MCALPINE, JESSIE (10 May 1901 – 27 May 1979)
(married name Prentice)
1930s
Author of three girls' school stories set at large public schools and with,
according to Sims and Clare, an emphasis on character development—The Dominant Fifth (1930), Allies in the Fourth (1933), and Growing Up at St Monica's (1937).
|
Mcculloch,
Sarah
see URE, JEAN [ANN]
|
MCDONALD, EVA [ROSE] (30 Mar 1909 – 30 Aug 1998)
1950s - 1980
Author of nearly 40 volumes of historical romance. Titles include Lazare the Leopard (1959), The Rebel Bride (1960), The Prettiest Jacobite (1961), The Maids of Taunton (1963), The Runaway Countess (1966), Lord Byron's First Love (1968), The French Mademoiselle (1970), Regency Rake (1973), Cromwell's Spy (1976), Cry Treason Thrice (1977), Candlemas Courtship (1978), John Ruskin's Wife (1979), and House of Secrets (1980).
|
MCELWEE, PATIENCE [ARDEN] (12 Jul 1910 - 1963)
(misspelled Macelwee in
the British Library catalogue, née Kennington)
1930s – 1960s
Wife of novelist William McElwee and author of 12 volumes of fiction for
children and adults. Her three children's pony stories—Match Pair (1956), Dark
Horse (1958), and The Merrythoughts
(1960)—are known by fans of the genre and are described here. Her nine adult novels,
however, though praised by critics for their cheerful humor, were never
reprinted. Titles are Roman Holiday
(1939) (apparently no connection to the film of the same name), Love, or Money? (1946), Pride of Place (1950), Wintersweet
(1954), Gainfully Employed (1955), Beggar My Neighbor (1956), Time's Fool (1957), Malice Domestic (1958), and A House for Olivia (1961).
|
McEvoy,
Marjorie
see HARTE, MARJORIE
|
MCFADDEN, GERTRUDE VIOLET (9 Dec 1878
– 15 Mar 1963)
(aka John Milbrook)
1910s – 1920s
Author of at least a dozen novels, including The Honest Lawyer (1916), His
Grace of Grub Street (1918), The
Turning Sword (1922), Sheriff's
Deputy (1924), So Speed We
(1926), The Bride’s Groom (1928),
and—under her pseudonym—A Bridport
Dagger (1930).
|
MCKAY, ANN (dates unknown)
1940s
Unidentified author
of a single children's title, Riddleton
Roundabout (1942), described in a publisher's blurb as the "story of
a country family, by an author who is only 14."
|
MCLAINE, KATHLEEN (dates unknown)
1940s – 1950s
Author of one girls' school story, Jean
at St Hilary's (1949), and one additional children's title, When Jesus Was a Boy (1954). John
Herrington found two possible IDs for her, but we can't confirm which is the
author.
|
MCLAREN, AMY (EMILY LOUISA) (1859 - 1935)
1900s – 1920s
Scottish
novelist who also wrote for People's
Friend. She published at least eleven volumes of fiction, including From a Davos Balcony (1903), about a
woman who finds love while nursing her aunt in a Swiss sanatorium, and Bawbee Jock (1910), about a woman who
marries a poor Scottish laird without telling him she's actually wealthy. The
others are The House of Barnkirk
(1905), The Yoke of Silence (1911),
With the Merry Austrians (1912), Through Other Eyes (1914), The Heir of Duncarron (1916), Donald's Trust (1916), Dominie's Hope (1925), The Bonnie Earl (1926), and Devil's Paradise (1929).
|
MCLAREN, CHRISTABEL (12 Dec 1890 – 7
Aug 1974)
(née MacNaghten, aka Baroness Aberconway)
1920s
Author of one novel, The Divine Gift
(1929), described as a "mystery novel of a woman who makes a startling
discovery when she searches the bags of two fellow train travelers." She
also published a collection of poems and what appears to be a children's
book, The Story of Mr. Korah
(1954), illustrated by Rex Whistler.
|
MCLEOD, IRENE RUTHERFORD (21 Aug 1891 –
2 Dec 1968)
(married name de Sélincourt)
1910s – 1920s
Primarily known as a poet (and as the mother-in-law of Christopher Robin
Milne), McCleod also published two novels, Graduation (1918), about the coming of age of a young woman, and Towards Love (1923), about a
conscientious objector in WWI. Contemporary reviews seem to have found them
humorless and sentimental.
|
MCMANUS, LOTTIE (CHARLOTTE)
[ELIZABETH] (c1850 - 1941)
1890s – 1920s
Memoirist and author of at least eight novels. Her White Light and Flame: Memories of the Irish Literary Revival and the
Anglo-Irish War (1929) explores her own conflicted feelings about England
and Ireland. Her novels include The Red
Star (1896), Lally of the Brigade
(1899), In Sarsfield's Days (1906),
Nuala: The Story of a Perilous Quest
(1908), and The Professor in Erin
(1918).
|
MCMINNIES, MARY (13 Jun 1920 – 10 Sept
1978)
(née Jackson)
1950s
Author of two novels—The Flying Fox
(1956), set among a group of British officials and their families in the
Malay Peninsula, and The Visitors
(1958), with a similar cast of characters in Poland. Both received critical
praise, and the latter was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection. Neglected
Books discussed The Visitors here.
|
MCNEILL, JANET (14 Sept 1907 - 1994)
(married name Alexander)
1950s – 1970s
Author of more
than three dozen works for children, some for younger readers, and ten novels
for adults. Both her debut novel, A Child in the House (1955), and her later children's book, The Battle of St.
George Without (1966), were
filmed for television. Her second novel, Tea at Four O'Clock (1956),
was reprinted by Virago in the 1980s. The other novels are The Other Side
of the Wall (1956), A Furnished Room (1958), Search Party
(1959), As Strangers Here (1960), The Early Harvest (1962), The
Maiden Dinosaur (1964, aka The Belfast Friends), Talk to Me
(1965), and The Small Widow (1967). Among her fiction for children,
she is also known for her "Specs McCann" series of children's
books, beginning with My Friend Specs McCann (1955). She was also the
author of around 20 radio plays.
|
MEADE, L. T. (5 Jun 1844 – 26 Oct 1914)
(pseudonym of Elizabeth
Thomasina Meade, married name Smith)
1860s – 1910s
Enormously prolific author best known for her girls' stories, though she also
wrote romance, thrillers, and sensation novels as well as works that explored
social problems. Among her girls' titles are A World of Girls: The Story of a School (1886), The Palace Beautiful (1887), The Lady of the Forest (1889), Engaged to Be Married: A Tale of To-day
(1890), A Sweet Girl-Graduate
(1891), Betty, a School Girl
(1894), The Cleverest Woman in England
(1898), The Girls of St. Wode's
(1898), Girls of the True Blue: A
School Story (1901), The Rebel of
the School (1902), A Gay Charmer
(1903), A Madcap (1904), Betty of the Rectory (1908), A Girl of To-day (1910), The Girls of Merton College (1911), Kitty O'Donovan: A School Story
(1912), The Chesterton Girl Graduates
(1913), and The Darling of the School
(1915). In the 1890s, Meade collaborated with Clifford Halifax M.D.
