For more information about
this list, please see the introduction, linked below.
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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 472 pages!
[Current total: 2,103 writers]
UPDATED 10/11/2019
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(née Asquith, aka Princess
Bibesco)
1920s – 1940s
Daughter of Margot
ASQUITH. Poet, playwright, novelist, and short story writer. The Nation compared her stories to
Mansfield and James, while Marcel Proust said that she "was probably
unsurpassed in intelligence by any of her contemporaries." She wrote
four novels—The Fir and the Palm
(1924), which was serialized in the Washington
Post, of all places, There is No
Return (1927), Portrait of Caroline
(1931), and The Romantic (1940)—and
three story collections—I Have Only
Myself to Blame (1921), Balloons
(1922), and The Whole Story (1925).
A collection of selected stories, poems, and aphorisms appeared in 1951 as Haven, with an impressive introduction
by no lesser figure than Elizabeth BOWEN. Bibesco lived in Romania during
World War II, having married Prince Antoine Bibesco (for whom Enid BAGNOLD
was rumored to have a passion as well), and she died of pneumonia there at
age 48.
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BICKLE, JUDITH BRUNDRETT (21 Apr 1886 – 16 Apr 1965)
(née Bower, aka J. Tweedale, aka Judith Tweedale)
1930s, 1960s
Primarily known as a poet (her Collected Poems appeared in 1948), Bickle also wrote two novels—The Unimaginable Flowers (1935) and Village of Rosemary (1965), about
which little information is available.
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BIDWELL,
MARJORIE [ELIZABETH SARAH] (20 Jun 1900 – 21 Jan 1985)
(née Lambe, aka Elizabeth
Ford, aka Mary Ann Gibbs)
1930s – 1980s
Author of nearly 60
novels, including romantic suspense (and perhaps other general fiction, some
of it historical) under her Ford pseudonym and historical romance under her
Gibbs pseudonym. Among the former are Fog
(1933), The House with the Myrtle Trees
(1942), The Young Ladies' Room
(1945), The Irresponsibles (1946), Spring Comes to the Crescent (1949), Just Around the Corner (1952), Outrageous Fortune (1955), The Cottage at Drimble (1957), A Week by the Sea (1962), Limelight for Jane (1970), and Open Day at the Manor (1977). Among
the latter are A Young Man with Ideas
(1950), A Bit of a Bounder (1952), Young Lady with Red Hair (1957, aka The Penniless Heiress), The Years of the Nannies (1960), Horatia (1961), The Apothecary's Daughter (1962), The Sugar Mouse (1965), The
Moon in a Bucket (1972), A Most
Romantic City (1976), and The
Marquess (1982). Twentieth Century
Romance and Historical Writers summed up Bidwell's historical romance
novels: "A plucky girl with a zest for life and a refusal to let its
adversities overwhelm her characterize the type of heroine always present in
a Mary Ann Gibbs romance."
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BIGGS,
MARGARET (9 Jul 1929 - )
1950s, 2000s
Author of 14 works of
children's fiction, most of them school stories. She is best known for her
Melling School series, which originally included seven books—The Blakes Come to Melling (1951), The New Prefect at Melling (1952), Last Term for Helen (1953), Head Girl at Melling (1954), Susan in the Sixth (1955), The New Girl at Melling (1956), and Summer Term at Melling (1957). In the
2000s, when Girls Gone By began reprinting the series, Biggs added two new
volumes, Kate at Melling (2008) and
Changes at Melling (2009). Her
other books are Triplets at Royders
(1950), a collaboration with Jacqueline BLAIRMAN, Christmas Term at Vernley (1951), Bobby at Hill House (1954), Dilly
Goes to Ambergate (1955) and The
Two Families (1958).
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BIGLAND,
EILEEN (29 May 1898 – 11 Apr 1970)
(née Carstairs)
1930s – 1950s
Best known for her
"witty and sensitive accounts of travel in exotic places swept by
political upheavals" (Contemporary
Authors), such as Laughing Odyssey
(1937), about the Soviet Union, The
Lake of the Royal Crocodiles (1939), about tropical Africa, Into China (1940), about her
experiences as the first white women to travel the Burma Road, and Journey to Egypt (1949), Bigland also
published nine novels, as well as biographies for younger readers. Gingerbread House (1934) is loosely
autobiographical and seems to be an example of the "eccentric
family" genre. Others are Doctor's
Child (1934), Alms for Oblivion
(1937), This Narrow World (1938), Conflict with a God (1938), You Can Never Look Back (1940), Miranda (1947), Clown Without Background (1950), and Flower Without Root (1952). After World War II she published
histories of the WRNS and the ATS (both 1946).
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BINDER,
PEARL (28 Jun 1904 – 25 Jan 1990)
(originally Binderevski,
married name Elwyn-Jones)
1930s – 1940s
Born in England to
Ukrainian parents, Binder is best known as an artist, illustrator, and writer
and BBC broadcaster on fashion, but she seems to have also written some
fiction, including Misha and Masha
(1936), a collection of stories about life in the Soviet Union, and a
children's title, Misha Learns English
(1942).
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BINGHAM,
MADELEINE [MARY] (1 Feb 1912 – 16 Feb 1988)
(née Ebel, aka Julie
Mannering)
1950s
Primarily known as a
biographer (of Mary Queen of Scots, Richard Sheridan, and Henry Irving, among
others) and historian, Bingham also wrote two early novels—first, under her
Mannering pseudonym, The Passionate
Poet (1951), about Lord Byron, and then, under her own name, Look to the Rose (1953).
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BINGLEY,
BARBARA (9 Mar 1902 – 7 Nov 1972)
(married name Vere-Hodge)
1930s – 1960s
Playwright, children’s author, and novelist. Her one
novel was The Clear Heart (1945),
about a young Venetian's involvement with court intrigue in 17th century
India. Earlier, she had published Tales
of the Turquoise (1933), a collection of retellings of traditional
Buddhist tales. She wrote six one-act plays in the 1950s, and two children’s
books in the 1960s—The Story of Tit'be
& His Friend Mouffette (1962) and Vicky
and the Monkey People (1966), the latter set in a British community in
Victorian India.
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BINNIE,
MARJORIE [INEZ FRYAR] (1894 - 1975)
(née Cope)
1930s
Author of a single novel, Women with Men (1935), set in Africa.
Binnie spent her early life in Singapore before moving to South Africa to
farm with her husband.
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BIRLEY,
JULIA (13 May 1928 - )
(née Davies)
1950s – 1960s
Daughter of Margaret
KENNEDY and author of four novels—The
Children on the Shore (1958), about "provincial dons and their
wives," The Time of the Cuckoo
(1960), When You Were There (1963),
and A Serpent's Egg (1966).
