|
BIBESCO, ELIZABETH [CHARLOTTE LUCY] (26 Feb 1897 – 7
Apr 1945)
(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.
|
|
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), a love story set against the backdrop of
south England, and Village of Rosemary
(1965), about which little information is available.
|
|
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."
|
|
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).
|
|
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).
|
|
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).
|
|
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).
|
|
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.
|
|
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.
|
|
BIRCH, VERA [BENEDICTA] (29 Apr 1899 – 22 Jan 1983)
(née Gage, aka Camilla
Tracy)
1920s, 1940s – 1950s
Author of two quirky humorous novels and one children's book. Under her own
name, she published a very early children's book, The Green-Faced Toad and Other Stories (1921)—illustrated by Lois
Lenski no less—and the novel Game for
One Player (1947). Her second novel, Cousin
Charles (1950), appeared under her pseudonym. I reviewed the latter here. Thank you to Pamela
McKirdy for her help identifying Birch and her works.
|
|
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).
|
|
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.
|
|
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).
|
|
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).
|
|
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).
|
|
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.
|
|
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?
|
|
Blackstock,
Charity
see TORDAY, URSULA
|
|
Blackstock, Lee
see TORDAY, URSULA
|
|
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).
|
|
Blair, Joan
see OLIVER, JANE and STAFFORD,
ANN
|
|
Blair,
Kathryn
see WARREN, LILLIAN
|
|
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).
|
|
Blake, Andrea
see WEALE, ANNE
|
|
Blake, Monica
see MUIR, MARIE
|
|
BLAKE, SNOWDON (4 Oct 1903 – 7 Jul 1945)
(pseudonym of Freda Mansell, née Sneath)
1930s
Author of three novels of nautical adventure—Nor Helm Nor Compass (1935), Something
About a Sailor (1936), and Next
Port Eldorado (1937). Of the second, the publisher said that it
"tells us how Jack Friendship mastered peril on the sea, served King and
Empire and loved a little lady half tomboy and half fairytale princess."
One review mentions that the first novel, at least, might have been a
collaboration, perhaps with her husband Arthur Mansell, but other references
refer only to her.
|
|
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).
|
|
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).
|
|
BLAZEY, [CLARA] WINIFRED (21 Dec 1891 – 19 Jul 1964)
1930s – 1940s
Author of four
novels—Dora Beddoe (1936), a
psychological drama with crime elements, Indian
Rain (1938), set in 18th century India, The Crouching Hill (1941), a mystery about the murder of a school
mistress, and Grace Before Meat
(1942), set before the war and dealing with a young village schoolteacher who
encounters a murder. Blazey was a close friend of Gladys MITCHELL, and they
appear on the 1939 England & Wales Register teaching at the same school
in Buckinghamshire.
|
|
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.
|
|
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.
|
|
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.
|
|
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, aka April Thorn)
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.
|
|
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.
|
|
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.
|
|
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).
|
|
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).
|
|
Blundell, Mary
see FRANCIS, M. E.
|
|
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).
|
|
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).
|
|
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.
|
|
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).
|
|
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), recently
reprinted in the British Library Women's Classics series, 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), a humorous mystery involving an inheritance and a spooky old house, and
The Romance of a Very Young Man
(1930). Thank you to Bella Caravelli for information about Murder on the Underground.
|
|
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).
|
|
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).
|
|
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.
|
|
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).
|
|
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.
|
|
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.
|
|
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.
|
|
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.
|
|
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).
|
|
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.
|
|
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.
|
|
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).
|
|
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.
|
|
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).
|
|
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?
|
|
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).
|
|
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.
|
|
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).
|
|
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.
|
|
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.
|
|
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).
|
|
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.
|
|
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).
|
|
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).
|
|
Bourne,
Lesley
see MARSH, JEAN
|
|
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.
|
|
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).
|
|
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).
|
|
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.
|
|
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.
|
|
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.
|
|
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.
|
|
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.
|
|
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!
|
|
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.
|
|
Boyd, Prudence
see BRADLEY, NORAH MARY
|
|
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."
|
|
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).
|
|
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).
|
|
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.
|
|
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).
|
|
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).
|
|
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.
|
|
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.
|
|
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).
|
|
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).
|
|
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.
|
|
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).
|
|
BRANDON, GRANIA (21 May 1902 - ????)
(full name Grania Lillian Mary Joyce Brandon)
1930s – 1950s
Daughter of mystery writer John G. Brandon. Author of a highly-praised novel,
Upon This Rock (1936), about a show
business family in the early 20th century. She later turned her attentions to
children's fiction with a series of tales about a family-run circus,
beginning with Sengler's Circus.
One final story for children was The
Prews Go North (1956), "about a delightful family who go to live in
a derelict farmhouse on the Yorkshire moors." Despite her father's
prominence, official records of Grania are difficult to find, apart from the
fact that she was living in London when her first book appeared and in Essex
with her parents on the 1939 England & Wales Register.
|
|
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.
|
|
Braybrooke,
Frances
see WELLESLEY-SMITH, FRANCES
|
|
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.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment