British & Irish Women Writers of Fiction 1910-1960 (Ma)

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

INTRODUCTION
A	BA–BH	BI-BO	BR-BY	CA-CLA
CLE-CU	D	E-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 544 pages! 

BRITISH & IRISH WOMEN WRITERS OF FICTION 1910-1960 (PDF) 

[Current total: 2,391 writers] 

UPDATED 2/29/2024

MACALPINE, MARGARET [MACFARLANE] HESKETH (22 Oct 1907 – 3 Sept 1995) (née Murray, aka Ann Carmichael) 1950s – 1960s Author of three children's books under her own name—The Hand in the Bag (1959), The Black Gull of Corrie Lochan (1964), and Anra the Storm Child (1965). She seems to have also collaborated, as Ann Carmichael, on a version of the Swiss Family Robinson in 1973.

Macandrew, Alexis           see CARROLL, KAY

MACARDLE, DOROTHY (DORTHEA) [MARGUERITA CALLAN] (7 Mar 1899 – 23 Dec 1958) 1920s, 1940s – 1950s Best known for her much-cited history The Irish Republic (1937), Macardle also wrote numerous plays for Dublin’s Abbey Theatre, as well as four novels. Her most famous novel was her first, Uneasy Freehold (1941, aka The Uninvited), about a writer who buys a haunted house in Devon. According to the St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost, and Gothic Writers, "The unashamedly excessive sentimentality of the story helped establish a cinematic tradition that was to be carried forward by such movies as The Ghost and Mrs. Muir [based on a novel by R. A. DICK] and Portrait of Jennie." The book was a bestseller in the U.S. and was filmed in 1944 with Ray Milland. Her next novel, The Seed Was Kind (1944), was a realistic tale set in Switzerland, but her two later novels attempted unsuccessfully to recapture the success of her debut—Fantastic Summer (1946, aka The Unforeseen) deals with ESP, while Dark Enchantment (1953) is about an accused witch in a Swiss village. Macardle had been involved in the Irish Civil War, and her experiences inform her early story collection Earthbound: Nine Stories of Ireland (1924). During the war, she worked with the League of Nations in Geneva, and later she worked with refugees, especially children, which led her to publish Children of Europe: A Study of the Children of Liberated Countries (1949). There's an interesting article about Macardle and her work here. Tramp Press has now reissued The Uninvited and The Unforeseen in paperback and e-book.

MACAULAY, H. F. (dates unknown) 1930s Author of a single novel, Barry of Ours (1930), about an Army doctor covering up his first wife’s intrigues and, after her death, marrying another woman to protect her reputation. Reviews of the book mention that the author is a grand-niece of Thomas Macaulay and a cousin of Maud DIVER and Rose MACAULAY. It might be possible to identify her by tracing the ancestors of Macaulay’s eight siblings, if anyone would like to volunteer…

MACAULAY, [EMILIE] ROSE (1 Aug 1881 – 30 Oct 1958) 1900s – 1950s Travel writer, essayist, critic, and author of two dozen novels. She is most famous for her final novel, The Towers of Trebizond (1956), about quirky Brits travelling in the rougher parts of Turkey, with its famous opening line, "'Take my camel, dear,' said my aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass," which concisely reflects the novel’s concerns with eccentricity, culture shock, and religious conflict and doubt. She has the distinction of having written notable novels about both World Wars: Noncombatants and Others (1916) was her acclaimed pacifist novel during World War I, and The World My Wilderness (1950) focuses on post-World War II youth, in the form of Barbary, a girl who has spent much of her youth with the French resistance guerillas and must now adapt to normal life among the bombed-out ruins of London—I wrote about it here. Her short story "Miss Anstruther's Letters" (1942) deals with Macaulay's own experience of being bombed out during World War II and her loss of a life's collection of letters, books and papers. Her debut was Abbots Verney (1906), but Potterism (1920) was her first bestseller (and is mentioned in Vera BRITTAIN's Testament of Youth). What Not: A Prophetic Comedy (1919) was a satire based in part on her own experiences as a civil servant during World War I, Dangerous Ages (1921) won the Femina Vie Heureuse Prize, and Crewe Train (1926), with its themes of freedom vs. social niceties, may be seen as a precursor of The World My Wilderness. Other fiction includes The Lee Shore (1913), Told by an Idiot (1923), Orphan Island (1924), Staying With Relations (1930), They Were Defeated (1932), and I Would Be Private (1937). She also published travel books, including They Went to Portugal (1946), Fabled Shore: From the Pyrenees to Portugal (1949), and The Pleasure of Ruins (1954). After her death, several volumes of her letters were published, including many concerning her religious conversion to Catholicism, in the volumes Letters to a Friend (1961), Last Letters to a Friend (1962), and Letters to a Sister (1964).

MACDONALD, ANNE (1870 – 9 Apr 1958) 1920s – 1930s Author of four school stories—Bud and Adventure (1926), Dimity Dand (1928), Jill's Curmudgeon (1932), and Lilt from the Laurels (1934)—as well as inspirational poetry and other fiction, some possibly for adults, such as A Pocketful of Silver (1927) and The Deceiving Mirror (1935).

MACFARLANE, RITA (MARGUERITE) [YSABEL MARIA] (1892 – Oct 1944) (née Lindley-Lovel, earlier married name Blofield) 1920s Author of three novels with South African settings. The Blossoming Hill (1926) was described as a “remarkable pen picture … of the life of British settlers in the remoter districts of Africa.” Fruits of the Earth (1927) is about farm life, and was also singled out for praise of its portrayal of “the lonely, yet happy, conditions in which men and women work on the land in our South African Dominion.” And in Desire of Youth (1928), “Felicia and her brother Dick are adopted by their aunt, Cordelia Carr, a woman farmer, and through their eyes, we see pictures not only of the simple, happy social doings of a pastoral people, but of a country as appealing in most senses as any on earth.”

MACGIBBON, JEAN (25 Jan 1913 – 29 Oct 2002) (née Howard, aka Jean Howard) 1940s, 1960s – 1970s Author of one highly-acclaimed novel for adults, When the Weather's Changing (1945, published under her maiden name), an impressionistic account of the events of a farmer's wife's summer, which John Bayley, in her Guardian obituary, called "a pioneering book, which assimilated, with great originality, a number of fictional genres—memoir, reportage, stream of consciousness—and used them all to maximum effect." She then suffered a nervous breakdown and thereafter turned mainly to children's fiction. Titles include Peter's Private Army (1960), Pam Plays Doubles (1962), a school story, The Tall Ship (1967), The Spy in Dolor Hugo (1973), and After the Raft Race (1976). She wrote a memoir, I Meant to Marry Him (1984), which Bayley called a masterpiece, and—at over 80 years of age—There's the Lighthouse (1997), a well-received biography of Virginia WOOLF's brother, Adrian Stephen,

MACGILL, MARGARET [CATHERINE] (31 Oct 1887 - 1966) (née Gibbons, aka Margaret Gibbons, aka Mrs. Patrick MacGill) 1910s – 1930s Author of at least twenty romance novels, including The Rose of Glenconnel (1916), The Bartered Bride (1920), Molly of the Lone Pine (1922), Love's Defiance (1926), Dancers in the Dark (1929), Painted Butterflies (1931), and Hollywood Madness (1936).

MACGILLIVRAY, [GERTRUDE] ANNE (1882 – 8 Jul 1965) (née Hall) 1950s – 1960s Author of four romantic novels—Isle of Youth (1957), The Pool of Light (1960), Stairway to Happiness (1962), The Deep Intent (1964). John Herrington was able to identify her as the Yorkshire-born wife of Angus MacGillivray, head of the MacGillivray clan. They lived in Crail, Fife. She appears to have begun writing only in her seventies.

MACINNES, HELEN [CLARK] (7 Oct 1907 – 30 Sept 1985) (married name Highet) 1940s – 1980s Bestselling Scottish author of more than 20 spy novels, often dealing with individuals fighting vast forces of darkness—Nazis, Communists, or terrorists, depending on their locale and time period. MacInnes is particularly known for her vivid and detailed portrayals of a wide array of international settings. Her debut, Above Suspicion (1941), was inspired by a visit to prewar Nazi Germany, and Assignment in Brittany (1942) and While Still We Live (1944) make use of the resistance movements in France and Poland—the latter so realistically that Washington apparently asked for her sources. Others include Horizon (1945), Neither Five Nor Three (1951), Pray for a Brave Heart (1955), Decision at Delphi (1960), The Salzburg Connection (1968), and Ride a Pale Horse (1984).  She also published several novels focused on romance or humor rather than intrigue. Friends and Lovers (1947) is a partially-autobiographical romantic novel, Rest and Be Thankful (1949) is a comedy about an author adjusting to life on a Wyoming dude ranch, and Home Is the Hunter (1964) was described by Contemporary Popular Writers as "a comic modernization of Ulysses' return from the Trojan War, with his activities described as an ancient resistance movement."

MACK, D. R. (13 Jul 1887 – 18 Jan 1973) (pseudonym of Mary [Elizabeth Haddon] Owen, married name Mackie) 1910s Author of a single title—Betty Brooke at School: A Tale for Girls and Old Girls (1910)—which, according to Sims and Clare, attempted a realistic portrayal of school life and was aimed as much at adults as schoolgirls.

