Hayden (1983). In the 1980s, she wrote three historical crime novels—A Reputation Dies (1984), A Fatal Assignation (1987), and Masquerade of Vengeance (1989).

Lilburn, Adam           see WASSERMANN, LILLIAS

LIMEBEER, ENA [VICTORIA] (1898 - 1984) (married name Mitrany) 1930s Acclaimed painter and author of two novels of village life, Market Town (1931) and The Dove and Roebuck (1932). She also published one volume of poetry with the Hogarth Press in 1923. She was married to scholar and theorist David Mitrany. I wrote about The Dove and Roebuck and gave a glimpse of two of her paintings (which I liked much better than the novel) here.

LIND, MARIE JEANNE (dates unknown) 1940s Untraced author of a single book, Patsy (1940), partly set in a girls' school, though focused more on outlandish adventures outside of school.

LINDA, CORA (12 Aug 1885 – 1 Oct 1981) (pseudonym of Coralie Marie Plummer, possibly née Linder) 1920s – 1960s Wife of crime novelist T. Arthur Plummer and mother of romance novelist Clare EMSLEY. Author of numerous romances, many of them published as inexpensive "pocket" or "dime" novels. Titles include The Woman Hater (1925), A Woman Cheated (1930), Her Broken Plaything (1931), The Man With Two Brides (1933), A Wife in Exile (1934), No Child of Their Own (1941), and Why She Wouldn't Marry (1948). Steve at Bear Alley shared his research on her here and her daughter here.

LINDEN, JANE (1920 - ????) (pseudonym of Hilda Jane Snartt, married name Domville) 1940s Author of three novels—This Inconstancy (1946), Rainbows Don’t Last (1946), and Tomorrow Has a Dawn (1948), about which little is known. She and her husband may have emigrated to Canada, as it's known that he died in British Columbia in 1982, but no trace of her later life has been unearthed. She is not to be confused with Pamela Yendys Walton, who used the name Jane Linden for a single volume of poems.

Linden, Sara           see BARTLETT, MARIE

LINDSAY, KATHLEEN [MARY] (1903 - 1973) (aka Mary Richmond, aka Molly Waring, aka Betty Manners, aka Elizabeth Fenton, aka Mary Faulkner, aka Jane Darnley, aka Margaret Cameron, aka Hugh Desmond, aka Nigel MacKenzie) 1920s – 1970s Hugely prolific author who appeared in a 1980s edition of the Guiness Book of World Records for the largest number of novels by a single author, Guiness crediting her with a total of 904. She wrote under numerous pseudonyms, and her work includes historical and romantic fiction as well as mysteries. As Hugh Desmond, she published around 30 mysteries featuring Scotland Yard detective Alas Fraser, as well as additional mysteries and thrillers. Those titles include The Hand of Vengeance (1945), Death Walks in Scarlet (1948), The Death Parade (1954), Lady, Where Are You? (1957), The Case of the Blue Orchid (1961), Bodies in a Cupboard (1963), Murder Strikes at Dawn (1965), and Murder on the Moor (1967).

Lindsey, Olive           see GROOM, OLIVE L[ILIAN].

LINFORD, MADELINE [ALBERTA] (1895 – 16 Jun 1975) 1920s Novelist and editor of the Guardian women’s page for many years after it began in 1922, where her contributors included Vera BBRITTAIN, Leonora EYLES, Winifred HOLTBY and Evelyn SHARP. Author of five novels. Bookman summed up Broken Bridges (1923): "Shows the heroine standing with reluctant feet where the world and convent meet." The others are The Roadside Fire (1924), A Home and Children (1926), Bread and Honey (1928), and Out of the Window (1930). She also published a biography of Mary Wollstonecraft (1924).

LING, SHEILAH [MARY FRANCES] WARD (27 Feb 1928 – 20 Jul 1997) (née Ward) 1960s, 1980s Best known for her late girls' school story, Piggy (1980), set in a convent school, and a subsequent work of children's fiction, Final Set (1981), she also co-authored an earlier children's title, Angela Has Wings (1960), with her husband, boys' writer Peter Ling, which qualifies her for this list. In the 1990s she published several volumes of religious non-fiction.

LION, KATHLEEN CRIGHTON (1881 – 27 May 1957) (née Symington, later married name Tomlinson) 1920s Wife of actor Leon Marks Lion, and author of one play, The Wiles of the Widow: A Yorkshire Comedy in One Act (1911), and one novel, The Ghost Moth (1923).