(pseudonym of Edgar Beaumont) to write six volumes of crime stories,
including Stories from the Diary of a
Doctor. Some of Meade's other mysteries or thrillers include The Brotherhood of the Seven Kings
(1899), which introduced a female master villain, The Sorceress of the Strand (1903), A Maid of Mystery (1904), I
Will Sing a New Song (1909), and Micah
Faraday, Adventurer (1910).
|
MELLERSH, KATE (KATHARINE) [ALLPORT] (c1853 – 16 Mar 1931)
(née Wright)
1910s – 1930s
Author of inspirational poetry and nearly a dozen children's titles,
including one girls' school story, Hetty
the Discoverer (1926). Other titles are He She and It (1910), The
Scarlet Button (1911), His By Right
(1913), Peter & Pepper (1914), Helen's Venture (1920), Norah's Own Island (1923), Miss Rosemary Mistary (1932), Mary and Muggs (1934), Gerard and Jessie the Explorers
(1935), and Alison's Exile (1936).
|
Melville, Jennie
see BUTLER, GWENDOLINE
|
Mendl, Gladys
see SCHUTZE, GLADYS HENRIETTA
|
MENZIES,
EMMA L[OUISA]. (1884 - 1972)
(née Millen)
1930s
Author of a single humorous epistolary novel, Achachlacher (1936), about life in a Scottish manse. The novel is
in three parts and appears to have first been published in three short
segments. The 1936 edition collecting all three segments contains the
message: "Copies of the book may be had from
Mrs. Menzies,
High Manse, Tobermory, Isle of Mull."
|
MENZIES-WILSON, JACOBINE [JOANNA
NAPIER] (29 May 1892 – 19 Dec 1955)
(née Napier-Williamson)
1940s
Mother of Jacobine HICHENS. Biographer and author of four novels. September to September (1940) is,
according to The Tablet, "the
simple story of a prosperous country-dwelling family in the year between
Munich and the outbreak of war." The others—The Eye of a Needle (1942), At
First Light (1944), and August at
Acrelands (1946)—continue the family's tale through the end of the war.
|
Meredith, Anne
see MALLESON, LUCY BEATRICE
|
MERREL, CONCORDIA (9 Sept 1886 – 18
May 1963)
(pseudonym of Mary Phyllis Joan Morton, née Logan,
earlier married name Dyall)
1920s – 1930s
Model featured in the 1910
"Kodak Girl" ad campaign, and author of nearly 30 romances. Her
titles include Heart's Journey
(1924), Ordeal by Marriage (1926), The Seventh Miss Brown (1927), The Man Without Mercy (1929), Sally Among the Stars (1930), The Cads' Party (1931), Adam—and Some Eves (1931), and Love's Hazard (1934).
|
Merrill, Lynne
see BRADLEY, NORAH MARY
|
Messer, Mona
see HOCKING, [NAOMI] ANNE
|
METCALFE, EDITH (dates unknown)
1900s – 1910s
Untraced author of several novels, only two of which—Pyramids of Snow (1903) and The
Handle of Sin (1917)—seem to have appeared in book form. Other serialized
titles include Wife in the Background
(1907), The Target Heirloom (1907),
and Canon Wolverton’s Indiscretion
(1909).
|
METHLEY, VIOLET M[ARY]. (26 Nov 1882 – 8 Mar 1953)
1910s – 1950s
Playwright, children's author and novelist. She published in the neighborhood
of 40 children's books, including several girls' school stories. Some of her
titles are Miss Quixote (1916), Jill-in-Office (1921), The Bunyip Patrol (1926), Held to Ransom (1928), Margaret and Her Friends (1933), The Girls at Sandilands (1934), The Forest Family (1938), Two in the Bush (1945), and Armada, Ahoy! (1953). At least four of
her books—The Loadstone (1914), A Daughter of the Legion (1924), The Husband-Woman (1926), and The Last Enemy (1936)—appear to be
novels for adults
|
MEYLER, EILEEN (27 Dec 1900 – 5 Dec 1983)
(full name Eileen Sylvia
Meyler Shean)
1950s – 1970
Author of a
dozen or so children's titles, including some historical tales and a series
of holiday stories featuring the Elwood family at their summer cottage in
Dorset. The former include The Gloriet
Tower (1956), set in a medieval castle, The Story of Elswyth (1959), set in Saxon England, and Apple Harvest (1970), which involves
Monmouth's rebellion. The later stories include Adventure in Purbeck (1955), Adventure
on Ponies (1959), Adventure Next
Door (1960), and Adventure at
Tremayne (1963).
|
MEYNELL, ESTHER [HALLAM[ (15 Sept 1878
– 4 Feb 1955)
(née Moorhouse)
1910s, 1930s –
1950s
Daughter-in-law and sister-in-law, respectively, of Alice Meynell and Viola
MEYNELL. Author of biographies, nonfiction, and five novels, including Grave Fairytale (1931), Quintet (1933), Time's Door (1935), Lucy
and Amades (1938), and Tale Told to
Terry (1950). Her memoir is A Woman
Talking (1940). Her brother-in-law, Francis Meynell, was the founder of
Nonesuch Press.
|
MEYNELL, VIOLA [MARY GERTRUDE] (15 Oct 1885 – 27 Oct 1956)
(married name Dallyn)
1910s – 1950s
Daughter of poet Alice
Meynell and sister of Francis Meynell, the founder of Nonesuch Press. Author
of more than a dozen works of fiction, including Martha Vine: A Love Story of Simple Life (1910), Lot Barrow (1913), Modern Lovers (1914), Antonia (1921), Kissing the Rod and Other Stories (1937), and Ophelia (1951).