Mack, Marjorie           see DIXON, MARJORIE [NELLIE]

MACKENZIE, AGNES MURE (9 Apr 1891 – 26 Feb 1955) 1920s – 1930s, 1950s Critic, historian, and novelist. Best known as a major author of Scottish history and criticism, Mackenzie also wrote nine novels, most historical, including Without Conditions (1923), The Half Loaf (1925), The Quiet Lady (1926), Lost Kinnellan (1927), Keith of Kinnellan (1930), Cypress in Moonlight (1931), Between Sun and Moon (1932), Single Combat (1934), and Apprentice Majesty (1950).

MACKENZIE, FAITH COMPTON (1878 – 9 Jul 1960) (née Stone) 1950s Wife of novelist Compton Mackenzie. Biographer, memoirist, and novelist. Her three volumes of memoir, As Much as I Dare (1938), More Than I Should (1940), and Always Afternoon (1943), were popular. She published a volume of stories, Mandolinata: Fourteen Stories (1931), later reissued with additional stories under the title The Angle of Error (1938), and later she published two novels, The Crooked Wall (1954) and Tatting (1957). She also published several biographies. The Compton in her name came from her husband's family, a family of actors named Mackenzie who traditionally took Compton as their stage names.

MACKENZIE, JOAN [NOBLE] (2 Dec 1905 – 1991) (married name Burnett) 1930s – 1950s Author five novels—The Homeward Tide (1935), The Deadly Game (1939), Linda Walked Alone (1944), All for the Apple (1948), and The Wayward Heart (1951). From a short review, Deadly Game is clearly a thriller, and a blurb explains that All for the Apple is "about a girl who takes up a job in a country house down in the Scottish Borders, owned by a famous and wicked surgeon."

MACKENZIE, KATHLEEN (28 Sept 1907 – 1993) (née Guy) 1940s – 1960s Biographer and author of around two dozen children's books, among them a number of pony stories, including a series featuring the Pentire children, beginning with The Four Pentires and Jimmy (1947), as well as individual stories including Minda (1953), Jumping Jan (1955), Nancy and the Carrs (1958), Prize Pony (1959), and The Pageant (1964) (see here for further details). A later trio of books—The Starke Sisters (1963), Charlotte (1964), and Kelford Dig (1966)—are about girls being raised by their very Edwardian grandmother—I reviewed them here. Mackenzie appears on the 1939 England & Wales Register as an actress, which may explain the subject of her single biography, The Great Sarah: The Life of Mrs Siddons (1968).

MacKenzie, Nigel           see LINDSAY, KATHLEEN

MACKENZIE, [HARRIET JESSIE] ORGILL (1893 - 1974) (née Cogie) 1930s Author of two works of fiction—a collection, Poems and Stories (1930, published in the U.S. as Whitegates: Stories and Poems, 1931) and a novel, The Crooked Laburnum (1932). The cover of Whitegates notes that the author has been compared to the likes of Emily Brontë, Katherine Mansfield, and Rose MACAULAY. H. E. Bates, in a review in Everyman, said that Crooked Laburnum, the story of "a Scots blacksmith and his sick wife and two daughters," was bleak but possessed "the cold sharp beauty of a northern spring and the austere strength of northern hills." In the 1940s, Mackenzie was working as a kindergarten teacher.

MACKENZIE-GRIEVE, AVERIL [SALMOND] (3 Apr 1903 – 28 Feb 1983) (married names Le Gros Clark and Keevil) 1940s Historian, biographer, travel writer, and author of four novels. An ad describes the first, Sacrifice to Mars (1940), as a "novel of Nazi Germany from the inside!" A Gibbet for Myself (1941) is set in Italy just before the rise of Mussolini, and The Brood of Time (1949) is about its heroine's girlhood in an Edwardian country house. I could find no details about her fourth novel, The Waterfall (1950). She published two travel books, A Race of Green Ginger (1959), about China, and Aspects of Elba (1964). Her non-fiction includes The Last Years of the English Slave Trade: Liverpool, 1750-1807 (1941), The Great Accomplishment (1953), a collection of short biographies of prominent women, Clara Novello, 1818-1908 (1955), and a memoir, Time and Chance (1970).

MACKINDER, DOROTHY [?KATE] (?1902 - ?1975) (married name Donkin, but rest of identification is uncertain, possibly née Butler) 1930s – 1950s Author of more than ten novels, several set in French villages, which seem to wrestle wth themes of Christianity and piety. If the Kirkus review of her first, The Violent Take It by Storm (1939), is any indication, the emotional content is intense: "So dramatic a novel no one will mind its having a moral! Extremes are the order of the day, great goodness triumphs over sin, piety over passion, purity over pomposity. The little dancer of the attic becomes the great actress of the day, the toast of society and the instrument of God to convert the vain monsignore and make him again the sainted priest who had tried to save her twenty years before." The others are Captain Cerise (1940), Brief Was the Laurel (1945), Silver Fountains (1946), The Wandering Osprey (1947), The Sable Smoke (1948), A Forest of Feathers (1950), The Wooden Statue (1951), The Miracle of Lemaire (1952), Summer Like a Stranger (1955), and Life's Own Music (1958).

MACKINLAY, LEILA [ANTOINETTE STERLING] (5 Sept 1910 – 13 Apr 1996) (aka Brenda Grey) 1930s – 1970s Author of nearly 90 romances, including Little Mountebank (1930), Modern Micawbers (1933), Young Man's Slave (1936), Caretaker Within (1938), Time on Her Hands (1942), Lady of the Torch (1944), Spider Dance (1950), Cuckoo Cottage (1953), She Moved to Music (1956), Love on a Shoestring (1958), Practice for Sale (1964), Mists of the Moor (1967), Mixed Singles (1971), and The Uphill Path (1979).

MACKINTOSH, MABEL (dates unknown) 1890s - 1930 Untraced author of more than a dozen volumes of fiction for children and, possibly, for adults. A couple of her titles certainly sound like school stories, such as The Boys of All Saints (1904) and The Girls of St. Olave's (1909). Others include Dust, Ho!, or, Rescued from a Rubbish Heap (1891), Madcap Marigold (1898), Betty's Bridesmaids, or, For Want of a Word (1913), and Somebody's Darling (1928).

MACKWORTH, CECILY [JOAN] (15 Aug 1911 – 22 Jul 2006) (married names Donckier de Donceel and de Chabannes la Palice) 1950s, 1990s Journalist, novelist, and critic. Author of I Came Out of France (1941), an acclaimed first-hand account of the Nazi invasion of France, which I wrote about here, and The Mouth of the Sword (1948), about the postwar Middle East. She later published two novels, Spring's Green Shadow (1952), about a woman's life in Wales and then Paris from the early to mid-20th century, and Lucy's Nose (1992), which focuses on the "Lucy R." of one of Freud's famous studies on hysteria. The Orlando Project reports that shortly after Shadow appeared she was working on a novel set in Algeria, but it was apparently never completed. Orlando also notes that she worked on her autobiography and was nearly finished at the time of her death, but it remains unpublished. She did, however, publish a travel memoir called Ends of the World (1987), and wrote several biographical and critical works on an array of subjects, including Francois Villon, Isabelle Eberhardt, and Guillaume Apollinaire.

MACLEAN, CATHERINE MACDONALD (c1891 – 9 Jan 1960) 1940s A prominent biographer of William and Dorothy Wordsworth and of William Hazlitt, Maclean also published a trio of novels about evacuees in Scotland—Seven for Cordelia (1941), Three for Cordelia (1943, published in the U.S. as The Tharrus Three), and Farewell to Tharrus (1944).

MACLEOD, ELLEN JANE (17 May 1916 - 1992) (née Anderson, aka Ella Anderson) 1950s – 1970s Novelist and author of more than 20 works for children. Born in Scotland, she emigrated to the U.S. with her family at age 9, returning to Scotland in the early 1950s, where she began to write after an automobile accident ended early efforts to be a dancer. Her children's books include The Seven Wise Owls (1956), The Crooked Signpost (1957), Adventures on the Lazy "N" (1957), Mystery Gorge (1959), The Vanishing Light (1961), The Talking Mountain (1962), Stranger in the Glen (1969), The Broken Melody (1970), and Isle of Shadows (1974). She also published a romantic novel, Orchids for a Rose (1963). The Writer's Directory lists several additional titles not shown in Worldcat—From Aunt Jane, with Love (1974), Wing Home, My Heart (1975), Those Joyful Days (1976), and Another Time, Another Place (1977). These could have been self-published.

MACLEOD, JEAN SUTHERLAND (20 Jan 1908 – 20 Apr 2011) (married name Walton, aka Catherine Airlie) 1930s – 1990s Prolific author of more than 100 Mills & Boon romances, including Life for Two (1936), The Rainbow Isle (1939), The Reckless Pilgrim (1941), The Chalet in the Sun (1948), Master of Glenkeith (1955), The White Cockade (1960), The Joshua Tree (1970), Brief Enchantment (1979), Zamora (1983), and Lovesome Hill (1996).