Lipson, Edna           see CHARLES, GERDA

LITTLE, MAUDE [AMELIA] (1886 - 1956) (married name Deuchar, aka Herbert Tremaine) 1910s – 1920s Poet, playwright, and novelist under her own name and her pseudonym. She published nine novels in all—At the Sign of the Burning Bush (1910), A Woman on the Threshold (1911), The Children's Bread (1912), Those Who Declined (1915), The Rose-Coloured Room (1915), The Feet of the Young Men (1917), about WWI, Two Months (1919), The Tribal God (1921), and Bricks and Mortals (1924). Her WWI play The Handmaidens of Death (1919) was revived in recent years by the Southwark Playhouse in London.

LITVINOV, IVY [THÉRÈSE] (4 Jun 1889 – 14 Apr 1977) (née Low, aka Ivy Low) 1910s, 1930s, 1970s Daughter of Alice HERBERT. Novelist and translator who lived in Russia and the Soviet Union for most of her adult life. She published three novels in all. The first two, Growing Pains (1913) and The Questing Beast (1914), published under her maiden name, were autobiographical, the first about her girlhood, the second about a sexually-liberated Jewish woman writer. She remains best known, however, for her one mystery novel, His Master's Voice (1930), which vividly evokes the Moscow of the 1920s, where she lived with her Russian husband and their children. Much later, she published a story collection, She Knew She Was Right (1971). Both of the latter books were reprinted by Virago in the 1980s. She was also a translator from Russian to English for many years, sometimes collaborating with her daughter Tatiana. She only moved back to England in 1972.

LIVESAY, JESSIE E[LIZABETH]. (c1874 - 1938) (née Chalmers) 1900s – 1910s Author of four novels. The Shade of the Acacia (1907), set in the realm of foxhunting, deals with a man’s love for his best friend’s wife. The others are The Little Tin Gods (1901), Sons of the Blood (1910), and Sink Red Sun (1914).

LIVINGSTON, MARJORIE (1893 - ????) (née Prout, aka Mark Vinton) 1930s – 1940s Author of eight novels, many of them with fantasy or supernatural themes. Best known for her "Karmic Destiny" sequence—Island Sonata (1944), Muted Strings (1946) and Delphic Echo (1948)—which deals with Atlantis and reincarnation. Her other novels are The Future of Mr. Purdew (1936), about the protagonist's afterlife, The Key of the Castle (1937), The Loquacious Vessel (1938, as Mark Vinton), A Market for Idols (1939), and Moloch (1942).

Lloyd, Joanna           see COGGIN, JOAN

LLOYD, MARJORIE (4 Sept 1909 – 9 Feb 2001) 1950s – 1970s Children's author known for her Fell Farm series, set in the Lake District (and apparently based on High Arnside Farm, which now rents holiday cottages), comprised of Fell Farm Holiday (1951), Fell Farm for Christmas (1954), and Fell Farm Campers (1960). She published one girls' school story, One Summer Term (1959). Her other five titles are The Farm in Mallerstang (1956), The Family at Foxy Beck (1967), Patch the Puppy (1970), River Trail (1970), and Fell Trek (1973).

LOCHERBIE-CAMERON, [MABEL] MARGARET (15 Jun 1902 - 1973) (née Goff) 1940s – 1950s Author of six girls' stories, some set in schools but most focused on mystery elements. Titles are Nicolette Detects (1949), Two and a Treasure Hunt (1950), Will Madam Step This Way? (1951), Nurse Kathleen: A Romance of Hospital Life (1952), Nicolette Finds Her (1953), and A Lion Among Ladies (1955). Nicolette Detects, in the words of Sims and Clare, "uses the dregs of Second World War spy paranoia" in its tale of evil Nazis infiltrating a school. She was going by "Locherbie-Goff" even before her marriage to one Alexander Cameron, but the origins of the "Locherbie" are unclear.

LOCHHEAD, MARION CLELAND (19 Apr 1902 – Jan 1985) 1930s Children's author, historian, biographer, poet, and author of five novels and one story collection in the 1930s. The collection, Highland Scene (1939), is described as "romantic tales of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland." Her novels are Anne Dalrymple (1934), Cloaked in Scarlet (1935), Adrian Was a Priest (1936), Island Destiny (1936), and The Dancing Flower (1938). After the 1930s, she focused primarily on histories, such as The Scots Household in the Eighteenth Century (1948) and A Lamp Was Lit: The Girls' Guildry Through Fifty Years (1949), and on collected legends and tales for children.

LOCKE, JANE (dates unknown) 1930s Journalist and author of a single novel, Nothing Ever Happens (1938), which focuses on office life, and many dozens of short stories, most published by the Evening News, but none of which seem to have been collected in book form.