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BISHOP,
SHEILA GLENCAIRN (17 Aug 1918 - 2004)
(née Paterson)
1940s – 1990s
Author of more than two
dozen novels, most historical romances set in the Elizabethan or Regency
periods. Titles include The Durable
Fire (1958), The House with Two
Faces (1960), The Second Husband
(1964), Impatient Griselda (1965), Penelope Devereux (1966), The Favourite Sister (1967), That Night at the Villa (1968), Goldsmith's Row (1969), No Hint of Scandal (1971), The Wilderness Walk (1972), The Parson's Daughter (1973, aka Bath Assembly), A London Season (1975), A
Speaking Likeness (1976), Consequences
(1980), Rosalba (1982), A Well-Matched Pair (1987), and Fair Game (1992). She seems to have
also been the author of a children's book, A Silver Nutmeg and a Golden Pear (1945), a wartime title that
involves golliwogs.
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BLACK,
DOROTHY [DELIUS ALLAN] (27 Mar 1890 - 1977)
(married name MacLeish,
aka Peter Delius)
1910s – 1970s
Niece of composer
Frederick Delius. Author of well over 100 romance novels, as well as numerous
short stories, including many utilizing her experience of life in Burma and
India. (In a 1921 article, she referred to Burma as "a paradise for
women," and she raised her children there.) Her many novels include The Man with a Square Face (1916), Idle Women (1928), Wise Folly (1933), The Pineapple Garden (1935), If Sorrow Follows After (1938), Dance, Little Lady (1940), Burmese Picnic (1943), The Broken Moon (1949), The Stag at Bay (1950), The Blackthorn Winter (1953), Gentle Stranger (1956), The Unforgettable Miss Jones (1960), Sisters Three (1966), Midsummer Magic (1969), Love Belongs to Everyone (1972), and From Faraway (1974). Her memoir was The Foot of the Rainbow (1961).
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BLACK,
[EMMA] HERMINA [MARY] (9 Jun 1893 – 2 Feb 1986)
(married name Lethridge)
1930s – 1980s
Author of more than 70 novels of romance and
romantic suspense. Titles include Forbidden
Kisses (1934), The Love Hotel
(1935), The Society Mannequin
(1935), The Lure of the Footlights
(1937), Passion's Web (1937), Yesterday's Folly (1940), Flower of the Lotus (1942), Sweet Pilgrimage (1943), Enchanted Oasis (1947), The House with the Fountains (1951), Moon Over Morocco (1951), Bitter Honey (1954), Tread on the Stars (1954), Jennifer Harlow, M.D. (1957), Cinderella in Sunlight (1958), Private Patient (1962), Danger in Montparnasse (1967), The Scent of Marigolds (1969), Romance Comes to Scotland Yard (1970),
Stardust for Dreams (1973), Blue Aloes (1979), and Dangerous Masquerade (1986).
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BLACKBURN, [EVELYN] BARBARA (15 Jul 1898 – 14 May
1981)
(married name Leader, aka Frances Castle, aka
Barbara Leader, aka Jane Grant)
1920s – 1960s
Author of more than two dozen romantic novels,
including Return to Bondage (1926),
Courage for Martha (1930), Marriage and Money (1931) Lover Be Wise (1934), Abbots Bank (1948), Georgina Goes Home (1951), Star Spangled Heavens (1953), Summer at Sorrelhurst (1954), The Buds of May (1955), Green for Lovers (1958), Lovers' Meeting (1962), City of Forever (1963), and Tara's Daughter (1970).
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BLACKBURN, ELIZABETH [JOHANNA MARGARET] VERNON (22
Sept 1841 - 1921)
(married name Vernon Blackburn, but seems to have
gone by Blackburn, née Sang)
1910s
Author of a single novel, The Duchess Ilsa: A Page from the Secret Memoirs of the Court of
Hohenau-Sesselstadt (1914), about which details are scarce.
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BLACKMORE, JANE [STUART] (11 Mar 1914 – 25 Jul 2005)
(née Blackmore)
1940s – 1970s
Author of more than 40 romantic novels to at least
the late 1970s, after which it becomes difficult to distinguish retitled
reprints from new works. Titles include Towards
To-Morrow (1941), They Carry a
Torch (1943), Snow in June
(1947), The Square of Many Colours
(1948), The Bridge of Strange Music
(1952), Three Letters to Pan
(1955), Storm in the Family (1956),
Beware the Night (1958), Tears in Paradise (1959), The Night of the Stranger (1961), Joanna (1963), Gold for My Girl (1967), Broomsticks
in the Hall (1971), and Ravenden
(1976). Her maiden and married names are the same—did she marry a cousin or
is it coincidence?
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Blackstock,
Charity
see TORDAY, URSULA
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Blackstock, Lee
see TORDAY, URSULA
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BLAIKLEY, EDITHA L[EIGHTON]. (28 Oct 1886 - 1975)
1910s – 1930s
Author of four novels and two plays. The novels are Dorothy Gayle (1912), The Enchanted Pen (1919), Alone in a Crowd (1931), and Lady Springmead (1938). Her diary from
World War II was independently published as "No Soldier": The 1942 Diary of Miss Editha Blaikley of
Wren Cottage (1992).
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Blair, Joan
see OLIVER, JANE and
STAFFORD, ANN
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Blair, Kathryn
see WARREN, LILLIAN
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BLAIRMAN,
JACQUELINE [HARRIS] (1927 - )
(married name Pinto, aka
Jacqueline Pinto)
1940s
Author of three school
stories which deal humorously with class and pretense—The Headmistress in Disgrace (1949), A Rebel at St Agatha's (1949), and Triplets at Royders (1950, co-authored with Margaret BIGGS)—and
of a later series, under her married name, beginning with The School Gala Disaster (1985).
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Blake, Andrea
see WEALE, ANNE
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Blake, Monica
see MUIR, MARIE
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BLAKER, [HARRIET] MARY (MARIANNE) (16 Sept 1859 – 15
Jan 1938)
(uncertain but probably identification)
1920s
Author of two romantic novels, The Pagan Lover (1928) and Jill
Came Tumbling (1929).
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BLATHWAYT,
[MARJORIE] JEAN (17 Sept 1918 – 7 Sept 1999)
1950s – 1970s
A nurse and nursery school teacher as well as
author, Blathwayt published more than a dozen books for children, including Uncle Paul's House (1957), The Well Cabin (1957), Jenny Leads the Way (1958), Jo's Neighbours (1958), The Beach People (1960), The Mushroom Girl (1960), The Fisherman's Little Girl (1961), Peter's Adventure (1961), On the Run for Home (1965), House of Shadows (1967), Lucy's Brownie Road (1970), River in the Hills (1971), and Lucy's Last Brownie Challenge (1972).
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BLAZEY,
[CLARA] WINIFRED (21 Dec 1891 – 19 Jul 1964)
1930s – 1940s
A close friend and sometime roommate of Gladys
MITCHELL, Blazey also wrote four novels in her own right—Dora Beddoe (1936), a psychological drama with crime elements, Indian Rain (1938), set in 18th
century India, The Crouching Hill
(1941), and Grace Before Meat
(1942), set before the war and dealing with a young village schoolteacher who
encounters a murder.
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BLEY, ELSIE [FRANCES] (25 Jul 1908 – 2 Jul 2004)
1950s
Author of two children's titles, Tell Us a Tale (1950), illustrated by
Grace LODGE, and The Secret of the
Headland (1955), a holiday adventure featuring two children at the
seaside with an aunt and her friend who were in the French Resistance.