|
MEYRICK, GWENLLIAN [CLARA RICHMOND] (5
Sept 1908 – 21 Feb 1997)
(married name Strafford)
1950s – 1960s
Author of six novels. The Disastrous
Visit (1956) was described by a bookseller as "set among an ordinary
family in London in the 1950's," and a blurb sums up Shed No Tear (1961): "Catherine,
a twenty-year-old art student, married Hugo Thornton knowing that he had been
attached to the elegant Mrs. Olivia Seymour, but after a while Hugo begins to
tire of family life." The others are The
Morning-Room (1950), Change of Air (1952),
Against the Stream (1953), and The Second Wife (1957). I've written
about Meyrick's work several times—see here.
|
MIALL, AGNES M[ACKENZIE]. (3 Mar 1892 – 31 May 1977)
1910s – 1950s
A prolific author on sewing and homemaking, whose The Bachelor Girl's Guide to Everything (1916) was reprinted in
2008, Miall also published fiction for children and adults. She published two
children's titles in her early twenties—Meddlesome
Mattie (1913) and William the
Silent (1914)—followed by an adult novel, Love's Young Dream (1922), nearly a decade later. She doesn't
appear to have published fiction again until The Schoolgirl Fugitives (1943), which was followed by Pigeons of Leyden (1945), The Girl Without a Name (1947), Huguenot Wedding: A Story of the Massacre
of Saint Bartholomew (1947), The
Holiday Camp Mystery (1950), and Spy
in the Circus (1953).
|
MICHAEL, INA (3 Nov 1899 – 30 Jul 1986)
(pseudonym of Lady
Caroline Magdalen Oppenheimer, née Harvey)
1920s
Author of one novel, Apple Sauce
(1928), described in an advertisement as "the bittersweet adventure of a
love-starved woman and a love-sought man," and one non-fiction title, The Bride's Book (1933).
|
MIDDLETON, ANNE (dates unknown)
1920s – 1930s
Untraced author of nine romances, including Morgan's Daughter (1920), The
Woman in His Way (1921), Her
Borrowed Paradise (1926), Married
for Her Money (1927), The Hidden
Wife (1929), The Delayed Proposal
(1931), and Two Men and a Girl
(1933).
|
MIDDLETON, IVY F[LORENCE]. E[MILY].
(29 Apr 1909 – 4 Nov 1985)
1930s – 1960s
Author of nearly a dozen works of fiction, including girls' stories which
appear to center around the Rangers, several featuring the same main
character, Kay. Titles include The
Adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel Patrol (1937), The Fourth Musketeer (1940), and A Challenge for the Poppies (1965). Two late titles, More Precious than Gold (1947) and This Is the Confidence (1948), could
be Christian-themed adult fiction.
|
MIDDLETON, MARGARET (dates unknown)
1920s – 1930s
Untraced author of seven girls' titles, most apparently focused on Guiding.
Titles are The Guide Camp at Heron's
Bay (1927), The Guide Adventurers
(1929), The House of Golden Hind
(1930), Three Girls and a Car
(1931), The Health of Your Camp
(1932), Castle's Fortune (1934),
and The Island Camp (1935).
|
MIDDLETON, V. C. (24 May 1899 – 26 Jan
1955)
(pseudonym of Verna Coralie Middleton Welsby, née
Rogers, earlier married name Luscombe)
1920s
Author of a single novel, Tilled Soil
(1928), about which information is scarce.
|
MILES, [ISA] CONSTANCE (22 Jun 1881 – 22 Jan 1962)
(née Nicoll, aka Marjory
Damon, aka Marjory Royce, aka Martin Swayne [uncredited])
1910s – 1930s
Journalist, children's author, and novelist. Most of her children's fiction
was published as Marjory Royce, though she seems to have used her Damon
pseudonym for a title co-written with Celia DAMON. Titles include Dinah Leaves School (1913), The Unwilling Schoolgirl (1913), Eileen, the Lone Guide (1924), Sara Sat-Upon at School (1927, with
Damon), Happy Cottage (1930, with
Barbara Euphan TODD), and Anne on the
Island: A Story of Sark (1936). A couple of early Royce titles, The Girl With No Proposals: An Episode of
1913 (1918) and The Desperate
Marriage (1919), may be for adults or older girls. Although Lord Richard in the Pantry (1911) was
credited to Martin Swayne, the pseudonym of Constance's brother Maurice
Nicoll, it's clear from later references to the book that it was a
collaboration between the two. The book became a play and then finally a film
in 1930—which makes it easier to comprehend that the first of two later
novels under Miles' real name was a sequel, Lady Richard in the Larder (1932), of which Bookman said: "The dialogue is brisk and amusing, whether
Lord Richard and his wife, each needlessly jealous, are quibbling and
sulking, whether the Marchioness is endeavouring to reduce her figure, or
whether Tubby Banister is consulting a psychoanalyst to find out why he does
not sleep." Her other novel, Coffee,
Please (1933), was described by a bookseller as a "[r]omantic
adventure set in the near future when a Labour Government is in power and the
domestic servant crisis is worsening," at which time coffee-making has
become a precious skill. Miles' WWII diary was published in 2013 as Mrs. Miles's Diary. Her sister,
Mildred Robertson Nicoll (1898-1995), was also a writer, though apparently
not of fiction.
|
MILES, EDITH (23 Feb 1898 – 27 Feb 1978)
1920s - 1940
Author of school stories for both boys and girls, including The Girl Chums of Norland Road (1930),
A Mysterious Schoolgirl (1931), That School Next Door (1931), Midbourne School (1933), and The Adventures of Clarice (1937), The Red Umbrella (1937), and Moonshine Island (1940). I wrote about
Girl Chums here. Miles was herself a
schoolteacher in London's East End, but according to a post by her
great-nephew here, she was forced to retire
in 1927 after scarlet fever deprived her of her hearing—an event which may
have inspired her writing career, since her first book appeared in 1929.
|
MILES, SUSAN (16 Sept 1887 – 12 May 1975)
(pseudonym of Ursula
Roberts, née Wyllie, aka Ursula Roberts)
1930s – 1950s
Primarily known as a poet, Miles published three novels. Blind Men Crossing a Bridge (1934) is about a clergyman's
marriage to a country girl. TLS
said it was "an unusual and powerful novel, inspired by a lofty
ambition." Rabboni (1942) was
a highly experimental novel about a family in Wales, while Lettice Delmer (1958), a novel in
verse which has been reprinted by Persephone, is partly set during World War
I. She wrote a memoir and kept a World War II journal, both of which remain
unpublished.
|
MILLAR, ANNE (dates unknown)
1940s
Untraced author of a single girls' school story, Kids' Corner (1946).
|
Milbrook, John
see MCFADDEN, GERTRUDE VIOLET
|
MILLER, BETTY (1910 – 24 Nov 1965)
(née Spiro)
1930s – 1940s
Author of seven novels—The Mere Living
(1933), Sunday (1934), Portrait of the Bride (1936), Farewell Leicester Square (1941), A Room in Regent's Park (1942), On the Side of the Angels (1945), and The Death of the Nightingale (1948). On the Side of the Angels deals
powerfully with gender roles as revealed by wartime experiences. Her earlier
novel, Farewell Leicester Square,
available from Persephone, explores anti-Semitism in the British film
industry. It was written several years before the war, but was rejected by
her publisher and only finally appeared in 1941. She also published a
biography of Robert Browning in 1958. Her "Notes for an Unwritten
Autobiography" appeared in Modern
Reading 13 1945.
|
MILLER, MARGARET J[ESSY]. (27 Aug 1911
– 21 Mar 1996)
(married name Dale)
1960s – 1980s
Children's author whose works often focused on Scotland. Titles include Seven Men of Wit (1960), The Queen's Music (1961), The Powers of the Sapphire (1962), Gunpowder Treason (1968), Willow and Albert (1968), Plot for the Queen (1969), and The Far Castles (1978). Not to be
confused with novelist Margaret DALE.
|
MILLIGAN, ELSIE [MARION] (1898 - ????)
(née Burr)
1950s – 1960s
Author of more than 20 volumes of children's fiction, much of it set in
Africa, including one school story, Tennis
Champion (1961). Others include Kachibinda,
Little Hunter (1956), Stephen On
Safari (1958), Penny Goes Exploring
(1959), Far To Go (1960), Penny Goes A-Camping (1962), and Distilled as Dew (1966). She was a
missionary in what is now Zambia from the 1920s to early 1940s. She retired
to South Africa for health reasons and took up writing, but we have been
unable to locate a record of her death.
|
MILLS, CLARE (dates unknown)
1920s
Untraced author of a single short romance, Her Broken Idol (1924).
|
MILLS, DOROTHY RACHEL MELISSA (11 Mar 1889 – 4 Dec 1959)
(née Walpole)
1910s – 1920s
Adventurer,
travel writer, and novelist. She wrote several books about her journeys in
Africa and South America, including The
Road to Timbuktu (1924), The Golden
Land: A Record of Travel in West Africa (1929), and The Country of the Orinoco (1931), as well as nine novels. Her
novels appear to be melodramatic adventure with occasional science-fiction
themes. Titles are Card Houses
(1916), The Laughter of Fools
(1920), The Tent of Blue (1922), The Road (1923), The Arms of the Sun (1924), The
Dark Gods (1925), Phoenix
(1926), Master! (1927), and Jungle! (1928). Her memoir is A Different Drummer (1930).
|
MILLS, GLYNN (dates unknown)
(pseudonym of Myra
Illingworth)
1950s – 1960s
Author of 11 volumes of fiction. Her debut, Never Alone (1954), about which details are lacking, seems to
have been marketed to adults, but her other books all seem to be for younger
readers. Titles are Alison of Noggarth
Hall (1956), They Came to Camp
(1956), Master of Crow Trees
(1957), Great Deliverances (1958), Christmas at Lynton Hall (1958), Over the Border (1958), Danger at Calham Cove (1959), Marilyn Investigates (1961), The Secret of the Forest (1962), and According to Plan (1963). The above
pseudonym comes from the British Library catalogue. If their identification
is correct, she might be the Myra Illingworth born 25 July 1914, died 9 Oct
1981.
|
MILLS, [JANET] MELANIE [AILSA] (1 Apr 1894 – 1 Jul 1987)
(aka J. M. A. Mills, aka
HK Challoner)
1920s – 1940s
Theosophical writer and author of five novels—The Way Triumphant (1927), Marsh
Fires (1928), The Tomb of the Dark
Ones (1937), Lords of the Earth
(1940), and There Will Your Heart Be
(1945). Her best known work was The
Wheel of Rebirth (1935), about reincarnation. She was the companion of
Rose ALLATINI for many years.
|
MILNE, ANGELA [MARY] (2 Sept 1909 – 24 Dec 1990)
(married name Killey)
1940s
Punch journalist and author of
a single novel, One Year's Time (1942), about the love life of a young
woman. The Guardian said that is was "reminiscent of the bright
young nineteen-twenties" and went on: "One has wondered how the
apocryphal story went on after the stunning first sentence '"Hell,"
said the Duchess.' Perhaps this novel suggests an answer." Milne later
published a collection of essays, Jam and Genius (1947).
|
MILNE, J[ANE]. P[ATERSON]. (c1898 – 14 Oct 1976)
1920s – 1950s
Author of nine boys' and girls' school stories characterized by real world
adventures and thriller elements. Titles are Mystery at Towerlands (1929), Thrills
at Heatherley School (1932), The
Adventures of Jig & Co. (1934), The
Mystery of Rainley House (1934), The
Mysterious Term at Merlands (1937), The
Boys of Moorfield School (1939), Harriet
G. at St. Hilary's (1949), The
Chums of Study Ten (1949), and The
Mystery of Gaily More (1955).
|
MILNE RAE, JANET (8 Jul 1844 – 24 Apr
1933)
(née Gibb, aka Mrs. Milne Rae)
1870s – 1920s
Scottish missionary and author of about ten novels, including Morag (1872), Hartleigh Towers (1880), Dan
Stapleton's Last Race (1881), Marion's
Story, or, Softly All My Years (1887), Rinaultrie (1887), The
Testing of Clem (1909), Bride
Lorraine (1911), A Bottle in the
Smoke (1912), The Whipping Boy
(1914), and The Awakening of Priscilla
(1929). The birth date above is from an Ancestry family tree, but I haven't
found an official record.
|
MILNES GASKELL, CATHERINE [HENRIETTA]
(1856 – 1 Aug 1935)
(née Wallop)
1900s – 1930s
Author of several volumes of sketches of Shropshire life, including Episodes in the Lives of a Shropshire Lass
and Lad (1908) and Friends Round
the Wrekin (1914), and two later titles that appear to be novels—A Woman's Soul (1919) and The Greater Love (1921).