LOCKHART, LEONORA [CHARLOTTE MAUDE] (1881 – 14 Oct 1974) (née Hutchason) 1920s Author of a single novel, Fire of Life: A Domestic Chronicle (1924), as well as various introductory reading and basic English guides.

LOCKWOOD, VERE (VERA) [IRENE] (1906 - ?1968) 1920s – 1940s Author of eighteen novels which appear to be adventures or thrillers set in exotic locales, including Ramazan, the Rajah (1929), Claws of Africa (1930), London Lights (1932), A Persian Carpet (1933), Slave Market (1935), Forbidden Barter (1938), Orient Pearls (1939), Flaming Lanterns (1940), Passionate Pilgrimage (1943), and Veiled Wife (1945).

LODGE, GRACE [BEATRICE] (6 Apr 1893 – 22 May 1975) (married name Clifton-Shelton) 1940s – 1950s Illustrator (including for several Enid BLYTON books) and children's author. Titles include Three Friends and Chip (1944), Lucy's Adventure (1945), Puddledock Farm (1947), The Hole in the Hedge (1948), The Marsh Princess (1949), and Misty and the Magic Necklace (1954).

LODGE, M[ARGARET]. B[EATRICE]. (8 Oct 1888 - ????) 1920s – 1930s Daughter of historian Sir Richard Lodge. Author of one school story, Felicity at Fairliholm (1933), and two other children's books, A Fairy To Stay (1928) and The Wishing Wood (1930), as well as a biography of her father (1946).

LOFTS, NORAH [ETHEL] (27 Aug 1904 – 10 Sept 1983) (née Robinson, later married name Jorisch, aka Peter Curtis, Juliet Astley) 1930s – 1980s Author of more than 50 novels, most of them historical in theme. Her "Suffolk Trilogy," comprised of The Town House (1959), The House at Old Vine (1961), and The House at Sunset (1962), focuses on a single house and its inhabitants across 500 years. Silver Nutmeg (1947) is set during the 17th century spice trade, and The Lute Player (1951) is about Richard I. Under her Peter Curtis pseudonym, she published four crime thrillers—Dead March in Three Keys (1940), You're Best Alone (1943), Lady Living Alone (1945), and The Devil's Own (1960). Among her other titles were I Met a Gypsy (1935), The Road to Revelation (1941), Jassy (1945), Bless This House (1954), Scent of Cloves (1957), How Far to Bethlehem? (1965), Lovers All Untrue (1970), Walk Into My Parlour (1975), Gad's Hall (1977), and Pargeters (1984). Several of her books, including Jassy, You're Best Alone, and The Devil's Own, were turned into films. I wrote about The Brittle Glass (1942) here.

Logan, Agnes           see ADAMS, AGNES

Lombard, Nap           see JOHNSON, PAMELA HANSFORD

LOMOND, ELIZABETH (dates unknown) (pseudonym of Leonora Eyles???) 1930s Author of one novel, I Have Been Young (1932). Contemporary critics thought Lomond was an established novelist’s pseudonym, and comparing the novel’s autobiographical content with what I know of the writers on my list, the writer is almost certainly Leonora EYLES.

LONDON, PHYLLIS (dates unknown) 1930s Untraced author of a single title for girls, The Secrets of Devon Castle (1931), comprised of three stories, one of them school-related.

Long, William Stuart           see FINLAY, VIOLET VIVIAN

LONGFORD, CHRISTINE (1900 - 1980) (née Trew) 1930s Novelist and playwright. Author of four comic novels—Making Conversation (1931, reprinted by Persephone), Country Places (1932), Jiggins of Jigginstown (1933), and Printed Cotton (1935). After the mid-1930s she devoted herself to a successful career as a playwright. There's a thorough listing of her plays here. She later wrote a memoir which remains unpublished.

LONSDALE, BERTHA (11 Jan 1910 - 1977) 1950s BBC writer and broadcaster and author of three children's titles—The Sanfields at Rockybeck (1951), Molly Hilton, Library Assistant (1954), and Molly Qualifies as a Librarian (1958), the latter two utilizing her early experiences as a librarian. For the BBC, she adapted children's titles including some by Violet NEEDHAM and Margot PARDOE. She reportedly worked on an additional book, The Sanfields Keep a Secret, a sequel to her debut, but it was never published. She lived in Yorkshire.

Lorac, ECR           see RIVETT, EDITH CAROLINE

LORD, DOREEN MILDRED DOUGLAS (25 Sept 1904 – 6 May 1992) (aka Doreen Ireland, aka Doris Canham) 1920s – 1930s Author of seven girls' school stories (some under each pseudonym)—Barbara—Called Binkie (1935), The Misfit (1936), Jill of Gateway School (1938), Doreen Douglas, Schoolgirl (1935), Lynette of Carisgate (1937), Joan at Seascale (1938), and Margery the Mystery (1938). She also published several other works for children.