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BLIGH BOND, MARY [THEODORA ST. VINCENT] (23 Oct 1895
- 1968)
(married names Milward and Saunders)
1920s
Daughter of Frederick Bligh Bond, architect and ghost hunter, and author of a single novel, Avernus (1924), described as a fantasy novel dealing with
reincarnation.
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BLISS, ELIOT
(12 Jun 1903 – 10 Dec 1990)
(pseudonym of Eileen Nora
Lees Bliss)
1930s
Born in Jamaica to English
parents, Bliss was the author of two novels, Saraband (1931), about a young girl growing up in the years
before, during, and after World War I, and Luminous Isle (1934), in which a young woman returns to her
birthplace in Jamaica after years in England. Both were reprinted by Virago
in the 1980s. In 2015, her poems were collected as Spring Evenings in Sterling Street. According to Virago's bio,
Bliss's friends in London included Dorothy RICHARDSON, Vita SACKVILLE-WEST,
and Jean RHYS.
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BLOOM,
URSULA [HARVEY] (11 Dec 1892 – 29 Oct 1984)
(married names Denham-Cookes
and Robinson, aka Sheila Burns, aka Mary Essex, aka Rachel Harvey, aka
Lozania Prole, aka Deborah Mann, aka Sara Sloane)
1920s – 1980s
Reportedly the author of 560 books, and once the Guiness Book of World Records most
prolific female author, Bloom wrote under her own name as well as multiple
pseudonyms, some of which had distinct styles. According to ODNB, her more straightforward
romances, which she found "silly and light," were published under
her own name and as Sheila Burns. She wrote historical novels as Lozania
Prole, hospital novels as Rachel Harvey, and "modern romances" as
Mary Essex. She also wrote a number of memoirs, including War Isn't Wonderful (1961), about her
experiences in World War II. There's an entire website devoted to Bloom's
work, which you can view here.
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BLOUNT,
REBECCA (dates unknown)
1920s
Untraced author of a
single girls' school story, Schooldays
(1921), about an old-fashioned school being superceded by more modern schools.
Sims and Clare note that it may be autobiographical.
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BLUMENFELD,
JOSEPHINE [SALIE] (14 Oct 1903 – 10 Apr 1982)
(married name Bott)
1930s – 1960s
Wife of Pan Books founder
Alan Bott. Best known for seven volumes of humorous anecdotes and short
stories—Shrimps for Tea (1930), "Dip, Lizzie, Dip" and Other
Stories (1935), Heat of the Sun
(1948), Step This Way (1951), Birds on the Roof (1960), See Me Dance the Polka (1962), and The Sun Is Up (1969). In reviewing Birds on the Roof, the Times Literary
Supplement wrote: "Miss Blumenfeld creates her own world where the
trivial is highlighted by a very individual style into achieving a
significance." She also wrote a single novel, Pin a Rose on Me (1958), the “madcap” tale of “a middle-aged
English woman's quest for independence,” which I discussed here.
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BLUNDELL,
AGNES [MARY FRANCES] (9 Jun 1884 – 4 Mar 1966)
1910s – 1940s
Daughter of M. E. FRANCIS, with whom she published
several children’s books, and sister of Margaret BLUNDELL. Author of several
novels on her own, some or all with Catholic themes and some historical.
Titles include Pension Kraus
(1912), Ancient Lights (1928), The Living Voice (1931), The Robber's Cave (1933), The Master's Forge (1933), In Peril for the King (1934), The Net (1937), The Three Cs (1945), and Cloaked
Malice (1950).
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BLUNDELL,
MARGARET [ELIZABETH CLEMENTINA MARY] (19 Nov 1881 – 16 Feb 1964)
1910s – 1920s
Daughter of M. E. FRANCIS
and sister of Agnes BLUNDELL. Novelist and biographer who collaborated with
her mother on Lady Jane and the
Smallholders (1924) and published two solo novels, Katherine of the Barge (1911) and Wood Sanctuary (1930).
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Blundell, Mary
see FRANCIS, M. E.
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BLUNT, SIBELL
LILIAN (14 Aug 1878 – 20 May 1962)
(née Mackenzie)
1900s – 1930s
Author of nine novels,
primarily of exotic romance, sometimes mixed with fantasy. Titles
are Sons of the Milesians (1906), The Days of Fire (1908), Out of the Dark (1910), The Golden Guard (1912), The Decoy (1914), Whosoever Shall Receive (1924), The Temple of the Winds (1925), Heremon the Beautiful (1930), and Zeo the Scythian (1935).
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BLYTON, ENID
[MARY] (11 Aug 1897 – 28 Nov 1968)
(married names Pollock and
Waters, aka Mary Pollock)
1920s – 1960s
Hugely prolific and successful children's author.
Although much of her work is for young children, she also published several
series for older children, including the "Malory Towers" school
novels (1946-51), the "St Clare's" school stories (1941-1945), a
mystery series beginning with The
Rockingdown Mystery (1949), the "Five" series (1942-1963), and
the "Secret Seven" series (1949-63).
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BOAS, CICELY (17 Feb 1898 – 6 Jan 1973)
(pseudonym of Augusta Alice Cecilia Boas, née
Whitehead)
1930s – 1940s
Author of three novels—The Vicar's Wife (1931), A
Farmer's Marriage (1935), and This
Motherhood (1942). The first two are tragic tales of mismatched couples,
while the third is described as about "the psychological difficulties of
motherhood from the modern standpoint." She was married to scholar and
biographer Guy Boas.
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BODEN, HILDA
(27 Sept 1901 – 17 Feb 1988)
(pseudonym of Hilda
Bodenham, née Morris)
1940s – 1970s
Prolific children’s author
whose works often featured horses. Titles like Pony Trek (1948) and One
More Pony (1952) were followed by six tales of the Marlow family and
Boden’s own favorite work, Faraway Farm
(1961). Other titles include Family
Affair: A Midland Chronicle (1948), Caravan
Holiday (1953), Two Lost Emeralds
(1958), The New Roof (1960), Joanna Rides the Hills (1961), Noel, the Brave (1963), Highland Holiday (1965), The Mystery of Castle Croome (1966), Canal House (1969), The Severnside Mystery (1970), Pedro Visits the Country (1970), and Boomerang (1973).
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BOGGS, [MARY] WINIFRED (1874 – 10 Nov 1931)
(aka Edward Burke, aka Gloria Manning)
1900s – 1930s
Author of more than a dozen novels under her own
name and two pseudonyms, including Ethel
Pilcher (1907), The Return of
Richard Carr (1907), Vagabond City
(1911), Bachelors' Buttons: The Candid
Confessions of a Shy Bachelor (1912), The
Bewildered Benedict: The Story of a Superfluous Uncle (1913), The Sale of Lady Daventry (1914), Sally on the Rocks (1915), My Wife
(1916), Yesterday: Being the
Confessions of Barbara (1918), The
Indignant Spinsters (1921), The
Spinster Aunt (1922), The Joyous
Pilgrim (1923), Ashmorlands
(1925), The Young Elizabeth: A Romantic
Comedy (1928), Murder on the
Underground (1929), and The Romance
of a Very Young Man (1930). Presumably the second-to-last of these is a
mystery?