|
MIRRLEES, [HELEN] HOPE (8 Apr 1887 – 1 Aug 1978)
1910s - 1920s
Student and companion of classical scholar Jane Harrison. Poet and author of
three novels—Madeleine: One of Love's
Jansenists (1919), dealing with lesbianism in 17th century France, The
Counterplot (1924), about
a woman sublimating her sexual desires by writing a play, and Lud-in-the-Mist (1926), a fantasy
about a town invaded by madness-inducing fairy fruit, which has been
reprinted in recent years. As a poet, she is best known for Paris (1920), first published by the
Hogarth Press, which is now regarded by some scholars as an important
modernist work.
|
MITCHELL, AGNES C[HRISTIE]. (1867 – 13
Dec 1937)
1900s - 1940
Author of more than 60 romances, probably short, inexpensive newsprint
novels. Titles include The Spinning of
Fate (1907), A Bride Betrayed
(1920), The Wilful Wintons (1921), The Love That Wins (1923), A Border Maid (1926), and The Best of Three (1930).
|
MITCHELL, ELIZABETH HARCOURT (15 Dec 1833 – 16 Sept 1910)
(née Rolls)
1860s - 1910
Poet, hymnist, author of religious-themed non-fiction, and novelist. Among
her nearly 20 volumes of fiction, many of them also featuring religious
themes, are The Ballad of Sir Rupert: A
Ghost Story (1855), The Lighthouse
(1860), Kate, the Pride of the Parish
(1862), Hatherleigh Cross (1864), The Beautiful Face (1879), Golden Horseshoes (1884), The Church in the Valley (1886), Grains of Wheat (1900), Rachel's Secret (1905), and Harriet's Treasure (1910).
|
MITCHELL, GLADYS [MAUDE WINIFRED] (19 Apr 1901 – 27 Jul 1983)
(aka Stephen Hockaby, aka
Malcolm Torrie)
1920s – 1980s
Major Golden Age mystery author, referred to by no less a figure than Philip
Larkin as “the great Gladys.” Author of 66 novels featuring the eccentric
forensic psychiatrist Beatrice Adela Lestrange Bradley (later Dame Beatrice).
Among her most acclaimed Mrs. Bradley tales are The Saltmarsh Murders (1932), Come
Away, Death (1937), St. Peter's
Finger (1938), When Last I Died
(1941), Laurels Are Poison (1942), The Rising of the Moon (1945), Tom Brown's Body (1949), and The Twenty-Third Man (1957). Early in
her career, she published five historical novels as Stephen Hockaby,
including Marsh Hay (1933), Seven Stars and Orion (1934), Gabriel's Hold (1935), Shallow Brown (1936), and Grand Master (1939). In the 1960s and
1970s, she published six non-Mrs. Bradley mysteries as Malcolm Torrie.
Mitchell also wrote nine children's titles, mostly mysteries, but including On Your Marks, a girls’ career novel focused
on Mitchell’s own area of expertise, physical education, which was reprinted
by Greyladies a few years ago. I wrote a bit about Mitchell here, and there's an excellent
and informative tribute site here.
|
MITCHELL,
YVONNE (7 Jul 1915 – 24 Mar 1979)
(born Yvonne Frances Joseph)
1960s – 1970s
Actress,
playwright, children's writer, biographer, and author of seven novels. The Bed-Sitter (1959) is about a
refugee from Hitler's Germany and his affair with a struggling actress, while
Frame for Julian (1960) focuses on
a painter and his family living in the South of France. A Year in Time (1964) traces the difficult beginnings of a young
actress, The Family (1967) is about
the troubled relations between a widower and his three daughters, and in Martha on Sunday (1970) an actress
engages in soul-searching during her Sunday off. I could find no details
about God Is Inexperienced (1974),
but her final novel, But Answer Came
There None (1977), is about a dying woman's views of her past, Heaven,
and Hell. Mitchell wrote two children's books, Cathy at Home (1965) and Cathy
Away (1967), as well as at least one play, The Same Sky (1953), a memoir, Actress (1957), and an acclaimed biography, Colette: A Taste for Life (1975). Her film roles included The Divided Heart (1954) and Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957), and
she earned acclaim on television as Cathy in a 1953 production of Wuthering Heights and in a 1973 BBC
production of Colette's Cheri.
|
MITCHISON, NAOMI [MARY MARGARET] (1 Nov 1897 – 11 Jan 1999)
(née Haldane)
1920s – 1990s
Politically
engaged author of more than 50 works of fiction. Mitchison began her career
writing historical novels like The
Conquered (1923), set in Roman Britain, The Corn King and the Spring Queen (1931), set in ancient Sparta
and Egypt, and The Blood of the Martyrs
(1939), set in Nero's Rome. These often used historical situations to comment
on contemporary social and political issues, and Mitchison was able to be
rather daring in her portrayal of sexuality because her historical settings
made it more palatable. She ran into controversy, however, when she attempted
the same edginess in novels such as We
Have Been Warned (1935), set in the present. The Bull Calves (1947), which commented on war and gender issues,
is perhaps her best-known novel. Virago reprinted some of her novels in the
1980s. In later years Mitchison explored other genres, including science
fiction—in her novels Memoirs of a
Spacewoman (1962) and Notably Not
by Bread Alone (1983)—several acclaimed works for children, and three
volumes of memoirs, Small Talk
(1973), All Change Here (1975), and
You May Well Ask (1979). Her wartime Mass Observation diary was
published as Among You Taking Notes
in 1985.
|
MITFORD, NANCY [FREEMAN-] (28 Nov 1904 – 30 Jun 1973)
(married name Rodd)
1930s – 1960s
Biographer and author of eight novels, most famously her popular
autobiographical family comedies The Pursuit of Love (1945) and Love
in a Cold Climate (1949) based on her own eccentric and widely varied
family, including her sisters Diana, who married British fascist Oswald
Mosley and was interned with him for most of World War II, Unity, also an
avid supporter of Hitler, and Jessica, a prominent member of the Communist
Party. Her other novels are Highland
Fling (1931), about generational discord, Christmas Pudding (1932), a romantic comedy, Wigs on the Green (1935), which mocks the British Fascists led by
sister Diana's husband, Pigeon Pie
(1940), set during the "Phoney War," The Blessing (1951), about an English woman married to a
philandering Frenchman, and Don't Tell
Alfred (1960), a sequel to Love in
a Cold Climate that was considerably less well-received. She also
published successful biographies such as Madame
de Pompadour (1953), Voltaire in
Love (1957), and The Sun King
(1966), the last about Louis XIV.