MACLEOD, KATHLEEN MILLAR (28 Mar 1892 – 19 Jun 1964) 1920s – 1950s Scottish author of more than two dozen children’s titles, including family stories and both boys’ and girls’ school stories. Titles include The Great Plan (1925), Grafton Days: Stories of Scots Schoolboys (1932), The Luck of the Lauries (1933), Father of Five: A Tale of Scottish Home Life (1935), Brothers at the Brae House (1936), The Inconvenient Uncle (1938), Rival Schools at Marstone (1945), Dilys at Silverburn (1946), Meet the Lorimers (1950), Julia in the Sixth Form (1951), and A Cobweb in His Hair (1954).

MACLEOD, UNA (dates unknown) 1930s Untraced author of three short romances—Deceivers Ever (1936), Against All Warning (1936), and She Fooled Them All (1937).

MACMAHON, ELLA (c1857 – 10 Apr 1956) 1880s – 1940s Author of more than two dozen works of fiction, apparently specializing in what OCEF calls "adultery and marital intrigue." Titles include Heathcote (1889), Fortune's Yellow (1900), Oxendale (1905), The Court of Conscience (1908), The Straits of Poverty (1911), The Job (1914), John Fitzhenry (1920), Mercy and Truth (1923), Wind of Dawn (1927), The Rich Beggar (1945), and Diana's Destiny (1949).

MacMillan, Georgina Fitzgerald           see FITZGERALD, ENA

MACNAMARA, RACHEL SWETE (c1870 – 18 Oct 1947) 1900s – 1940s Author of more than 50 volumes of fiction, often set in her native Ireland and occasionally containing, according to OCEF, "a (comparatively) lurid frankness about sexual yearning." Titles include The Trance (1908), The Awakening (1914), Lark's Gate (1918), Jealous Gods (1921), Sweet Maureen (1922), Love's Long Lane (1925), A Fortune for Two (1928), The Dragon Tree (1930), Duet for a Trio (1933), which Norah HOULT reviewed with qualified praise, Fandango (1936), Dangerous Fortune (1940), and Witchcraft in Your Lips (1947).

MACNAUGHTON, SARAH BROOM (26 Oct 1864 – 24 Jul 1916) 1890s – 1910s Nurse, diarist, and author of more than a dozen volumes of "intelligent, humorous, mildly feminist fiction" (OCEF). Titles include Sarah Harrison (1898), The Fortune of Christina M'Nab (1901), A Lame Dog's Diary (1905), The Three Miss Graemes (1908), The Andersons (1910), and Four-Chimneys (1912). Macnaughton was a nurse during the Boer War and World War I, and was on her way to Russia where she intended to provide medical assistance when she fell ill. She returned to England, but died soon after. She wrote about her wartime experiences in A Woman's Diary of the War (1915), My War Experiences in Two Contintents (1919), and her final, unfinished memoir, My Canadian Memories (1920).

MACNICOL, CATRIONA (dates unknown) 1920s Author of a single novel, The Beautiful Moment (1929), a romantic comedy about a Scottish girl rebelling against her stodgy upbringing by accepting a governess post with a Swiss family. The name could be a pseudonym, but I haven’t come across enough detail to identify her.

MACQUOID, KATHERINE S[ARAH]. (26 Jan 1824 – 24 Jun 1917) (née Thomas) 1860s – 1910s Travel writer and author of more than 50 volumes of fiction, most romantic in theme. Some of her best-known novels are A Bad Beginning: a Story of a French Marriage (1862), Patty (1871), At the Red Glove (1885), "a romantic comedy set in a penson in Bern" (ODNB), His Heart's Desire (1903), and Captain Dallington (1907), about a highwayman. Her final novel, Molly Montague's Love Story (1911), qualifies her for this list.

MACRAE, MORAG (dates unknown) 1940s Untraced author of a single short romance, Rebel Daughter (1941).

MACRAYE, LUCY BETTY (30 Aug 1877 – 6 Dec 1952) (née Webling) 1930s Suffragist, actress, and author, at age 19, of a collection of stories and poems (1896) with her sister Peggy WEBLING, and much later of two novels, One Way Street (1933) and Centre Stage (1938), the latter at least partly influenced by her own experiences on the stage.

MACROW, BRENDA G[RACE JOAN]. (3 Jun 1916 – 1 May 2011) (née Barton, later married name Prior) 1950s Author of several non-fiction books about Scotland, verse for children, and two works of children's fiction, the fantasy-themed The Amazing Mr. Whisper (1958) and its sequel The Return of Mr. Whisper (1959), about children whose summer tutor has magical powers.

MACSORLEY, CATHERINE MARY (5 Oct 1848 – 26 Jan 1929) 1880s – 1910s Irish author of Christian-themed novels and fiction for girls, including Number One, Brighton Street, or, "When We Assemble and Meet Together" (1885), The Old House (1893), A Steep Road (1894), The Vicarage Children (1900), "Goodbye, Summer" (1906), The Rectory Family (1910), The Road Through the Bog (1923), and The Children's Plan and What Came of it (1934).

MacTaggart, Morna           see FERRARS, ELIZABETH

MACVEAN, PHYLLIS (29 Dec 1891 – 10 Sept 1967) (aka Phyllis Hambledon) 1920s – 1960s Author of more than 30 novels, including romance and mystery. Probable mysteries include Invitation to Terror (1950), I Know a Secret (1950), Keys for the Criminal (1958), Murder and Miss Ming (1959), Passports to Murder (1959), and Murder's No Picnic (1960). Among her other titles are Autumn Fires (1926), Leading Strings (1932), Hogmanay (1935), Turn Over the Page (1943), The Listening Boy (1951), Love in Fair Weather (1960), and Dear Obstacle (1962).

MADDOCKS, MARGARET [KATHLEEN] (10 Aug 1906 – 20 Oct 1993) (née Avern) 1940s – 1970s Author of nearly 20 romance and gothic novels, including Come Lasses and Lads (1944), The Quiet House (1947), A Summer Gone (1957), Larksbrook (1962), Dance Barefoot (1966), and The Moon is Square (1975). Her memoir was An Unlessoned Girl (1977).

MAGRISKA, COUNTESS HÉLÈNE (31 May 1911 - Jul 1943) (pseudonym of Enid Florence Brockies) 1930s – 1940s Author of fifteen romantic melodramas. Ten Poplars (1937) is about a young woman doctor who discovers a sort of youth serum and (not surprisingly) attracts the attention of a Hollywood star. Other titles are The Girl from Moinettes' (1936), Love in Morocco (1938), Whirled into Marriage (1938), Egyptian Love (1939), Blonde Sinner (1939), Silken Sin (1939), Black Ballerina (1940), And Then Onide Laughed (1941), Crimson Brocade (1941), The House of Caddalo (1943), Polished Jade (1943), The Devil Shed Tears (1944), Happily Ever After (1945), and The Scarlet Flame (1950). Steve at Bear Alley wrote in more detail about her here.

MAHON, HONOR (9 Jul 1889 – 6 Dec 1989) (pseudonym of Evelyn Winifred Alphega Mahon, married name Goodhart, aka Honor Urse) 1910s – 1920s Co-author, with Lionel Peel Yates, of a collection of Irish stories, By the Brown Bog (1913, as Honor Urse), and a novel, The Eclipse of James Trent, D.I. (1924), an adventure/thriller about a Detective Inspector in Ireland pulled into intrigue during the Irish Civil War.

MAIR, MARGARET [NORAH] (14 Sept 1901 – 17 Aug 1984) (aka Margaret Crompton) 1940s – 1950s Author of eight novels, likely romantic in themes—Stay With Me Always (1943), No More Good-Byes (1944), This Was My Father (1948), The Questioning Heart (1951), Bring Back Delight (1953), Let Us Be True (1954), Half Sister (1956), and Spring of Love (1956). She also published two pseudonymous biographies, Passionate Search: A Life of Charlotte Brontë (1955) and George Eliot: The Woman (1960).

MAJOLIER, CHRISTINE [RUTH] (16 Jan 1890 – 3 Jul 1969) (married name Methol) 1920s Author of a single novel, Content (1925), about which little information is available.

MALCOLM, MARGARET (dates unknown) (not to be confused with Edith Lyman Kuether, an American author who used this name for a single mystery novel) 1940s – 1980s Author of more than 90 Mills & Boon romances, including Loving Heart (1940), April's in Her Eyes (1943), April's Doubting Day (1945), Folly Hall (1947), Darkness Surrounds Me (1952), Fortune Goes Begging (1958), Scatterbrains—Student Nurse (1963), The House of Yesterday (1968), Flight to Fantasy (1976), and Eagles Fly Alone (1981).