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BOILEAU, ETHEL [MARY] (16 Feb 1882 – 16 Jan 1942)
(née Young)
1920s –
1940s
Author of twelve novels
which appear widely varied in subject. Of her debut, The Box of Spikenard (1923), the Bookman rather impenetrably summed up: "Some husbands treat
the precious ointment of a woman's love as if it were cold cream to be used
after shaving." Hippy Buchan
(1924) is about a man who is snubbed by a woman and then finds himself heir
to a dukedom. Of Gay Family (1933),
Kirkus said: "Contagious humor, originality in the telling of even the
simplest events, mark this author as gifted beyond the ordinary run." The Map of Days (1935) is described as
the story of "a modern Lancelot, a giant of a soldier, an ardent
lover" and apparently covers the World War I period. Clansman (1936) is a Scottish family
saga. Ballade in G Minor (1938) may
be a sequel to Gay Family. Her
other books, about which details are lacking, are The Arches of the Years (1930), Turnip-Tops (1932), The
Fire of Spring, or, The Garden of Dreams (1933), When Yellow Leaves... (1934), The
Fair Prince: The Story of the Forty-Five (1936), and Challenge to Destiny (1947).
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BOLAND,
BRIDGET (13 Mar 1913 – 19 Jan 1988)
1930s – 1970s
Playwright, screenwriter,
and author of three novels. Best known for her debut The Wild Geese (1938), a family saga set in 18th century Ireland,
and for the plays Cockpit (1948)
and The Prisoner (1954). Her other
novels are Portrait of a Lady in Love
(1942) and Caterina (1975). Among
her screenwriting credits were Gaslight
(1940), War and Peace (1956), and Anne of the Thousand Days (1969), for
which she and collaborator John Hale won Oscars. In the 1970s, she published
two books on gardening with her sister, Maureen Boland, and a memoir, At My Mother's Knee (1978).
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BOLAND, JUNE (?1900 - ?2001)
(?pseudonym of Eliza Maud Boland, née Cooksey
[uncertain but probable identification])
1920s – 1930s
Author of about thirty romantic novels, many
probably "dime novels." Titles include The Girl in Crimson (1920), The
Girl from America (1922), The
Master Wooer (1924), Kirsty at the
Manse (1926), Hotel Splendide
(1928), The Alabaster Nymph (1932),
The Black Forest Inn (1936), and The Secret of Westmayne (1937). If our
identification is correct, she may have been a schoolteacher.
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BOLITHO,
SYBIL (16 Nov 1892 – 21 Jun 1975)
(née Matesdorf, other
married names Temple, Ryall, Hofmann-Beer, and Fearnley, aka Sybil Ryall)
1920s – 1940s
Author of at least five novels, including A Fiddle for Eighteenpence (1927),
about two girls travelling in France, My
Shadow as I Pass (1934), a tribute to her late husband William Bolitho,
two novels in collaboration with a later husband (there were several of
them!) Cecil Fearnley—Mrs. Rudd Writes
Home (1936), set among theatrical people staying at a villa in Verona,
and I Ask No Pardon (1938)—and one
final novel in collaboration for John Lloyd Balderston, A Goddess to a God (1948).
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BOLTON, IVY
MAY (18 May 1879 – 9 May 1961)
1920s – 1950s
Anglican nun,
schoolteacher, and author of a dozen novels, most or all of them tales of
historical adventure. Titles are The
Young Knight (1923), The King's
Minstrel: A Story of Norman England (1926), Shadow of the Crown: A Story of Malta (1931), A Loyal Foe: A Tale of the Rival Roses
(1933), Rebels in Bondage (1938), Tennessee Outpost (1939), Luck of Scotland (1940), Raeburn Unafraid (1942), Son of the Land (1948), Wayfaring Lad (1949), Father Junipero Serra (1952), and Andrew of the Eagleheart (1952).
Bolton was born in England but immigrated to the U.S. in her teens. She became
a nun in 1911 and took the name Sister Mercedes.
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BONAVIA-HUNT, DOROTHY [ALICE] (29 Apr 1880 – 21 Nov
1970)
(name changed from Hunt)
1940s – 1950s
Author of two novels written when she was around 70
years of age—a popular Jane Austen sequel, Pemberley Shades (1949), which has been noted on several blogs
and which was reprinted in recent years by Sourcebooks, and a follow-up, The Relentless Tide (1951), which
appears to have been published only in the U.S. Not to be confused with
Dorothy A[lice]. HUNT, though their books have sometimes been
misattributed—see here for details.
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BOND, FREDA
C[ONSTANCE]. (25 Mar 1894 – 15 Jun1960)
1930s – 1950s
Author of one novel for
adults—The Philanthropists (1933),
about which I've not found any information—and eight children's titles,
including a trilogy about the Lancaster family—The End House (1943), The
Lancasters at Lynford (1944), and Susan
and Priscilla (1945)—discussed by Call Me Madam here, and four more that deal
with the Carol family—The Holiday that
Wasn’t (1947), The Week Before
Christmas (1948), The Carols
Explore (1949), and Squibs at School
(1951). The final volumes of both series are set at school. Bond's final
book, The Wishing Well Adventure
(1952), is a standalone title.
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BOND, NOREEN
(1902 – 27 Feb 1981)
(pseudonym of Nancy Helen
Beckh)
1930s
Author of two novels, Hide Away (1936) and Take
Care (1938), but so far I can find no information about them.
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BONE,
FLORENCE E[MILY]. (26 Jan 1875 – 17 Feb 1971)
1900s – 1950s
Author of around sixty
volumes of fiction, including romantic and historical fiction as well as both
girls' and boys' school stories characterized, according to Sims & Clare,
by melodramatic but enjoyable plots). Titles include Ways of Marigold: A Story of the North Riding (1906), Alison's Quest, or, The Mysterious
Treasure (1910), Margot's Secret
(1910), The Wonderful Gate (1911), A Burden of Roses (1913), Curiosity Kate (1913), The Web on the Loom (1915), A Maid of Quality (1920), The Four Hearts of a Woman (1922), Cobblesett: Chronicles of Our Village
(1926), Just like Fay (1928), A Flutter In Brocade (1929), Clacking Shuttles (1933), Galloping Days (1937), Crimson Sunrise (1942), Love Across the Cobbles (1951), and Invisible Walls (1955).
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BONE,
GERTRUDE [HELENA] (11 Jan 1876 – 25 Feb 1962)
(née Dodd)
1900s – 1920s
Poet, travel writer, and
author of at least five volumes of fiction, including several illustrated by
her husband Muirhead Bone. OCEF
notes three novels, singling out Women
of the Country (1913), about a middle-aged spinster who takes in a
pregnant unwed girl, for "its decisive but unsensational focus on the
experience of women." The others are Mr. Paul (1921) and This
Old Man (1925). Provincial Tales
(1904) is a story collection, but this leaves Children's Children (1907), which is also fiction, perhaps for
children. The Cope (1930) seems to
be a short religious story published in book form, while Came to Oxford (1953) appears to be a memoir.