|
MITTON, G[ERALDINE]. E[DITH]. (14 Oct 1868
– 25 Apr 1955)
(married name Scott)
1900s – 1920s
Author of travel books,
biographies for children, and several novels. The latter include The Gifts of Enemies (1900), The Opportunist (1902), The Two-Stringed Fiddle (1919), Bitter Harvest (1926), The Wife of the Pig Dealer (1927), and
Hidden Corners (1928),
|
MOBERLY, L[UCY]. G[ERTRUDE]. (24 Dec
1860 – 20 Mar 1931)
1900s – 1930s
Author of more than 60 novels, probably romantic in nature. Titles include A Great Patience (1902), That Preposterous Will (1906), A Very Doubtful Experiment (1909), Christina (1912), Sunshine All the Way (1918), Undying
Music (1922), Wheels Within Wheels
(1925), Scapegoats of Circumstance
(1926), Little Greatheart (1928), The Eternal Dustbin (1930), A Mystery Chain (1932), and Behind Park Gates (1933).
|
MOCATTA, FRANCES (21 Feb 1895 – 31 Dec
1982)
(pseudonym of Dorothy Allen Degen, married name
Mocatta, aka Christopher Noel)
1920s – 1930s
Author of a baker's dozen novels. The
Forbidden Woman (1927) is about the scandal of mixed-race relationships,
and Enchanted Dust (1938) is about
a plastic surgeon in search of perfect female beauty. Others include Thine Shall Be Mine (1926), Silver Gilt (1932), Immodest Violet (1935), and Clubs Are Trumps (1939).
|
MOCKLER, GERALDINE [MARY CECILIA] (1
Oct 1868 – 23 Apr 1967)
1890s – 1910s
Author of more than two dozen children's titles, including one early girls'
school story, The Girls of St. Bede's
(1898). Other titles include A Long
Chase: The Story of a Seaside Adventure (1896), Edie's Adventure (1902), The
Rebellion of Margaret (1910), and Cousin
Betty: A Tale for Girls (1913).
|
Moffatt, Marion
see CLAVERING, MOLLY
|
MOLESWORTH, MARY LOUISE (29 May 1839 –
20 Jul 1921)
(née Stewart, aka Ennis Graham)
1850s – 1910s
One of the best-known British women writers of children's books. Most of her
works were for younger children, but a few were longer works of fiction,
including one of her last, Fairies
Afield (1911). Early in her career, she also wrote adult fiction under
her pseudonym, including Lover and
Husband (1870), Not without Thorns
(1873), and Cicely: A Story of Three
Years (1874).
|
Mollett, B.
see CLAVERING, MOLLY
|
MOLONY, ALICE (dates unknown)
1940s
Illustrator and author of a single children's novel, Lion's Crouch (1944), "an exciting story about spies in
Cornwall", for which she also provided illustrations. She also
illustrated two works by Kitty BARNE.
|
MONTAGU, ELIZABETH (4 Jul 1917 – 10 Jan 2006)
1950s – 1960s
Author of three
novels and one story collection, which were acclaimed in her lifetime by the likes of John Betjeman and Graham
Greene. The novels are Waiting for
Camilla (1953), The Small Corner
(1955) and This Side of the Truth
(1957), the collection is Change and
Other Stories (1966). She worked as a nurse in London during World War
II.
|
MONTAGUE, NELL ST. JOHN (27 Jun 1881 – 22 Aug 1944)
(pseudonym of Eleanor
Lilian Helene Standish-Barry, née Lucie-Smith)
1920s – 1930s
"Clairvoyant"
and author of three novels—Under Indian
Stars (1929), The Poison Trail
(1930), and Love That Ruins!
(1931). She also wrote a memoir, Revelations
of a Society Clairvoyant (1926). She died in an air raid on London in August
of 1944.
|
MONTGOMERY, FLORENCE [SOPHIA] (17 Jan
1843 – 8 Oct 1923)
1860s – 1910s
Author of more than a dozen volumes of fiction, including novels and
works for children. Her most famous work was Misunderstood (1869), called a tearjerker about a boy with a
neglectful father. Her final work, Behind
the Scenes in a School Room (1914), about the experiences of a young
governess, qualifies her for this list. Other titles include A Very Simple Story (1866), Wild Mike and His Victim (1874), Colonel Norton (1895), and An Unshared Secret and Other Stories
(1903).
|
MONTGOMERY, K. L.
(pseudonym of Kathleen Montgomery [1 May 1863 – 22
Dec 1960] and Letitia Montgomery [1860- 23 Oct 1930])
Sisters who
worked together as translators and novelists. Their fiction was mostly
historical, including The Cardinal's
Pawn (1903), The Ark of the Curs
(1906), Colonel Kate (1908), The Gate-Openers (1912), and Maids of Salem (1915).
|
MONTRESOR, F[RANCES]. F[REDERICA]. (1862
– 17 Oct 1934)
1890s – 1910s
Author of nearly a dozen volumes of "intelligent romantic fiction,"
according to OCEF. The Strictly Trained Mother (1913) is
described as "a quiet satirical comedy about the elderly, bullied mother
of two strong-minded daughters who conspires with a suffragette granddaughter
to escape from them." Others include Into
the Highways and Hedges (1895), False
Coin or True? (1896), The Alien: A
Story of Middle Age (1901), A Fish
Out of Water (1908), and The
Burning Torch (1912).
|
MOON, LORNA (16 Jun 1886 – 2 May 1930)
(pseudonym of Helen Nora Wilson Low, earlier married
name Hebditch)
1920s
A successful screenwriter for the likes of Cecil B. DeMille, Moon contracted
tuberculosis and during her treatment wrote a story collection, Doorways in Drumorty (1925), and an
acclaimed novel, Dark Star (1929),
about her youth in Scotland. Her Collected
Works were published in 2002. In addition to her two husbands, she had a
relationship with Cecil B. DeMille's brother William, with whom she had a son
who was adopted by Cecil.