MALET, LUCAS (4 Jun 1852 – 27 Oct 1931) (pseudonym of Mary St. Leger Harrison, née Kingsley) 1880s – 1930 Daughter of novelist Charles Kingsley. Author of more than a dozen works of fiction which sometimes courted controversy. Early work, including The Wages of Sin (1891) and The History of Sir Richard Calmady (1901), received praise from the likes of Henry James. Her 1902 conversion to Catholicism informed her later works, including the religiously-themed The Far Horizon (1906). Her most commercially successful novels were The Survivors (1923) and The Dogs of Want (1924). Other titles include Adrian Savage (1911), The Tall Villa (1920), and The Pool (1930). In 1916, Malet published The Tutor's Story, an unfinished novel by her father, written around the same time as The Water Babies, Malet having "developed the characters, disentangled the plot, and completed the story."

MALET, ORIEL (20 Jan 1923 – 14 Oct 2014) (pseudonym of Auriel Rosemary Malet Vaughan) 1940s – 1950s Author of eight novels, including Marjory Fleming (1946, reprinted by Persephone), about the child poet who died just before her ninth birthday. The others are Trust in the Springtime (1943), My Bird Sings (1945), which received the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and which I wrote a bit about here, Miss Josephine and the Colonel (1948), The Green Leaves of Summer (1950), Jemima (1953), Angel with a Sword (1955), and The Horses of the Sun (1959). Beginner's Luck (1952) is a children's title, which I discussed here. Jam Today (1957) is a memoir of her early years in Paris, while Marraine: A Portrait of My Godmother (1961) is about French actress and singer Yvonne Arnaud, and Letters from Menabilly: Portrait of a Friendship (1993) is a compilation of the letters she received from Daphne DU MAURIER, a close friend for many years.

MALIM, BARBARA (16 Jun 1893 - 1958) (married name Ashley) 1920s – 1930s Author of six novels. "To This End" (1927) seems to be a romantic tale set during the Russian revolution. Missing from Monte Carlo (1929) is an adventure set around the famous casino in Monte Carlo. Her later novels are more straightforwardly crime-themed. In Death by Misadventure (1934), the heroine sets out to solve the murder of a cousin, with the help of a retired anthropology professor. By That Sin (1935), more psychological in tone, examines the affect of an unsolved murder case on those who knew the victim. Murder on Holiday (1937) looks at a murder committed in a hotel, with all the guests falling under suspicion. And in Seven Looked On (1939), she “sets her detective a particularly difficult task. Seven famous detective writers were onlookers when a murder was committed in Brussels, and as the official verdict was death by food-poisoning, the various suspects were allowed to disperse to various parts of Europe.”

MALLESON, LUCY BEATRICE (15 Feb 1899 – 9 Dec 1973) (aka Lucy Egerton, aka Anthony Gilbert, aka J. Kilmeny Keith, aka Sylvia Denys Hooke, aka Anne Meredith) 1920s – 1970s Prolific author of mysteries under her Gilbert pseudonym, most featuring series character Arthur Crook, as well as mainstream fiction as Anne Meredith. Her other pseudonyms appeared only on a handful of early books. Her many titles include The Tragedy at Freyne (1927), The Night of the Fog (1930), Death in Fancy Dress (1933), The Musical Comedy Crime (1933), Murder by Experts (1936), Dear Dead Woman (1940), The Case of the Tea-Cosy's Aunt (1942), Something Nasty in the Woodshed (1942), The Spinster's Secret (1946), A Fig for Virtue (1951), Miss Pinnegar Disappears (1952), Death Against the Clock (1958), Ring for a Noose (1963), and Murder's a Waiting Game (1972). Mystery scholar Curtis Evans has speculated that she may have been the friend and fellow author who anonymously completed Annie HAYNES's final novel, The Crystal Beads Murder (1930).

MALLET, MAUD (19 Sept 1875 – 15 Jan 1960) (pseudonym of Maud Constance Mallett, née Forster) 1920s Author of several Mills & Boon romances, including The Love Chit (1920), The Fly in the Bottle (1920), Rose in the Bud (1921), Salome's Reputation (1922), A Perfect Little Fool (1923). It's unclear whether Fond Escapist (1944) is a later novel or a reprint.

MANLEY-TUCKER, AUDRIE [THIRZA] (24 Jun 1924 – 11 Oct 1982) (first name originally Audrey, aka Linden Howard) 1950s – 1980s Author of more than 30 romances, mostly for Mills & Boon, including Leonie (1958), Lost Melody (1959), Dark Bondage (1961), The Loved and the Cherished (1964), Love, Spread Your Wings (1967), Assistance Unlimited (1971), Every Goose a Swan (1972), The Greenwood Tree (1976), Two for Joy (1979), and Julie Barden, Doctor's Wife (1989).

Mann, Deborah           see BLOOM, URSULA

MANN, MARY E[LIZABETH]. (14 Aug 1848 – 19 May 1929) (née Rackham) 1880s – 1920s Author of several dozen novels and story collections that were well-received in her day and mostly take place in and around Shropham, which became "Dulditch" in her fiction. According to ODNB, some of her short stories "are the equal of Hardy, and yet the matter-of-factness of their rural tragedies differs markedly from Hardy's vengeful determinism." Titles include The Parish of Hilby (1883), One Another's Burdens (1890), The Patten Experiment (1899), The Fields of Dulditch (1902), Rose at Honeypot (1906), Astray in Arcady (1910), Mrs. Day's Daughters (1913), and The Pedlar's Pack (1918). Larks Press in the U.K. reprinted several of her books in recent years.

Mannering, Julie           see BINGHAM, MADELEINE

Manners, Betty           see LINDSAY, KATHLEEN

MANNERS, EDITHA (dates unknown) 1920s – 1930s Untraced author of one full-length school story, The Girls of Form Five (1929), and at least one other story or novella included in the Bertha LEONARD-edited collection The Taming of Angela and Other Stories (1934). Sims & Clare found reference to another untraced work called The School on the Shore.

MANNIN, ETHEL [EDITH] (11 Oct 1900 – 5 Dec 1984) (married names Porteus and Reynolds) 1920s – 1970s Novelist, travel writer, and memoirist, whose writings—even her romantic novels—were often informed by her progressive social views and communist beliefs, even after she became disillusioned with the realities of communism in the Soviet Union. She considered Sounding Brass (1925) to be her best novel. Other fiction includes Pilgrims (1927), Linda Shawn (1932), about a child educated according to the theories of A. S. Neill, Love's Winnowing (1932), Rose and Sylvie (1938), Red Rose: A Novel Based on the Life of Emma Goldman (1941), The Dark Forest (1945), Late Have I Loved Thee (1948), Moroccan Mosaic (1953), Sabishisa (1961), The Lady and the Mystic (1967), The Curious Adventure of Major Fosdick (1972), and The Late Miss Guthrie (1976). She published several children's titles, including three about foreign travel—Ann and Peter in Sweden (1959), Ann and Peter in Japan (1960), and Ann and Peter in Austria (1962)—and was well known for books about her own travels, including South to Samarkand (1936), which describes her disillusionment with the Soviet Union, Jungle Journey: 7000 Miles Through India and Pakistan (1950), Land of the Crested Lion: A Journal Through Modern Burma (1955), and A Lance for the Arabs: A Middle East Journey (1963). She also published several volumes of memoirs, from Confessions and Impressions (1930) to Sunset over Dartmoor (1977).

MANNIN, PHYLLIS [CAROLINE] (29 Jun 1908 – 8 Jul 1959) (married name Walker) 1940s – 1950s Journalist and author of more than two dozen romances, including Tamed Rebel (1941), And That Same Flower (1942), Glister-Gold (1944), The Web We Weave (1946), Blow Free, West Wind (1949), Like Spring Returning (1953), Happy Captive (1955), To Light a Candle (1957), and No Tears for Tomorrow (1959).

MANNING, ADELAIDE FRANCES OKE (11 Aug 1891 – 26 Sept 1959) (aka Manning Coles, aka Francis Gaite [both with Cyril Henry Coles]) 1930s – 1960s Popular author (with Cyril Henry Coles, who was—in one of the oddest origins for a partnership in all of literature—her neighbor in Hampshire) of a humorous series of mysteries and spy novels featuring Tommy Hambledon, and later of several satirical ghost stories. In their discussion of Manning Coles, Rue Morgue Press noted of the pair's debut: "Its realistic portrayal of the real world of espionage is what makes Drink to Yesterday (1940) one of the most important books in the development of the spy novel." Subsequent Tommy Hambledon novels include Pray Silence (1940, aka A Toast for Tomorrow), Without Lawful Authority (1943), Green Hazard (1945), Diamonds to Amsterdam (1949), Night Train to Paris (1952), and Death of an Ambassador (1957). In 1954, the pair launched a series of four humorous ghost stories (published in the U.S. under the Coles name, but in the U.K., for whatever reason known only to publishers, as Francis Gaite)—Brief Candles (1954), Happy Returns (1955, aka A Family Matter), The Far Traveller (1956), and Come and Go (1958). Before her collaborations with Coles began, Manning published a single novel on her own. Half-Valdez (1939) was, according to Rue Morgue, "a fanciful tale of a hunt for lost Spanish treasure hidden in the days of the Armada in a remote outpost on the British coast."