LORIMER, NORMA [OCTAVIA] (1864 – 14 Feb 1948) 1890s – 1930s Born in Scotland and raised on the Isle of Man, where two of her novels—Mirry-Ann (1900) and The Pagan Woman (1907)—are set, she also wrote a series of fictional(?) travel narratives, such as By the Waters of Italy (1910) and By the Waters of Africa (1917). Other fiction includes A Sweet Disorder (1896), Catherine Sterling (1903), apparently set in Japan, A Wife Out of Egypt (1913), The God's Carnival (1916), set in Italy, The Path of Love (1921), The White Sanctuary (1924), Moslem Jane (1929), and The Story of Isobel Lennox (1935).

LORING, ELISABETH ANN (12 May 1904 - 1977) 1930s Editor, under the name Elizabeth Ann, of the Sunday Dispatch and Modern Weekly "Woman's Page," (see here for more on that side of her career), Loring also published three novels—Ladies' Paradise (1933), Night After Bond Street (1936), and Designs by Jo (1936).

Lorraine, Anne           see CHISHOLM, LILIAN MARY

Lorrimer, Claire           see ROBINS, PATRICIA [DENISE]

Lourie, Helen           see STORR, CATHERINE

LOVE, SUSAN (dates unknown) 1920s Untraced author of two short romances, The Golden Chance (1923) and Fighting Love (1924).

LOVELL, DOROTHY ANN (?1880 - ?1952) (uncertain identification) 1930s – 1950s Children's author whose books were apparently quite popular, though some seem to be for younger children. Titles include The Strange Adventures of Emma (1941), In the Land of the Thinsies (1944), about a girl who slips through an escalator to a strange flat land, and Shadows on the Stairs (1946).

LOW, ALICE ARMSTRONG (1885 - 1957) (née Grant, aka Mrs. Cranston Low) 1930s Scottish author of one novel, Langshaws (1934).

Low, Ivy           see LITVINOV, IVY

LOWNDES, MARIE [ADELAIDE ELIZABETH RENÉE JULIA] BELLOC (5 Aug 1868 – 14 Nov 1947) (aka Philip Curtin) 1900s – 1940s Sister of Hilaire Belloc. Biographer, memoirist, and author of dozens of novels. Starting out as a journalist, Lowndes became best known for her romantic and mystery tales. Her most famous work is probably The Lodger (1913), about a couple who come to suspect that their lodger may be Jack the Ripper, which became a bestseller and was later made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock. Among her other mysteries and thrillers are The Chink in the Armour (1912), The Terriford Mystery (1924), Thou Shalt Not Kill (1927), The Chianti Flask (1934), and Motive (1938). Lowndes' personal life sounds almost as interesting as her fiction—socializing as a girl with Constance and Oscar Wilde, maintaining friendships with the likes of Henry James, Rhoda BROUGHTON, and Margot AAQUITH, being president of the Women Writers' Suffrage League, and helping young writers including Graham Greene, Margaret KENNEDY, and E. M. DELAFIELD. The ODNB includes the tidbit that Ernest Hemingway became a fan of Lowndes' work after a recommendation from Gertrude Stein. Late in life she published four bestselling memoirs—I, Too, Have Lived in Arcadia (1941), Where Love and Friendship Dwelt (1943), The Merry Wives of Westminster (1946), and A Passing World (1948).

LOWRY, [IRENE FRANCES] BRIDGET (21 Aug 1896 - 1982) (née Pridden) 1930s Author of five novels—Burden's End (1930), The Losers (1932), A Stone for Sharpening (1934), I Carry the Wood (1939), and To-Morrow's Giants (1933), the last of which is about a woman recovering from tragedy in an English village.

LOY, MINA [GERTRUDE] (27 Dec 1882 – 25 Sept 1966) (formerly Lowy, married names Haweis and Lloyd) 1930s – 1940s Though primarily known as a major modernist poet, moving in the same Paris circles as James Joyce and Gertrude Stein, Loy did write a single novel, Insel, in the 1930s and 1940s, which was only published in 1991.

LUCAS, AUDREY (1898 - 1974) (married names Scott and [?]Clarke-Smith) 1930s Daughter of author E. V. Lucas and perhaps an inspiration for Evelyn Waugh (see here). She published four novels—Double Turn (1935), Friendly Relations (1936), Life Class (1937), and Old Motley (1938)—as well as a biography of her father, E. V. Lucas: A Portrait (1939). She seems to have been going by Clarke-Smith in 1943, but a marriage record has not been located and her presumed husband was remarried in 1946.