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BONETT, EMERY (2 Dec 1906 – 7 Nov 1995)
(pseudonym of Felicity Winifred Carter, married name
Coulson)
1930s – 1960s
Daughter of novelist Winifred CARTER. Screenwriter,
novelist, and mystery writer, both as a solo author and in collaboration with
her husband John Coulson, who wrote under the name John Bonett. Her debut, A Girl Must Live (1936), was about a
chorus girl seeking a wealthy husband, and was made into a film starring
Margaret Lockwood in 1939. Three more solo novels—Never Go Dark (1940), Make
Do With Spring (1941), and High
Pavement (1944, aka Old Mrs Camelot)—followed.
After World War II, she began collaborating with her husband and produced
eight mysteries. Dead Lion (1949)
deals with the murder of a literary critic, A Banner for Pegasus (1951, aka Not in the Script) is about a film crew shooting a film in an
English village, and No Grave for a
Lady (1962), set in Lyonesse, is about a novelist looking into the death
of a silent film actress. The other titles are Better Dead (1964, aka Better
Off Dead), The Private Face of
Murder (1966), This Side Murder?
(1967, aka Murder on the Costa Brava),
The Sound of Murder (1970), and No Time to Kill (1972). Her uncle John
L. Carter was also a novelist, and her aunt Edith Carter was a playwright.
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BONHAM,
ELIZABETH LYDIA ROSABELLE (26 Aug 1866 – 30 Oct 1945)
(aka Mrs. Henry de la
Pasture, later married name Clifford)
1890s – 1910s
Mother of E. M. DELAFIELD
and grandmother of Rosamund Dashwood. Playwright and author of 13 novels and
3 children's titles, most famously The
Unlucky Family (1907), a humorous children's book about a family learning
to live in an inherited country house. Her novels are often about young,
inexperienced heroines, though The Grey
Knight (1908) is "about a romance between two middle-aged
people." Her other adult novels are Deborah
of Tod’s (1897), Adam Grigson
(1899), Catherine of Calais (1901),
Cornelius (1903), The Man from America (1905), Peter’s Mother (1905), The Lonely Lady of Grosvenor Square
(1907), Catherine's Child (1908), The Tyrant (1909), Master Christopher (1911), Erica (1912, aka The Honourable Mrs. Garry), and Michael Ferrys (1913).
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BONHAM,
MARGARET (14 Oct 1913 – 10 Nov 1991)
(married names Griffith,
Bazalgette, and Kimber)
1940s
A distinctly un-prolific
writer, Bonham published The Casino
(1948), a story collection reprinted by Persephone, and a single novel, The House Across the River (1950). She
continued to write short stories after that (though these remain uncollected)
until her son's tragic death in 1972, after which she stopped writing.
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BOOTH, AGNES
[CLARA] (1888 - 1975)
1940s – 1960s
Schoolteacher for at least
a part of her life and author of several children's books, including one that
is in part a school story—The Forest
Mystery (1949). The others aree The
Deerskin Island Mystery (1945), The
Secret of the Harvest Camp (1948), Red
Eagle (1950), and The Quest of the
Stone (1963).
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BOOTH,
MARJORIE (1 Mar 1895 - 1969)
(real name Marjory,
married name Grey)
1920s – 1940s
Author of at least 9
novels. Winterfield (1934) is
described as a psychological study of jealousy, but I haven't found details
of the others, which include A Gem of
Earth (1929), Time to Stare
(1930), Caps Over the Mill (1932), Overture to Fortune (1933), Portrait in Pastel (1935), Monday's a Long Day (1937), Thunder Hill (1938), and The Timeless Realm (1948). An
additional title shown in the British Library catalogue, House Among Trees and No More Waiting (1944), may be two novellas
or short novels published together?
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BORER, MARY [IRENE] CATHCART (3 Feb 1906 – 2 Dec 1994)
(married name Myers)
1930s – 1960s
Historian and author of nearly two dozen works of
children's fiction, which sometimes made use of her early involvement with ethnography and
archaeology. The First Term at
Northwood (1948) is her one girls' school story. Other titles include Kilango (1936), Taha, the Egyptian (1937), The
Valley of the White Lake (1947), The
Secret Tunnel (1950), Trapped by the
Terror (1951), The Mystery of the
Snakeskin Belt (1951), The Dog and
the Diamonds (1956), and Sophie and
the Countess (1960). She also published numerous works of history,
including, of particular interest for this blog, Willingly to School: A History of Women's Education (1976).
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BORGHYS,
NORAH RAY (7 Dec 1887 – 5 Aug 1976)
(née Williams)
1930s
Author of three novels—Green Apples Blush (1935), In
Scarlet Town (1935), and The Golden
Bed (1938)—about which information is scarce.
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BORROW, ENID S. (dates unknown)
1930s – 1940s
Untraced author of nine novels, probably romantic in
nature, including The Golden Chain
(1930), The Faithful Heart (1932), For Herself Alone (1932), The Pointing Finger (1937), She Didn't Count (1938), The Newcomer (1939), The Girl She Cheated (1939), A Woman's Gamble (1941), and The Sunlit Path (1941).
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BOSANQUET,
MARY [DOROTHY] (11 Jun 1913 - 1999)
(married name Darby)
1950s – 1960s
Best known for two travel
narratives—Saddlebags for Suitcases:
Across Canada on Horseback (1942, later reprinted as Canada Ride), about her gruelling horseback ride from Vancouver
to New York, and Journey Into a Picture
(1947), about her time with the YMCA in Italy in the final year of World War
II—Bosanquet also published a children's book, People with Six Legs (1953), and an adult novel, The Man on the Island (1962), about a
lonely young woman finding new friendships while studying in the north of
England.
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BOSANQUET,
THEODORA (3 Oct 1880 – 1 Jun 1961)
1910s
Co-author of a single
novel, The Spectators (1916), with
Clara Smith, about which information is sparse. She also worked as secretary
to Henry James for the last decade of his life, published two books of
criticism, Harriet Martineau: An Essay
in Comprehension (1927) and Paul
Valery (1933), kept diaries, and practiced extensive automatic writing.
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BOSTON,
L[UCY]. M[ARIA]. (10 Dec 1892 – 25 May 1990)
(née Wood)
1950s – 1970s
Already in her sixties
when she published her first novel, Yew
Hall (1954), for adults, Boston quickly transitioned to children's
fiction and penned the classic Green Knowe series, which deals with a manor
house in which time travel is possible. That series, illustrated by Boston's
son, includes The Children of Green
Knowe (1954), The Chimneys of Green
Knowe (1958, aka Treasure of Green
Knowe), The River at Green Knowe
(1959), A Stranger at Green Knowe
(1961), An Enemy at Green Knowe
(1964), and The Stones of Green Knowe
(1976). She published several other children's titles, as well as one
additional novel for adults, Persephone
(1969, published in the US as Stronghold),
and two memoirs, Memory in a House
(1973) and Perverse and Foolish: A
Memoir of Childhood and Youth (1979).
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BOTIBOL,
JENETTA (3 Oct 1909 – 21 Dec 1988)
1930s
Author of four novels in the 1930s—Sun's Shadow (1934), These Our Dreams (1935), Bitter Seed (1936), and Before High Heaven (1937)—about which
little information is available.