Manning, Gloria           see BOGGS, WINIFRED

Manning, Marsha           see GRIMSTEAD, HETTIE [HARRIET]

MANNING, MARY (30 Jun 1906 – 25 Jun 1999) (married names Howe and Adams) 1930s, 1950s, 1970s Irish actress, playwright, filmmaker, critic, and drama teacher at Radcliffe (Jack Lemmon was one of her students). She published at least three darkly comic novels—Mount Venus (1938), Lovely People (1953), and her most successful, The Last Chronicles of Ballyfungus (1978). She was reportedly a childhood friend of Samuel Beckett. More information about her involvement with early films is available here.

MANNING, OLIVIA [MARY] (2 Mar 1908 – 23 Jul 1980) (married name Smith, aka O. M. Manning, aka Jacob Morrow) 1930s - 1980 Author of more than a dozen novels, of which the most famous are her two semi-autobiographical trilogies, The Balkan Trilogy—comprised of The Great Fortune (1960), The Spoilt City (1962), and Friends and Heroes (1965)—and The Levant Trilogy—comprised of The Danger Tree (1977), The Battle Lost and Won (1978), and The Sum of Things (1980). Collectively known as "Fortunes of War" after the title of their BBC dramatization, and based on the experiences of Manning and her husband, these novels follow a young married couple working for the British government as World War II repeatedly displaces them from their work and homes in such vividly-portrayed locales as Bucharest, Athens, Cairo, Alexandria, and Jerusalem. Anthony Burgess called the series "the finest fictional record of the war produced by a British writer." Her other novels include The Wind Changes (1937), set during the Irish "troubles," Artist Among the Missing (1949), about a painter scarred by his war experiences, The School for Love (1951), set in Jerusalem, The Doves of Venus (1955), which utilizes some of her experiences as a struggling young writer in London, The Play Room (1969), a controversial novel which includes themes of rape and lesbianism, and The Rain Forest (1974), set on an Indian island and dealing with a troubled marriage. Her story collection, Growing Up (1948), includes several stories written during and immediately after the war—in particular, "Twilight of the Gods," set in 1946, which evokes the exhaustion of the immediate postwar. Her Jacob Morrow pseudonym was used for four early "lurid serials" which she wrote for food money.

MANNING, ROSEMARY [JOY] (9 Dec 1911 – 15 Apr 1988) (aka Sarah Davys, aka Mary Voyle) 1950s – 1980s Teacher and headmistress for more than 30 years, novelist, and children's author. Her children's fiction includes the Susan and R. Dragon series—comprised of Green Smoke (1957), Dragon in Danger (1959), The Dragon's Quest (1961), and Dragon in the Harbour (1980)—as well as Arripay (1963), about a boy during the Hundred Years War deciding between careers as a monk or a pirate. Her adult fiction includes two novels written under her Voyle pseudonym—Remaining a Stranger (1953) and A Change of Direction (1955)—and four more under her own name—Look, Stranger (1960, aka The Shape of Innocence), The Chinese Garden (1962), Man on a Tower (1965), and Open the Door (1983). The Chinese Garden, set in a girls' boarding school, earned comparisons to Henry James and Emily Brontë.

MANNING-SANDERS, RUTH [VERNON] (21 Aug 1886 – 12 Oct 1988) (née Manning) 1920s – 1930s, 1950s – 1960s Folklorist, children's author, and author of more than a dozen novels. Most widely known for her collections of fairy tales from around the world with titles like A Book of Giants (1962) and A Book of Witches (1965). Of her early novel, Waste Corner (1927), the New York Times wrote: "The unpleasant Kneebone household consists of a silly, scolding, blowsy mother; a pleasant, dishonest father and their four children—the older two belonging to Mrs. Kneebone's first marriage. Their troubles among themselves and with their neighbors, the Jewels, are endless. With human perversity they fly into trouble and then lay it all to God." Several of her later novels seem to focus on the circus. Other titles include Hucca's Moor (1929), She Was Sophia (1932), Mermaid's Mirror (1935), Elephant: The Romance of Laura (1938), The Golden Ball (1954), Circus Boy (1960), and The Extraordinary Margaret Catchpole (1966).

MANSBRIDGE, PAMELA (30 Oct 1930 – 22 Dec 1989) (pseudonym of Pamela Mary Course, aka Lavinia Becket) 1950s – 1960s Author of more than a dozen children's titles, including a series of mysteries featuring Caroline, an aspiring detective. Titles are Family Adventure (1953), Riverside Adventure (1954), The Children in the Square (1955), A House for Five (1956), The Larks and the Linnets (1958), A Crime for Caroline (1958), Flowers from Caroline (1959), The Seventh Summer (1959), Holiday in London (1960), The Larchwood Mystery (1960), Caroline and the Auction Sale Mystery (1961), The Creek Street Jumble (1961), Newcomers at the Cray (1962), Hide and Seek! (1962), Battle Tunes at Bindleton (1964), and No Clues for Caroline (1966). She later wrote two pseudonymous historical romances—The Gentlemen in Irons (1970) and A Pawn for the Condesa (1972).

MANSFIELD, CHARLOTTE (1881 – 17 Feb 1936) (married name Raffalovich) 1900s – 1930s Author of thirteen novels which seem rooted in melodrama—Torn Lace (1904), according to OCEF, is about "an Italian prostitute who dies receiving the wound intended for the man she loves, an English painter"—as well as a well-received book about her travels in Africa, Via Rhodesia (1911). Other titles include The Girl and the Gods (1906), Red Pearls (1914), "For Satan Finds…" (1917), Strings (1920), a "horror novel about a sinister violin" (OCEF), Trample the Lilies (1926), and Youth Is Tempted (1933).

MANSFIELD, ESTRITH (10 Nov 1893 – 10 Apr 1981) (pseudonym of Edna Edith Harris) 1920s – 1930s, 1950s Author of one girls' school novel, The Mascot of the School (1935), as well as four historical novels for adults. The Flaming Flower (1927) is set in the time of Queen Anne and features cameos from the likes of Daniel Defoe and Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough. Wind-Bound (1928) is about star-crossed lovers in the time of knights and feudalism. Morning Rainbow (1928) is a romance focused on Mary, Queen of Scots. Gallows Close (1957) is set in the time of the Monmouth Rebellion.

MANTLE, WINIFRED [LANGFORD] (15 Feb 1911 – 13 Nov 1983) (aka Anne Fellowes, aka Frances Lang, aka Jane Langford) 1950s – 1980s Lecturer in French, including at St. Andrew's, and author of more than 50 historical and romantic novels. A Pride of Princesses (1961) won the Romantic Novelists Association's award for best historical novel. Other titles include Happy Is the House (1951), Haste to the Wedding (1955), The Secret Fairing (1956), Green Willow (1958), The Sun in Splendour (1962), The Leaping Lords (1963), The River Runs (1964), The Marrying Month (1965), The Malcontent (1968), The Prince's Pleasure (1974), and Fortune's Favorite (1981). She also published several children's titles, including The Hiding-Place (1962), Tinker's Castle (1963), The Chateau Holiday (1964), and Piper's Row (1968).

MANWELL, M[ARIA]. B[ARBARA]. (22 Oct 1843 – 25 Mar 1922) 1880s – 1910s Author of more than 20 children's books, including school stories for both boys and girls. Titles include Gerty's Triumph (1888), The Captain's Bunk (1898), The Girls Of Dancy Dene (1902), The Boys of Monk's Harold (1907), The Girls of St Ursula's (1912), and The Crew of the Rectory (1912).

MARC, ELIZABETH (13 Nov 1882 – 17 Sept 1964) (born Elsie Algar, married name Princess Musrat, legally changed to Mostyn, aka Princess Nusrat) 1920s – 1930s Author of around ten children's books and at least one novel for adults. Two Men's Tale (1929) is about two men with opposing personalities who are thrown together at school, then in the Arctic, and finally in Australia. She married Prince Nusrat Ali Mirza of Murshidabad, India, and her first four children's books were published under the name Princess Musrat. In 1927, they emigrated to Australia, where they changed their name and she published several more books as Elizabeth Marc, some with Australian settings.

March, Hilary           see PULVERTAFT, LALAGE

March, Jermyn           see WEBB, DOROTHY ANNA MARIA

March, Maxwell           see ALLINGHAM, MARGERY

MARCHANT, BESSIE (ELIZABETH) (12 Dec 1862 – 10 Nov 1941) (married name Comfort) 1890s – 1940s Prolific author of nearly 150 works of girls’ fiction, often featuring spunky girls who encounter adventure in exotic locales before settling into domestic bliss. Titles include The Old House by the Water (1894), The Girl Captives (1899), That Dreadful Boy! (1901), The Queen of Shindy Flat (1905), A Countess from Canada (1911), Helen of the Black Mountain (1914), A Girl Munition Worker (1916), Harriet Goes a-Roaming (1922), By Honour Bound (1925), The Two New Girls (1927), Cuckoo of the Log Raft (1931), The Homesteader Girl (1932), Lesbia's Little Blunder (1934), Waifs of Woollamoo (1938), and The Triumphs of Three (1942).