LUCAS, BARBARA (9 Oct 1911 – 8 Apr 2009) (married name Wall, aka Barbara Wall) 1930s – 1970s Mother of author Bernardine Bishop and author of at least nine novels, including Stars Were Born (1934), The Trembling of the Sea (1936), which deals with British communism, What Can We Do? (1937), And Was Crucified (1939), Anna Collett (1946), Growing Up (1956), Prelude to a Wedding (1964), More Ado About Nothing (1969), and Widows and Widowers (1979). She also published, under her married name, a critical work, The Narrator's Voice: The Dilemma of Children's Literature (1991), and a biography of Australian novelist Matilda Jane Evans (1994).

LUNT, ALICE (5 Sept 1919 – 12 Apr 1973) 1950s – 1960s Novelist and children's writer. Author of three school-related stories—Secret Stepmother (1959), Jeanette's First Term (1960), and Jeanette in the Summer Term (1962)—based, according to Sims and Clare, on her own experiences teaching in a secondary modern school. She published two more children's titles—Eileen of Redstone Farm (1964) and Mystery at Redstone Farm (1970)—and at least one earlier adult novel, Tomorrow the Harvest (1955), based on her wartime experiences in the Land Army. She was a close friend of Mabel Esther ALLAN.

Lurgan, Lester           see WYNNE, MAY

LUTYENS, [EDITH PENELOPE] MARY (31 Jul 1908 – 9 Apr 1999) (married names Sewell and Links, aka Esther Wyndham) 1930s – 1970s Daughter of architect Sir Edwin Lutyens and niece of Mary Constance Lutyens, later Mrs. George WEMYSS. Author of biographies and more than two dozen novels, including ten pseudonymous romances for Mills & Boon. Titles include Perchance to Dream (1935), Rose and Thorn (1936), Family Colouring (1940), Julie and the Narrow Valley (1947), Master of the Manor (1953), Once You Have Found Him (1954), Meeting in Venice (1956), and Cleo (1973). Her biographies include Millais and the Ruskins (1967) and a 3-volume bio of Krishnamurti (1983-90). Her memoir is To Be Young (1959).

Lyall, David           see SWAN, ANNIE SHEPHERD

LYNCH, PATRICIA [NORA] (4 Jun 1894 – 1 Sept 1972) (married name Fox) 1920s – 1960s Author of nearly 50 children's titles. She had also been a journalist, and covered the 1916 Easter rising in Ireland. She is best known for The Turf-Cutter's Donkey (1935) and its several sequels, and for her Brogeen series, both of which contain fantasy elements, some drawn from Ireland's myths and legends. Other titles are The Green Dragon (1925), The Cobbler's Apprentice (1930), The Grey Goose of Kilnevin (1939), The Mad O'Haras (1948), The Bookshop on the Quay (1956), about a country boy learning bookselling in Dublin, The Stone House at Kilgobbin (1959), The Golden Caddy (1962), and The Kerry Caravan (1967).

LYND, SYLVIA (1888 – 21 Feb 1952) 1910s – 1920s Poet, critic for Time and Tide, and author of two novels, The Chorus: A Tale of Love and Folly (1915) and The Swallow Dive (1921), as well as a collection, The Mulberry Bush and Other Stories (1925).

LYON, ELINOR (17 Aug 1921 – 28 May 2008) (married name Wright) 1940s – 1970s Author of more than 20 children’s books, many about the adventures of a group of children in western Scotland, which she reportedly began writing in reaction to Arthur Ransome's books, in which the children were unrealistically good at everything they attempted. Titles include Hilary's Island (1949), The House in Hiding (1950), We Daren't Go a-Hunting (1951), Run Away Home (1953), Sea Treasure (1955), Daughters of Aradale (1957), Cathie Runs Wild (1960), Green Grow the Rushes (1964), The Day That Got Lost (1968), The Wishing Pool (1970), and The Floodmakers (1976). Fidra Books reprinted several of her books, and also released her previously unpublished The Shores of Darkness (2009).

LYON, LILLIAN BOWES (1895 – 25 Jul 1949) (aka D. J. Cotman) 1920s – 1930s A popular poet in her day, Lyon wrote in part about her disabilities as a result of illness and injuries from the Blitz (a bus she was on was caught in a bomb blast and her leg severely injured, finally having to be amputated just before the end of the war, and she was further crippled by both diabetes and arthritis). She also worked with Anna Freud caring for children traumatized by war. Lyon wrote two novels, The Buried Stream (1929) and, under her pseudonym, The Spreading Tree (1931).