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BOTTOME,
PHYLLIS (31 May 1884 – 22 Aug 1963)
(married name
Forbes-Dennis)
1900s – 1960s
Author of nearly 50 works of fiction, often focused
on social or political issues. Among her best known works were Old Wine (1924), set in post-WWI Austria, Private Worlds (1934), a tale of
mental illness made into a film starring Claudette Colbert and Charles Boyer,
The Mortal Storm (1937), which warned
about the rise of the Nazis and was made into a Hollywood propaganda piece in
1940, and her "blitz lit" novels, London Pride (1941) and Without
the Cup (1943, aka Survival).
Bottome also focuses on the war in Mansion
House of Liberty (1941, aka Formidable
to Tyrants), described as "snapshots of England at war," and on
the approach to war in The Life-Line
(1946), set in Austria in 1938. Other fiction includes Life, the Interpreter (1902), The
Dark Tower (1916, aka Secretly
Armed), The Depths of Prosperity,
written with American author Dorothy Thompson and set in the U.S., Level Crossing (1936), Man and Beast (1953), and Eldorado Jane (1956). She published
three volumes of memoir, Search for a
Soul: Fragment of an Autobiography (1947), The Challenge (1952), and The
Goal (1962).
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BOUMPHREY,
ESTHER [MARY] (28 Aug 1896 – 24 May 1970)
(née
Grandage)
1920s – 1940s
Sole author of three children's stories—The Hoojibahs (1929), The Hoojibahs and Mr. Robinson (1931), and Hoojibahs
and Humans (1949)—as well as one collaboration with Barbara Euphan TODD, The House That Ran Behind (1943).
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Bourne, Lesley
see MARSH, JEAN
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BOWEN,
ELIZABETH [DOROTHEA COLE] (7 Jun 1899 – 22 Feb 1973)
(married name Cameron)
1920s – 1960s
One of the most important
of the authors whose work was formerly dismissed as "women's
fiction." Author of ten novels, most famously The Death of the Heart (1938), about a young orphan living with
her half-brother and his wife who don't really want her, and The Heat of the Day (1948), set in
London during the Blitz and described by The
Atlantic as "a Graham Greene thriller projected through the
sensibility of Virginia Woolf." She is also well-known for her short
stories, of which there are more than eighty, compiled in her Collected Stories (1980). Bowen's
other novels were The Hotel (1927),
The Last September (1929), Friends and Relations (1931), To the North (1932), The House in Paris (1935), A World of Love (1955), The Little Girls (1964), and Eva Trout (1968). She also published
two memoirs, Seven Winters: Memories of
a Dublin Childhood (1942) and Bowen's
Court (1942) (recently reprinted in a single volume), a travel book, A Time in Rome (1960), and numerous
essays, reviews, and critical writings. The
House in Paris and The Death of the
Heart were filmed for television in 1977, while The Heat of the Day became first a stage play (adapted by Harold
Pinter, no less) in 1989 and and then a TV movie in 1991, and The Last September became a feature
film in 1999.
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BOWEN,
MARJORIE (1 Nov 1886 – 23 Dec 1952)
(pseudonym of Margaret
Gabrielle Vere Campbell, married names Constanzo and Long, aka Joseph
Shearing, aka George Preedy, aka John Winch, aka Robert Paye)
1900s – 1950s
Author of more than 90
works of fiction, including tales of the supernatural, historical fiction as
George Preedy, crime novels (many of them reconstructions of real-life cases)
as Joseph Shearing, and children's fiction under the names John Winch and
Robert Paye, as well as her own name, a memoir under her own name, Margaret
Campbell, ironically titled The Debate
Continues: Being the Autobiography of Marjorie Bowen (1939). Among her
most successful works are The Viper of
Milan (1906), Black Magic: a Tale
of the Rise and Fall of the Antichrist (1909), A Knight of Spain (1913), Stinging
Nettles (1923), General Crack
(1928), made into a film with John Barrymore, her Renaissance trilogy,
comprised of The Golden Roof
(1928), The Triumphant Beast
(1934), and Trumpets at Rome
(1936), Forget-Me-Not (1932), The Last Bouquet (1933), and Airing in a Closed Carriage (1943).
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BOWER,
MARIAN (24 Jul 1865 – 5 Oct 1945)
1890s – 1930s
Author of 16 novels,
apparently social dramas with light intrigue elements. Title are Paynton Jacks, Gentleman (1893), Samson's Youngest (1895), The Story of Mollie (1897), The Guests of Mine Host (1899), The Puppet Show (1900), Marie-Eve (1903), The Wrestlers (1907), Skipper
Anne: A Tale of Napoleon's Secret Service (1913), The Love Story of Guillaume-Marc (1917), The Chinese Puzzle (1919), Nick
Nonpareil (1922), The Quince Bush
(1927), Gotobedde Lane (1928), Glory Place (1930), Swans Battle (1933), and Sisters' Circus (1934).
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BOWERS,
DOROTHY (11 Jun 1902 – 29 Aug 1948)
1930s – 1940s
Author of five acclaimed mysteries, who was inducted
into the prestigious Detection Club shortly before her premature death from
tuberculosis. Postscript to Poison
(1938) takes place before World War II begins, and Shadows Before (1939) is set just as the war is looming, but Deed Without a Name (1940) already
features the "Phony War" in full swing. In Bowers' most famous
novel, Fear and Miss Betony (1941),
named by James Sandoe as one of the best "Golden Age" mystery
novels, the title character—a retired schoolmistress—is called to the aid of
a former student to investigate suspicious doings at the school she runs,
which has been evacuated to Dorset. Bowers fell silent for the rest of the
war, and published only one more novel, The
Bells of Old Bailey (1947). She was mentioned in 2010 by Christopher
Fowler as one of his unjustly Forgotten Authors.
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BOWES-LYON,
LILIAN (22 Dec 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). She was a cousin of the Queen Mother, and there's a fascinating blog
post about her here.
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BOWHAY, BERTHA LOUISA (6 Oct 1873 – 4 Jun 1948)
1920s – 1930s
Playwright and author of three novels—Elenchus Brown (1929), a utopian
novel, the historical Caspar: A
Medieval Romance (1930), and Guessing
Deeper (1933), about which I could find no details.
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BOX, MURIEL
(22 Sept 1905 – 18 May 1991)
(née Baker)
1950s – 1960s
A successful writer of
screenplays with her husband, Box also wrote two novels. Forbidden Cargo (1957)—credited to her husband as well as her,
for marketing purposes, but in fact by Muriel alone—was a humorous thriller
set at a fictional bird sanctuary. The
Big Switch (1964), meanwhile, was a humorous science-fiction novel set in
a post-nuclear world in which women hold the power. Earlier, as World War II
approached, she and her husband, under the name Evelyn August, had published The Black-out Book: Being
One-Hundred-and-One Black-out Nights' Entertainment (1939), which was
very popular. Muriel also published Odd
Woman Out: An Autobiography in 1974. She and her husband won Oscars for
their work on The Seventh Veil
(1945), a tremendously successful psychological drama starring James Mason
and Ann Todd.
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BOYD, JANE
(dates unknown)
(pseudonym of ?????)