Marchant, Catherine           see COOKSON, CATHERINE

Marcus, Joanna           see ANDREWS, LUCILLA

MARGETSON, [ROSAMOND] ELISABETH [BERTRAM] (22 Aug 1898 – 9 Nov 1959) (née Hobson, other married names Ifould and Beazley, aka Rosamond Bertram) 1930s - 1960 Journalist and author of nearly three dozen romances for Ward Lock, including such titles as Poor Pagan (1936), Gay Career (1939), Serenade to a Stranger (1940), Six in Sunshine (1942), Quartette in a Flat (1947), Last Night's Kisses (1953), and Another Kind of Beauty (1960). Her full name from the 1939 England & Wales Register, her occupation as a journalist, and the dates during which she published all make it quite likely that she is also girls' author Rosamond Bertram, author of six career novels, most focused on journalism. Those titles include Ann Thorne, Reporter (1939), Mary Truelove, Detective (1940), Ann Thorne Comes to America (1941), Philippa Drives On (1947), Scoop for Ann Thorne (1939), and Front Page Ann Thorne (1951). There is considerable complexity and some tragedy involving Margetson's three marriages. There are indications, unearthed by John Herrington, that her first husband may have faked his own death and relocated to Australia, the discovery of which, only after she had remarried, caused her second marriage to fail. It was then not until many year's later, after her first husband finally did die, that she was able to marry once more, legally. On her death record, however, a bit more than a decade later, she is shown once again as a widow. On the 1939 Register, her birthdate is given as 22 Aug 1900, and information provided to Author's and Writer's for its 1935 edition says she was born in Ireland, but John discovered she was in fact born in 1898 around Birmingham. We are assuming the 22 Aug date is correct even if she shaved a couple of years off her age.

MARGETSON, STELLA (6 Mar 1912 – 13 Apr 1992) 1940s Journalist, playwright, historian, and author of two novels. Her first publications were two story collections, Miss Swinford Remembers (1941) and Flood Tide and Other Stories (1943), followed by the novels Peter's Wife (1948), about the havoc a widowed daughter-in-law causes in a well-to-do English family, and The Prisoners (1949), about an art dealer's fall from grace. Thereafter she focused on writing radio plays and turned to writing popular history, including Journey by Stages (1967), about stagecoaches in the 17th-19th centuries, The Long Party: High Society in the Twenties & Thirties (1974), and Victorian High Society (1980). Margetson was the daughter of actress Florence Collingbourne.

MARLOW, VERONICA (4 Apr 1910 – 13 Oct 1989) (pseudonym of Clarice Mary Russell-Clarke, married names Rawlinson and Radcliffe) 1930s Author of four girls' school stories—For the Sake of the House (1933), Sally Wins the School (1934), That Eventful Term (1934), and The Lower School Leader (1935)—which Sims & Clare note are imperfect but "attractive and amusing."

MARLOWE, CHRISTABEL (dates unknown) 1930s Untraced author of only one girls' school story, Shirley at Charterton (1931), set in a large public school and apparently a favorite for fans of the genre.

MARLOWE, MABEL (16 Jul/Aug 1883 – 18 Jan 1954) 1920s – 1950s Author of more than two dozen children's titles, including four school stories—Winifred Avon (1920), The Turret Room (1926), Trouble in the Upper Third (1927), and Lucia's Second Term (1928)—which Sims & Clare describe as Victorian at heart. Other titles include Toffee Boy (1925), Sally in Our Alley (1929), Dwellers in the Stream (1945), and Trusty (1952). An online description of Jacka-Biddy-Tippet, and Bumble the Sweeper-Gnome (1935) makes clear that it contains some racist plot elements. One record shows her birth date as 16 Jul, another says 16 Aug.

MARRECO, ANNE (12 Jun 1912 – 23 Jun 1982) (née Acland-Troyte, earlier married names Grosvenor, Hoare, and Wignall, aka Alice Acland) 1950s – 1970s Best known for her biography The Rebel Countess: The Life and Times of Constance Markievicz (1967), she also published eight novels, most under her pseudonym. A bookseller sums up A Person of Discretion (1958): "Three sisters from Brussels become entangled in the black market and the Resistance in the closing stages of the war." The others are Templeford Park (1954), A Stormy Spring (1955), A Second Choice (1956), The Charmer and the Charmed (1963), The Boat Boy (1964), The Corsican Ladies (1974), and The Secret Wife (1975).

MARR-JOHNSON, DIANA [JULIA] (16 Sept 1908 – 14 Jun 2007) (née Maugham) 1930s – 1970s Niece of Somserset Maugham and author of seven novels. A bookseller describes Rhapsody in Gold (1935) as the "story of a woman who accepts an invitation to a party thrown by the richest man in the world to see if all the rumors about his madcap antics are true," and another sums up Goodnight Pelican (1957) as the story of "a young English girl circulating in French society while supposedly pursuing an education in France." I reviewed the latter here. The others are Bella North (1954), Face of a Stranger (1963), Faces My Fortune (1970), Take a Golden Spoon (1972), and Three for a Wedding (1975). She also published two books for young children and one play, Never Say Die (1958).

MARRIAN, PAULINE [ELLA] (8 Jan 1904 – 5 Feb 2000) 1930s Author of two novels. Under This Tree (1934) features a heroine struggling to break free from her old-fashioned home life—a reviewer noted, “This full-length sketch of a premature frump could easily have been shallow and spiteful, especially if the author had shown any signs of pertness. Actually, it is both satirical and sympathetic. Her Janet may be an appalling bore to her friends, but she is a joy to follow." Destruction's Reach (1935) deals with a painfully shy but nonetheless passionate woman, and her struggles to triump in a stage career. From very early on, Marrian was an admirer of Dorothy Richardson; the two were introduced in 1920 and they continued a friendship and correspondence through their lives. She lived for a time in Hungary. After World War II, she worked for the British Sailor’s Society.

MARSDEN, [LESLIE] MONICA (22 Jun 1906 - ????) (née Palmer) 1940s – 1960s Author of more than 30 children's adventure tales and mysteries, including one—The Chartfield School Mystery (1959)—set in a school. Others include Night Adventure (1941), Enemy Agent (1942), Lost, Stolen or Strayed (1943), Friends of Freedom: A Story of Occupied France (1943), The Abbey Ruins (1944), Spanish Treasure (1946), Bronze Bell Mystery (1948), Mystery of the Clocks (1949), The Manor House Mystery (1950), The Luck of the Melicotts (1951), The Mystery of Beacon Hill (1955), A Matter of Clues (1962), and Island of Parrots (1968). John Herrington was able to track down her identity (and she may actually be South African, though I'm leaving her on this list to share what he found), but information on her later life is limited. She appears to have returned to Africa, and her husband's probate suggests she was alive in 1975. A reader, Roger Stringer, contributes that she produced theatrical shows at a local drama club in Mbare.

MARSH, [DOROTHY] EILEEN (6 Oct 1900 – 5 Aug 1948) (married name Heming, aka numerous pseudonyms, including Dorothy Carter, James Cahill, Eileen Heming, Rupert Jardine, and Mary St. Helier) 1930s – 1940s Author of more than 120 works of fiction under a bewildering array of pseudonyms, all in the course of about 12 years. This includes a wide array of children's fiction, from adventure tales, including many focused on women pilots, to war stories to girl's school stories, as well as adult novels. We Lived in London (1942) is about a working class family in the Blitz. Eight Over Essen (1943) follows a bomber's crew home for a week's leave, while A Walled Garden (1943) deals with evacuees. Other titles are too numerous to list, but there are more details about her work and her pseudonyms here.

MARSH, JEAN (2 Dec 1897 – 6 Apr 1991) (pseudonym of Evelyn Marshall, née Pass, aka Lesley Bourne) 1930s – 1990s Radio screenwriter, children's author, and novelist. Her early novels are mainly mysteries, about which I can find few details (Google searches are hindered by the fact that she shares her name with the well-known British actress). The mystery titles are The Shore House Mystery (1931), Murder Next Door (1933), Death Stalks the Bride (1943), Identity Unwanted (1951), Death Visits the Circus (1953), The Pattern Is Murder (1954), Death Among the Stars (1955), and Death at Peak Hour (1957). She later published around twenty romantic novels.

MARSHALL, CHRISTABEL [GERTRUDE] (24 Oct 1871 – 20 Oct 1960) (aka Christopher [Marie] St. John) 1900s – 1910s Critic, biographer, playwright, and novelist. Daughter of novelist Emma Marshall and friend of Cicely HAMILTON, with whom she co-wrote the play How the Vote Was Won (1909). She also published two novels, The Crimson Weed (1900), about the illegitimate child of an opera singer, and Hungerheart: The Story of a Soul (1915), which, according to ODNB, "represents the development of a lesbian or ‘invert’ whose sexuality is mediated through the self-abnegation of Roman Catholicism." Yikes.

Marshall, Ethel F. H.           see HEDDLE, ETHEL F[ORSTER].

MARSHALL, IRIS [CYNTHIA] (1897 – 3 Mar 1944) 1920s Author of two novels—The Pitcher of Fate: A Russian Historical Romance (1921) and Souls of Fire (1924). The latter is set in southern Spain and deals with lovers trying to escape a web of dramatic secrets.