|
MOORE, DORIS [ELIZABETH/BESSIE]
LANGLEY (23 Jul 1902 – 24 Feb 1989)
(née Levy)
1950s – 1960s
Fashion historian, scholar, biographer, author of self-help books, and
novelist. She published six novels—A
Winter's Passion (1932) The Unknown
Eros (1935), They Knew Her When: A
Game of Snakes and Ladders (1935, revised and reprinted in 1955 as A Game of Snakes and Ladders), Not at Home (1948), All Done by Kindness (1951), and My Caravaggio Style (1959). I reviewed
the four later novels here and here, and they were reprinted as Furrowed Middlebrow
titles from Dean Street Press in 2020. Among her self-help books are The Pleasure of Your Company: A Text-book
of Hospitality (1933) and Our
Loving Duty, or, The Young Housewife's Compendium (1936), both co-written
with her sister June Langley Moore. She was the first biographer of E. NESBIT
(1933, expanded edition 1966), and her book, containing many interviews with
family members and other contemporaries, has been heavily relied on by
subsequent scholars. Moore was also one of the first serious historians of
fashion. Her books The Woman in Fashion
(1949) and The Child in Fashion
(1953) were important in establishing fashion as a serious field of study,
and she was also responsible for the establishment of the Fashion Museum now
located in the Assembly Rooms in Bath. She occasionally worked as a costume
designer for film and theatre, including designing Katharine Hepburn's
dresses for The African Queen
(1951). On top of all that, Moore was an important Byron scholar, and was the
first non-family member to work with a large collection of Byron-related
papers owned by Byron's great-granddaughter. My Caravaggio Style, her final novel, deals with a forged version
of Byron's lost memoirs, and the final scene, in which a group of Byron
scholars gather to analyze the memoirs, features an appearance by Moore
herself. Remarkably, ODNB notes
that "she had no formal education."
|
MOORE, DOROTHEA [MARY] (27 Feb 1880 –
19 May 1933)
1900s – 1930s
Author of more than 60 volumes of children's fiction, including more than two
dozen girls' school stories with far-fetched but compelling plots. Titles
include A Plucky School-Girl
(1908), Terry the Girl-Guide
(1912), Septima, Schoolgirl (1915),
Wanted, An English Girl (1916)—set
in Germany during WWI—A Nest of
Malignants (1919), The New Prefect
(1921), The Only Day-Girl (1923,
reprinted by Girls Gone By), Smuggler's
Way (1924), and Sara to the Rescue
(1932).
|
MOORE, EDITH MARY [ELIZA] (16 Sept 1871 – 26 Jan 1949)
1900s – 1930s
Author of
philosophical novels with socialist leanings, exploring gender roles, war,
and urban life, which were well-reviewed at the time. Teddy R.N.D. (1917) and The
Blind Marksman (1920) deal with World War I, though the Orlando Project
notes that she had to rely entirely on her imagination for her battle scenes.
Other titles include The Lure of Eve
(1909), The Idealist and Mary Treherne
(1910), and A Wilful Widow (1913).
|
MOORE,
E[UNICE]. HAMILTON (1877 – 30 Dec 1964)
(married name Gordon)
1910s – 1930s
Poet,
playwright, and author of at least six novels. Her debut, The Rut (1913), subtitled "A
Novel of Revolt against Domesticities", sounds like a rather bleak tale
of a wife and mother who attempts to escape social norms and fails. The Garden of Love (1914) was
described as "the story of a great and tragic love", while her
later The Virgin Crowned (1928)
deals with an unmarried mother. Other titles are The Dreamer Wakes (1927), The
House of Refuge (1927), and Pharoah's
Lady (1931). Moore published several volumes of poetry and wrote a number
of one-act and other plays.
|
MOORE, KATHLEEN (dates unknown)
1930s
Untraced author of more than a dozen romances, including Spanish Nights (1928), The Eternal Lure! (1931), Her Corsican Mating (1931), The Wrong Bridegroom! (1932), Her Lover's Folly (1933), and She Loved a Murderer (1934).
|
MOORE, LESLIE (19 Jan 1888 – 4 Jul
1978)
(pseudonym of Ida Constance Baker)
1900s – 1930s
Children's author and novelist. Her first two titles, The Happy League (1908) and Five
Children and Their Adventures (1911), were for children, while her 14
later works were all for adults. Aunt
Olive in Bohemia, or, The Intrusions of a Fairy Godmother (1913) and The Peacock Feather: A Romance (1913)
both deal humorously with the literary and artistic life. Other titles
include The Cloak of Convention
(1912), The Jester (1915), Antony Gray, Gardener (1917), The House Called Joyous Garde (1922), The Lady's Maid (1928), and The Money Magnet (1937).
|
MOORE, MARJORIE (23 Jan 1897 – 2 Dec 1983)
(pseudonym of Marjorie Violet Coburn, née Chetham)
1930s – 1950s,
1970s
Author of 20 Mills & Boon romances spread over an unusual period of time.
Was she using other as-yet-unidentified pseudonyms as well? Titles include Copper Beeches (1934), Moon Magic (1936), Blossoms of Spring (1940), Forgive and Forget (1948), Sister Nairn (1954), and Follow a Dream (1976).
|
MOORE, OLIVE (25 Jan 1901 - 1979)
(pseudonym of Miriam
Constance Beaumont-Vaughan, married name Botzarich/Botzaris, previously
erroneously identified as Constance Edith Vaughan [1904-1986])
Author of three
well-received, highly experimental modernist novels—Celestial Seraglio (1929), Spleen
(1930), and Fugue (1932)—and an essay collection, The Apple Is
Bitten Again (1934), Moore then fell into complete obscurity until her Collected Writings appeared in 1992
and her work began to receive academic attention. I'm pleased that my naïve
inquiry to researcher John Herrington led to her previous misidentification
being cleared up. I described how that came about here.
|
MORD, PHYLLIS (dates unknown)
1910s
Untraced author of a single girls' school story, The Taming of Winifred (1917).
|
MORDAUNT, ELINOR (7 May 1872 – 25 Jun 1942)
(pseudonym of Evelyn May
Clowes, married names Wiehe and Bowles, aka Jack Heron)
1900s – 1940s
Travel writer and author of more
than 40 volumes of fiction. In A Very Great Profession, Nicola Beauman
singled out The Family (1915) and The Park Wall (1916) for
their domestic interest. Other novels include A Ship of Solace
(1912), Lu of the Rangers (1913), The
Rose of Youth (1915), While There's
Life (1919), Short Shipments (1922), The Dark Fire (1927), Mrs.