1950s
Pseudonym on a single mystery novel, Murder in the King's Road (1953). The
publisher noted that this was the pseudonym of "a crime writer of
distinction," but no one has yet determined which one. I reviewed it here and gave a sample of the writing as well as a list
of possible suspects.
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BOYD, LOUISA
R[EID]. (7 Feb 1873 – 22 Jun 1948)
1910s – 1930s
Author who lived in
Scotland and published three books which seem to be novels—The Quest for Joy (1912), Comrades Here (1930), and An Idle Diary (1934). Little else is
known except that a 1901 census shows she is one of eight adult children
(ages 20s to 40s) all still living at home!
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BOYD, MARY
STUART (1860 - 1937)
(née Kirkwood, aka Paxton
Holgar)
1900s – 1910s
Boyd started her brief
writing career with two travel books—Our
Stolen Summer: The Record of a Roundabout Tour (1900) and A Versailles Christmas-tide
(1901)—followed by eight novels. Her first, With Clipped Wings (1902), is a village comedy, and Her Besetting Virtue (1908) and The Glen (1910), at least, appear to
be romantic comedies. Backwaters
(1906) is described by OCEF as
"a loss-of-memory mystery set on the Thames," and The Mystery of the Castle (1911)
presumably also has mystery or thriller elements. Her other novels are The Man in the Wood (1904), The Misses Make-Believe (1906), and The First Stone (1909). She published
two more travel books, The Fortunate
Isles: Life and Travel in Majorca, Minorca and Iviza (1911) and From the Shelf (1915), the latter
using her Holgar pseudonym, and then seems to have stopped writing. Boyd's
husband Alexander illustrated some of her books, and they later emigrated to
New Zealand.
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Boyd, Prudence
see BRADLEY, NORAH MARY
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BOYLE,
[CONSTANCE] NINA (ANTONINA) (21 Dec 1866 – 4 Mar 1943)
1920s – 1930s
Militant suffragist,
journalist, and author of a dozen mystery and adventure novels, often
featuring strong female protagonists. Titles are Out of the Frying Pan (1920), What Became of Mr. Desmond
(1922), Nor All Thy Tears (1923), Anna's (1925), The
Stranger within the Gates (1926), Moteley's Concession (1926), The
Rights of Mallaroche (1927), Treading on Eggs (1929), The Late
Unlamented (1931), My Lady's Bath (1931), How Could They?
(1932), and Good Old Potts! (1934). Boyle was imprisoned three times
for her suffrage efforts with the Women's Freedom League, and was one of the
first members of the Women Police Volunteers (WPV), which, according to her ODNB
entry, had "the role of offering advice and support to women and
children to help prevent sexual harassment and abuse."
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BRABY, MAUD
CHURTON (c1875 - 31 Dec 1932)
1910s
Journalist and author of
two novels—Downward: A 'Slice of Life'
(1910), about an unmarried mother, and The
Honey of Romance (1915)—and two early marriage manuals, Modern Marriage and How to Bear It
(1909) and The Love-Seeker: A Guide to
Marriage (1913).
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BRADBY,
VIOLET [ALICE] (26 Dec 1871 – 21 May 1956)
(née Milford, incorrectly
listed in BL catalogue as “Violet Brady”)
1910s – 1930s
Successful author of
children's fiction whose work seems to make liberal use of fairies. Titles
include Matthew and the Miller
(1909), The Capel Cousins (1912), Judy and the Others (1916), Lodgings to Let (1918), The
Fairy Gifts (1919), The Crimson
Ramblers (1921), Potter's Haven
(1923), The Broken Lilies (1924), More Fairy Gifts (1926), The Four Little Brothers (1928), Meadowsweet Farm (1934), and One at Bedtime (1936).
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BRADLEY, ANNE (dates unknown)
1950s
Untraced author of four children's titles, including
The Widening Path (1952), The Problem Patrol (1957), The Guides in Hanover Lane (1958), and
Katherine at Feather Ghyll (1959).
The last was reviewed here and recommended as a good housekeeping story.
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BRADLEY, NORAH MARY (27 Dec 1897 – 25 Mar 1979)
(married name Gibbs, aka Prudence Boyd, aka Lisette
Garland, aka Sharon Heath, aka Noelle Ireland, aka Felicity Kerr, aka Lynne
Merrill, aka Claire Ritchie, aka Nina Shayne, aka Heather Wayne, and Sara Whittingham)
1940s – 1970s
Author of more than 60 romantic novels, at first
mainly using the name Claire Ritchie, but branching into numerous other pen
names by the late 1960s. Her many titles include The Sheltered Flame (1949), Love
Builds a House (1950), Bright
Meadows (1951), Lighted Windows
(1952), Sun on the Sea (1954), The Gentle Wind (1954), Dreaming River (1957), The Sunflower's Look (1958), Hatful of Cowslips (1960), The Fair Adventure (1961), Ride on Singing (1964), To Greet the Morning (1966), Daffodil Journey (1966), Nurse at Moorcroft Manor (1967), Hope Is My Pillow (1967), Happiness Wears a Red Coat (1969), Nurse Elaine and the Sapphire Star
(1973), Rainbow Romance (1974), Castle Perilous (1979), and Lodestone for Love (1980).
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BRADLEY,
NORMA (dates unknown)
1940s
Untraced author of two
girls' school stories—The New Girl at
Greylands (1948) and Ghostly Guests
at Greylands School (1949).
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BRADSHAW, ANNIE (1859 – 23 May 1938)
(née Cropper)
1880s – 1930s
Author of around a dozen novels, many of which seem
to be thrillers or melodramas (or perhaps both). Titles include A
Crimson Stain (1885), Wife or
Slave? (1890), False Gods
(1897), The Gates of Temptation
(1898), Ashes Tell No Tales: A Dramatic
Story (1906), The Rags of Morality
(1911), Her Ordeal (1922), Chained to the Wheel (1934), For Love's Own Sake (1936), and Her Guardian Lover (1937). One of her
final works, Murder at the Boarding
House (1936), might be a more straightforward mystery. Tracking her
novels is complicated by the fact that there were reprints during her
lifetime, some possibly with alternate titles.
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BRADSHAW,
NINA (27 Mar 1893 - ????)
(pseudonym of Marguerite
Hills, aka Maureen Heely)
1930s – 1960s
Author of dozens of
romantic novels, including Wild
Sanctuary (1933), The Beach of Lost
Souls (1934), Knight in Armour
(1935), Millionaire's Widow (1938),
The Short Chain (1940), The Four Friends (1946), The Way of the Huntress (1948), The Artist's Daughters (1950), Girl of the Woods (1952), Stern Sentinel (1956), and Appointment with Romance (1960).
According to Channel Islands Occupation Registration Cards on Ancestry, she
lived on Jersey during the Nazi occupation.
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BRAHMS,
CARYL (8 Dec 1901 – 5 Dec 1982)
(pseudonym of Doris
Caroline Abrahams)
1930s – 1970s
Playwright, children's author, theatre critic, and
novelist, best known for a series of humorous mysteries and novels
co-authored with S. J. Simon. The mysteries include A Bullet in the Ballet (1937), Casino for Sale (1938, published in the US as Murder à la Stroganoff), Envoy on Excursion (1940), and Six Curtains for
Stroganova (1945, published in the US as Six Curtains for Natasha).
Their other collaborations are The Elephant Is White (1939), Don't, Mr
Disraeli! (1940), No Bed for Bacon (1941), Titania Has a Mother (1944), No Nightingales (1944), Trottie True (1946), and You Were There (1950). Following
Simon's sudden death, Brahms wrote songs for television, collaborated with
Ned Sherrin on numerous plays and television screenplays, and wrote several
more novels, some also with Sherrin. These include Away Went Polly (1952), Cindy-Ella,
or, I Gotta Shoe (1962), No
Castanets (1963), Rappel 1910
(1964), Benbow Was His Name (1967),
and Enter a Dragon, Stage Centre
(1979).
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BRAMSTON,
MARY [ELIZA] (1841 – 2 Feb 1912)
1860s – 1910s
Half sister of Esme
STUART. Author of more than 50 volumes of fiction for children and adults, as
well as religious writings. She was also, according to Sims & Clare, the
"first British writer to develop a series … about the same group of
girls and women, which included a significant amount of school
interest." That series includes The
Snowball Society (1877), Home and
School (1883), Rosamond Ferrars
(1875), and Rosamond's Girls
(1905). Her novels include Erick
Thorburn (1869), Cecy's
Recollections: A Story of Obscure Lives (1870), The Panelled House: A Chronicle of Two Sisters' Lives (1872), The Carbridges: A Suburban Story
(1874), Em, or, Spells and
Counter-Spells (1877), The Thorn
Fortress: A Tale of the Thirty Years' War (1879), The Heroine of a Basket Van (1886), Apples of Sodom (1889), Abby's
Discoveries (1891), Five Victims: A
Schoolroom Story (1892), Punch,
Judy, and Toby (1896), Miss Carr's
Young Ladies (1897), The Villagers
in Town (1900), The Fortunes of
Junia (1906), The Failure of a
Hero: A Tale of Shakesperian Days (1909), and Pastor Oberlin: A Family Chronicle of the Eighteenth Century (1912).
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BRANCH,
PAMELA [JEAN] (1920 – 25 Nov 1967)
(née Byatt, other married
names Faulker and Stuart-Lyon)
1950s
Author of four
widely-acclaimed humorous mysteries, which in their time drew comparisons to
the Marx Brothers, Nancy SPAIN, and Evelyn Waugh. The Wooden Overcoat (1951) centers around murders at the Asterisk
Club, a London association for "wrongfully acquitted murderers." The Lion in the Cellar (1951), which
the Spectator called a
"charnel-house frolic," is about a family descended from a long
line of hideous murderers. Murder Every
Monday (1954) again makes use of the members of the Asterisk Club, who
have now started to teach courses on committing the perfect murder, only to
find an unexpected one in their midts. And Murder's Little Sister (1958), named by Carolyn Hart as one of
her five favorite mysteries of all time, is about the zany criminal goings-on
at a popular magazine—including the attempted murder of a suicidal columnist.
According to Rue Morgue Press, which reprinted all four of Branch's titles, a
fifth novel, set in the Scottish Highlands, was in the works by 1962, but it
never appeared and a few years later Branch died of cancer at the age of 47.
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BRAND,
CHRISTIANNA (17 Dec 1907 – 11 Mar 1988)
(pseudonym of Mary
Christianna Milne, married name Lewis, aka Mary Ann Ashe, aka Annabel Jones,
aka Mary Roland, aka China Thomson)
1940s – 1970s
Author of mysteries,
romance, and children's fiction. Best known for her seven Inspector Cockrill
mysteries—Heads You Lose (1941), Green for Danger (1944), set in a
hospital during the Blitz, Suddenly at
His Residence (1946, aka The
Crooked Wreath), also making use of WWII, Death of Jezebel (1948), set in the immediate postwar period, London Particular (1952), Tour De Force (1955), and The Three Cornered Halo (1957), as
well as a series of stories, The
Spotted Cat and Other Mysteries from Inspector Cockrill's Casebook
(2002). She wrote two novels featuring Inspector Charlesworth—Death in High Heels (1941) and The Rose in Darkness (1979)—and two
more featuring Inspector Chucky—Cat and
Mouse (1950) and A Ring of Roses
(1977, under her pseudonym Mary Ann Ashe). Her other novels include The Single Pilgrim (1946, writing as
Mary Roland), Welcome to Danger
(1949), Starrbelow (1958, writing
as China Thompson), Dear Mr. MacDonald
(1959), Heaven Knows Who (1960), Blood Brothers (1965), My Ladies' Tears (1965), Twist for Twist (1967), Court of Foxes (1969), Alas, for Her That Met Me! (1976,
writing as Mary Ann Ashe), The Honey
Harlot (1978), and The Brides of
Aberdar (1982). For a change of pace, she also wrote the three children's
books which form the basis of Emma Thompson's Nanny McPhee films—Nurse
Matilda (1964), Nurse Matilda Goes
to Town (1967), and Nurse Matilda
Goes to Hospital (1975).
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BRASH,
MARGARET M[AUD]. (7 Feb 1880 – 17 Oct 1965)
(aka John Kendall)
1920s – 1950s
Author of nearly two dozen
novels, at least some of which are historical adventures. Titles include Jannock (1928), The Rooftree Rides (1929), Over
the Windmills (1932), Cresset
Lights (1935), All Valiant Dust
(1937), Singing Dust (1942), Vagabond Hope (1945), The Silver Ladder (1949), Proud Pageant (1953), and Ride Forth Singing (1958). Under her
pseudonym, she published one science-fiction novel, Unborn Tomorrow (1933), set in 1995 and dealing with a U.K.
beaten-down by Communist rule and on the brink of revolution.
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Braybrooke,
Frances
see WELLESLEY-SMITH, FRANCES
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BRAZIL,
ANGELA (30 Nov 1868 – 13 Mar 1947)
1900s – 1940s
One of the most prolific and widely-known writers of
girls' school stories (though not the inventor of the genre, as has been
claimed), Brazil (pronounced Brazzle) is known for her flowery prose and her
characters' frequent use of creative slang. She published 47 school stories
in all, often dealing with schoolgirls solving mild mysteries. Titles include
The Fortunes of Philippa (1906), A Fourth Form Friendship (1911), A Pair of Schoolgirls (1912), The Youngest Girl in the Fifth (1913),
The Girls of St. Cyprian's (1914), For the Sake of the School (1915), The Head Girl of the Gables (1919), The Madcap of the School (1922), Captain Peggie (1924), The Little Green School (1931), The School at the Turrets (1935), An Exciting Term (1936), and The Secret of the Border Castle
(1943). A few of her books, such as in The
Luckiest Girl in the School (1916), A
Patriotic Schoolgirl (1918), and For
the School Colours (1918), include references to World War I, though they
generally present war in the most idealized way, and during World War II,
Brazil published The Mystery of the
Moated Grange (1942) and The Secret
of Border Castle (1943), both of which involve evacuated schools. In
1925, Brazil published her only memoir, My
Own Schooldays.
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