MARSHALL, [EVELYN] MAY (17 Jan 1898 – 4 Apr 1971) (née Martin) 1930s - 1950s Journalist, editor, playwright, and author of children's fiction and seven novels. She wrote at least one published play, The Enchanted Isle (1934), from which she moved to children's fiction with titles like Jan Solves the Riddle (1935), Nothing Ever Happens! (1936), and The Song Triumphant (1936). In 1937, her first adult novel, Impetuous Friend, was published, about a schoolmistress in a high school. This was followed by Island Home (1938), about an 18-year-old going to stay with family friends, Second Life (1940), about a woman who seeks new adventures now that her children are grown, United Family (1952), about a doctor's family adjusting to postwar life, Mulberry Leaf (1954), about the lives of nurses in a modern hospital, This Power of Love (1956), and Youth Storms In (1956), about a young war widow whose arrival in the lives of her older sisters-in-law wreaks havoc on their staid lives. She was also editor of a prominent women's magazine. The British Library shows the author as "May Kathleen Marshall", but comparing information from her book reviews with public records it seems clear she is Evelyn May, whose son, Thomas Cedric, was prominent in the RAF (see here), a fact mentioned in at least one review of the novels. Thank you to Hilary Clare for her help in untangling May's records.

MARSHALL, VERA (dates unknown) 1930s Untraced author of a single girls' school story, The Quest of the Sleuth Patrol (1931).

Marston, Jay           see SPENCER, JILL

MARTEN, S. E. (dates unknown) 1920s Author of a single girls' school story, Girls of the Swallow Patrol (1927), which also features Guide content. The most likely candidate John Herrington could find was Sarah Elizabeth Marten (3 Mar 1882 – 16 Jul 1964), née Meharg, who was a midwife for many years. However, her grandson is unaware of her publishing a book.

MARTIN, CLARA [ISABELLE] (29 Jun 1874 – 6 Mar 1958) (aka Cecil Morton) 1910s – 1940s Poet, essayist, and author of romantic novels, about which few details are available. Titles include A Little Aversion (1912), The Spanish Dress (1928), Honey Pot (1930), Susan Jane (1932), Doctor's Day (1937), and, pseudonymously, Love in Masquerade (1947).

MARTIN, DORA (THEODORA) FOWLER (28 Dec 1882 – 25 May 1961) (born Theodora Martin, Fowler may have been a pen name) 1930s – 1960s Sister of J. P. Martin, author of the Uncle series of children's books, and aunt of Stella CURREY. Author of three novels for adults—The Unseen Audience (1934), Wander Year (1935), and The Long Procession (1936)—and two children's books, Two Young Adventurers (1938) and Caravan Days (1940).

Martin, Dorothea           see HEWITT, KATHLEEN [DOUGLAS]

MARTIN, FRANCES (dates unknown) 1950s Unidentified author of a single novel, Summer Meridian (1956), a grownup school story set in a "co-educational school … devoted to the development of individuality and self-expression in the young." I reviewed it here. I've not yet been able to find any clues to identify her.

Martin, L. E.           see NICHOLSON, MARY (1908-1995)

MARTIN, MARY (dates unknown) 1920s Author of two girls' school stories, The Girl Who Dared (1925) and How Damie Found Herself (1926), and two other children's titles—Fanny O'Hara (1927) and Stella and Her Uncle (1928). A Worldcat record for a reprint of Stella credits the book to Mrs. George Martin, who was Mary Emma Martin, née Le Breton (26 Jan 1844 – 7 Aug 1931) and who published a dozen or more novels in the 1870s-1900s. Among them is what appears to be a school story in 1890, as well as other titles for girls, though she would have been in her eighties when the later titles appeared—not impossible, but no proof either way at this point.

MARTIN, PHYLLIS (dates unknown) 1920s – 1960s Untraced author of more than 20 romantic novels, including Whispering Lips (1920), A Broken Blossom (1922), A Girl to Reckon With (1924), Fascinated But Afraid (1932), The Pride of the Desmonds (1933), Yesterday's Dreams (1952), Hazardous Paths (1953), Doctor Caroline's Marriage (1959), and The Other Nurse Carew (1963).

Martin, Violet           see SOMERVILLE & ROSS

MARTON, FRANCESCA (2 Oct 1910 – 1997) (pseudonym of Margaret Rosa Bellasis, aka Margaret Bellasis) 1940s – 1950s Historian and author of four pseudonymous novels, most set in the early or mid-Victorian periods. Over the Same Ground (1944) tells two alternating stories set a century apart in the same seaside town. In Attic and Area, or, The Maidservant's Year (1948) and Mrs. Betsey, or, Widowed and Wed (1954) she seems to have taken on the challenge of writing novels that were Victorian in both scope and style. According to the Evening Standard, the former "leaves one dreaming about the London that inspired Cruikshank and fertilised Dickens." The latter, about a 28-year-old widow struggling to support her children by working as a housekeeper, was even more enthusiastically praised: "Francesca Marton has recreated Victoria's England—the great country houses filled with color and excitement both above and below stairs; the sprawling, noisy city of London with its magnificent exhibition and its wretched poor; and Betsey's own sturdy, hard-working middle class" (Hartford Courant, 1 May 1955). Her final novel, Speculation Miss (1958), set around 1800, "loads a bevy of young spinsters on an East Indiaman for a six months' voyage with a crew of pretty hot-blooded, shiver-my-timbering sailors" (Guardian, 16 Dec 1958). She also published two historical works under her real name, Honourable Company (1952), about her own family's contributions to the East India Company, and "Rise, Canadians!" (1955), an acclaimed account of the 1837 rebellion in Upper Canada.

Mary Catherine, Sister           see ANDERSON, KATHLEEN [AGNES CICELY]

Maske, John           see HANSHEW, HAZEL P[HILLIPS].

MASON, HOWARD (4 Sept 1925 - ????) (pseudonym of Jennifer Anne Susan Ramage) 1950s Daughter of actress Cathleen Nesbitt and an actress herself, as well as the author of four novels. Proud Adversary (1951) is a "tale of adventure in the Buchan tradition" about the complications ensuing after the discovery of the horn of Roland in a French monastery. Of The Red Bishop (1953), Kirkus said, "An old castle with its well kept secrets and its subterranean passages, a monstrous game of living chess which had been played in the 16th century and the telltale treasure which is found in a tower, all contrive a melodrama which may be unlikely but has an ingratiating verve—and nerve." Photo Finish (1954) “concerns various comical confusions which result after the disappearance of an eminent scientist with a microfilm of highly secret information”; it was adapted into a zany spy movie called Follow That Horse! And a bookseller describes Body Below (1955) as a "good, readable mixture of adventure and detection in an unusual and exotic situation," but no mention of what the unusual and exotic situation is.

Mason, Leonie           see SUTER, JOAN

Mason, Margaret           see COOPER, GWALDYS DOROTHY

MASON, MARGOT (dates unknown) 1920s Untraced author of a single short romance, Delightful Diana (1927).

MASSIE, ALICE [ELIZABETH] (17 Aug 1884 – 4 Feb 1961) 1900s – 1930s Author of about 20 volumes of fiction. Her focus until the late 1920s was on children's fiction, including such titles as Told By Eileen: A Book for Girls (1907), Two in a Tangle (1909), Freda's Great Adventure: A Story of Paris in War-Time (1917), The Bringing Up of Mary Ann (1923), and Pavement Island (1925). Sims & Clare also highlight several humorous stories set in a convent school, which only appeared in annuals and have never been collected. Thereafter, she published six novels for adults—Unresting Year (1926), The Blessed Roof-Tree (1927), The Shadow on the Road (1929), The Cotswold Chronicle (1930), Crossings (1932), and The Wicked Captain (1933). Of the heroine of Crossings a bookseller blurb says, "while crossing the channel via plane to marry a man she does not love she meets the man of her dreams."

MASSON, ROSALINE [ORME] (6 May 1867 – 7 Dec 1949) 1890s – 1920s Critic, historian, biographer of her friend Robert Louis Stevenson (1923), and author of at least six novels and two story collections. The novels are The Transgressors (1899), In Our Town (1901), Leslie Farquhar (1902), Our Bye-Election (1908), Nina (1911), and A Better Man (1928). The story collections are My Poor Niece and Other Stories (1893) and A Departure from Tradition and Other Stories (1898). She also published works of Scottish history.

MASTERMAN, MARGARET [MARY] (4 May 1910 – 1 Apr 1986) (married name Braithwaite) 1930s A lecturer at Cambridge who also worked in the theatre and at Ealing Film Studios, and author of three novels. The first—Gentlemen's Daughters (1931)—is set at a school and deals with a young girl's crush on a teacher and her subsequent disillusionment. The Grandmother (1934) is a humorous tale of an eccentric family ruled over by a tyrannical matriarch, set in an English resort town. In Death of a Friend (1938), she turned to crime, with a killer among a group of Friends and a gentle, elderly Quaker woman as her amateur detective.

MATHERS, HELEN (26 Aug 1851 – 11 Mar 1920) (pseudonym of Ellen/Helen Buckingham Mathews, married name Reeves) 1870s – 1910s A popular author of melodramatic fiction in the late 19th century, Mathers' final volume of stories, Man Is Fire, Woman Is Tow and Other Stories (1912), qualifies her for this list. Her debut, Comin' Thro' the Rye (1875), was a major bestseller. She reportedly faced much personal tragedy, with a son dying young and her own and her husband's serious health issues causing financial difficulties.

MATHESON, JEAN [CHISHOLM] (1909 - 2001) (married name Marshall) 1950s – 1960s Scottish author of eight novels. The Cistern and the Fountain (1951) is about a woman in financial difficulty who opens her home to guests, while The Island (1952) deals with two MacArdles, one an American of Scotch descent, the other living in Scotland but wanting to get away to the bigger world, who decide to trade places. The Visit (1954) is described as "a grim psychological novel—a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in modern dress", while The Day of the Fair (1955) appears to be a more humorous tale of the goings-on at a neighborhood fair. Thereafter, Matheson turned to crime fiction, noting in one article that it was the only type of novel which sold—these works include So Difficult to Die (1957), The Dire Departed (1958), and The Goldfish Pool (1961), the last about a woman looking back on her childhood in an orphanage run by a "super-horrific female fortune hunter". Her final novel was The Little Green Bird (1963), set in Edinburgh and dealing with the effects of a man's alcoholism on his wife and child.

MATHEWS, M. E. (dates unknown) 1940s – 1950s Unidentified author of about half a dozen children's titles, as well as a volume of children's verse. Titles include The Featherlight Family (1942), Princess Storm (1943), Runaway Adventure (1944), The Redheads of Windyridge (1950), The Island in the Lake (1951), and Sixpenny Holiday (1953).

MATTHEWMAN, PHYLLIS (19 Jan 1896 – 6 Jul 1979) (née Barton, aka Kathryn Surrey, Jacqueline Yorke) 1940s – 1970s Sister of Joyce Cecilia DIXON. Author of more than 60 volumes of fiction for children and adults. Best known for her girls' stories, which include several series. The Daneswood series of seven school-related stories is comprised of Chloe Takes Control (1940), The Queerness of Rusty (1941), Josie Moves Up (1943), A New Role for Natasha (1946), Justice for Jacqueline (1946), Pat at the Helm (1947), and The Intrusion of Nicola (1948). The Kirkdale Priory series comprises Because of Vivian (1947), The Turbulence of Tony (1951), The Coming of Lys (1951), and The Amateur Prefects (1951). Other children's fiction includes Jill on the Land (1942), Timber Girl (1944), Thanks to Mr. Jones (1948), River Holiday (1954), Linda at the Forest School (1955), and The Mystery of Snake Island (1962). She also published biographies for children and around two dozen romances, several of the early ones under her pseudonyms. The romances include Utility Wedding (1946), The Veil Between (1950), Castle to Let (1953), Fetters of a Dream (1956), Cupid in Mayfair (1958), Make Up Your Mind, Nurse (1964), and The Time for Loving (1972).

MATTHEWS, E[MILY]. C[ATHERINE]. (15 May 1865 – 1 May 1952) 1920s – 1950s Author of two girls' school stories, Lavender at the High School (1927) and Miss Honor's Form (1928), and three later children's books—A Christmas Moon (1933), Two Red Cloaks (1947), and Holiday at Magpie Cottage (1953).

MATTINGLY, MARION GRAHAME (28 Sept 1890 – 28 Apr 1958) (née Meikleham) 1920s Author of one children’s title, Marcus the Briton: A Romance of Roman London (1928), and a children’s guide to the British Museum (1924).

MAUD, CONSTANCE E[LIZABETH]. (11 Mar 1856 – 11 May 1929) 1900s – 1910s Author of six novels, several of them set in France where she went to school. Titles are An English Girl in Paris (1902), The Rising Generation (1903), Felicity in France (1906), A Daughter of France (1908), No Surrender (1911), and Angelique (1912). No Surrender, about the suffrage movement, was reprinted by Persephone.

MAUGHAN, A[NNE]. M[ARGERY]. (4 Nov 1921 – 7 Jan 2018) 1950s, 1970s Author of three historical novels—Monmouth Harry (1956), Young Pitt (1974), and The King's Malady (1978). She was born and grew up in Durham.

MAVOR, ELIZABETH [OSBORNE] (17 Dec 1927 – 22 May 2013) (married name Hodson) 1950s – 1980s Biographer and author of five novels. Best known for her acclaimed biography The Ladies of Llangollen (1971), about Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, two 18th century women who eloped together in 1778 and lived together as a married couple for more than 50 years. She followed this with Life with the Ladies of Llangollen (1984), described as "extracts from the journals, letters, receipts and account books" of the two women, and A Year with the Ladies of Llangollen (1987), a selection from Eleanor Butler's journals. Mavor also published five novels. Summer in the Greenhouse (1959) is about an elderly woman recounting a past love story to the granddaughter of her lover. The Temple of Flora (1961) is a humorous tale of a young woman's attempts to transform a village with pagan leanings. The Redoubt (1967) is set during the floods of 1953, and A Green Equinox (1973), about the love life of a bookstore owner, was nominated for the Booker Prize and has recently been reprinted. Her final novel The White Solitaire (1988), is based on the life of 18th century female pirate Mary Read. JRank has an informative page about Mavor's fiction here.

MAXWELL, BRIGID [ANNA] (13 Nov 1916 – 5 Sept 1991) (married names Kalberer and Grafton Green) 1950s Journalist and author of a single mystery, The Case of the Six Mistresses (1955), about a newspaper special correspondent who has kept a busy social life. A critic noted that Maxwell “develops her story with a swing and has a long list of pleasant characters." Maxwell was born in Australia, but appears to have emigrated as a small child. She also translated a biography of Mussolini from Italian, and wrote several short pamphlets for local agencies, including a brief history of Hampstead.

MAYBURY, ANNE (12 Jun 1901 – 27 Feb 1993) (pseudonym of Edith Arundel, married name Buxton, aka Edith Arundel, aka Katherine Troy) 1930s – 1980s Author of more than 90 romance and romantic suspense novels, including Son of John (1930), Love Triumphant (1932), Catch at a Rainbow (1935), This Errant Heart (1937), Arise, Oh Sun (1940), A Lady Fell in Love (1943), First, the Dream (1951), Prelude to Louise (1954), The Gay of Heart (1959), Whisper in the Dark (1961), The Minerva Stone (1968), Ride a White Dolphin (1971), Jessamy Court (1974), and Invitation to Alannah (1983). She published a few of her earliest novels under her real name, and several later ones as Katherine Troy (confusingly most of these appeared under the Maybury pseudonym in the U.S.), but Maybury was her best-known pseudonym. Twentieth-Century Romance and Historical Writers said that she could "be counted on for vivid characters, basically sound plots, and carefully researched and lusciously described settings."

MAYER-NIXSON, MAISIE (EDITH MAY) (1890 – 25 Dec 1954) (née Bennett, aka Edward Lennox, aka Maisie Bennett) 1910s – 1920s Author of two romantic novels and one memoir. At age 21, she had been working as a librarian in the circulating library of a large department store when her first novel, Golden Vanity (1912, as Maisie Bennett), appeared. Mills & Boon publicized her heavily as the "Shopgirl Novelist" and granted her the equivalent of one year of her salary to give her free time to write. However, it wasn't until 16 years later that a second and final novel, The Crowded Year (1928, as Edward Lennox) was released by a different publisher. A contemporary review sums it up: "Railway accidents, fires, divorces, drowning, earthquakes and romance are the ingredients of this somewhat hectic year." More than two decades after that, she published Ring Twice for the Stewardess (1954), a memoir of her interceding career as a ship stewardess.

Mayfield, Julia           see HASTINGS, PHYLLIS [DORA]

MAYNE, ETHEL [COLBURN] (7 Jan 1865 – 30 Apr 1941) 1890s – 1920s Biographer, translator, and novelist, known for her biographies Byron (1912) and Anne Isabella, Lady Noel Byron (1929). Her early short stories, such as those included in Things That No-One Tells (1910), Blindman (1919), and The Inner Circle (1925), garnered comparisons to Katherine Mansfield. She also published several novels, including Jessie Vandeleur (1902), Gold Lace: A Study of Girlhood (1913), Come In (1917), and Nine of Hearts (1923). In later years, she lived with her sister, and both women died after being severely injured in a German bombing raid.

MAYOR, F[LORA]. M[ACDONALD]. (20 Oct 1872 – 28 Jan 1932) (aka Mary Strafford) 1900s – 1930s Author of three quiet, brilliant novels of spinsterhood—The Third Miss Symons (1913), The Rector’s Daughter (1924), considered her masterpiece, and The Squire's Daughter (1929), the last reviewed here. Her collection, The Room Opposite (1935), contains several ghost stories and has been reprinted by Solar Press. Mayor's first, pseudonymous work, Mrs. Hammond's Children (1901), is somewhere between children’s stories and stories for adults about children—I reviewed it here. Michael Walmer has now revived Miss Browne's Friend: A Story of Two Women (1914), a short work originally serialized in the Free Church Suffrage Times, about a middle-class spinster’s friendship with an unmarried mother, which I reviewed here.