Van Kleek (1933), Here Too Is
Valour (1941), and To Sea! To Sea!
(1943). Her travel works, very popular in their day, include On the Wallaby Through Victoria
(1911), The Venture Book (1926),
and Purely for Pleasure (1932). She
also published one children's adventure tale under the pseudonym Jack Heron. Blitz Kids (1941) is a spirited
wartime tale narrated by a 10-year-old girl. Mordaunt's memoir was Sinabada (1937).
|
Moresby, Louis
see BARRINGTON, E.
|
MORGAN, JOAN (1 Feb 1905 – 22 Jul 2004)
1940s – 1970s
Silent film
actress turned playwright and novelist. Author of more than a dozen works of
fiction. Camera! (1940) is a portrait of the early British film
industry, while Citizen of Westminster (1940), which I reviewed here, is set at a large apartment complex modelled after
London’s Dolphin Square. Ding Dong Dell (1943) deals with wartime
refugees. Other novels are Many Sided
Mirror (1944), Toad Beneath the
Harrow (1946), He Lives Amid Clouds
(1947), The Lovely and the Loved (1948), The Lost Child (1949), The
Hanging Wood (1950), Sensitive
Plant (1955), Gentlemen's Relish
(1962), and Seven Springs to Gravesend
(1972). Her most famous play was This
Was a Woman (1944)
|
MORGAN, LORNA NICHOLL (20 Aug 1913 –
15 Nov 1993)
1940s
Author of four mystery novels in the 1940s— Murder in Devils' Hollow (1944), Talking of Murder (1945, briefly discussed here), The Death
Box (1946), and Another Little
Murder (1947). The last two were reprinted in 2016 and 2017, the latter
under the title Another Little Christmas
Murder. Morgan emigrated to the U.S. in 1954 and remained there until her
death, but details of her later life seem to be lacking.
|
Morice,
Anne
see SHAW, FELICITY [ANNE
MORICE]
|
MORIN, MAUD [AUGUSTA MARY] (17 Sept 1871 – 5 Jan 1958)
1920s – 1950s
Author of various stories and short plays for younger children, as well
as three well-received school stories for older readers—To the Fray, St. Agatha's! (1935), That Red-Haired Girl in Thorn's (1936), and Sally of the Fourth (1937)—which Sims & Clare call
"lively and entertaining."
|
Morley, Elisabeth
see FAIRBANK, EVELEEN LENORA
|
MORLEY, IRIS [VIVIENNE] (10 May 1910 – 27 Jul 1953)
(married names Coates and
Jacob)
1930s - 1950s
Journalist,
historian, and author of seven novels. Her debut, The Proud Paladin (1936), was described as "the life story
of the lovely and valiant Duchess of Melor, the 'Proud Paladin' of the Middle
Ages." She continued with historical fiction in her most famous work, a
trilogy—Cry Treason (1940), We Stood for Freedom (1941), and The Mighty Years (1943)—set in 17th
century England with a somewhat Marxist sensibility. Nothing but Propaganda (1946) was a partially autobiographical
novel about a young woman who lives in the U.S. for a time, marries
unhappily, divorces, then marries a Communist journalist. The story ends in
England during World War II. Morley spent some of the war as a correspondent
in Moscow, as did her second husband, journalist and novelist Alaric Jacob,
out of which experience grew Not
Without Fantasy (1947), a satirical tale of journalists in wartime
Moscow. I've not found any details about her final novel, The Rack (1952). Morley published
historical works on ballet—Soviet
Ballet (1945) and The Rose and the
Star (1949, with Phyllis Manchester)—as well as A Thousand Lives: An Account of the English Revolutionary Movement,
1660-1685 (1954), published posthumously. According to newspaper accounts
of her death, she was terminally ill with cancer but was not told of the
severity of her condition. She fell ill during a vacation in Cornwall,
intended to restore her strength, and died a few days later.
|
MORLEY, SOPHIE S. (dates unknown)
1920s – 1940s
Untraced author of one girls' school story, The Art Prize (1946), two earlier works of children's fiction, Annie's Adventure and Other Children's
Stories (1926) and The Flemings and
Their Friends (1939), and two plays, Heart
of Youth (1935) and Bunty and
Billy, or, Round the Fairy Bush (1935), both subtitled "missionary
plays."
|
MORRIS, ELIZABETH KEITH (30 Apr 1876 -
1959)
(née Elizabeth Wathes Phillips, married name Morris;
Keith was her husband's middle name, which she apparently adopted)
1930s
Author of two travel books—An
Englishwoman in the Canadian West (1913) and Hungary: The Land of Enchantment (1931)—and what appears to be a
novel, Black Eagle (1930), though
details are sketchy.
|
MORRIS, KATHARINE (22 May 1910 - 1999)
(aka Mollie Morris)
1930s, 1950s
Author of five novels dealing with English country life—New Harrowing (1933, as Mollie Morris), Country Dance (1951), The
Vixen's Cub (1952), The House by
the Water (1957), and The Long
Meadow (1958)—after which she appears to have stopped publishing.
|
MORRISON, EMMELINE [SHAW] (15 Nov 1884
– 7 Dec 1968)
(née Cottrill)
1920s - 1970
Author of nearly 70 light (and apparently very successful) novels, described
as romances but perhaps along the same lines as Elizabeth CADELL. Red Poppies (1928) is about a woman
spy in World War I. The Last of the
Lovells (1928), Countisbury: A
Romance of South Devon (1933), and An
Open Secret (1939) are interconnected. Others include Good Grain (1921), Swept by the Tide (1925), Sir Joseph's Guests (1929), Fidelis (1932), Merrywood (1937), Miss
England (1942), The Year Outgrows
the Spring (1949), Count Carol: A
Romance of Mid-Europe Early in This Century (1953), Cat's Cradle (1960), and No
More Such Days (1970).
|
Morrison, Margaret Mackie
see COST, MARCH
|
MORRISON,
N[ANCY]. [AGNES] BRYSSON [INGLIS] (24 Dec 1903 – 27 Feb 1986)
(aka
Christine Strathern)
1930s – 1970s
Biographer and novelist. Her third novel, The Gowk Storm (1933), about three
sisters on a Scottish manse, was a Book Society selection and was reprinted
in 2001. Her other novels under her own name are Breakers (1930), one of the first portrayals of the highland
clearances, Solitaire (1932), The Strangers (1935), When the Wind Blows (1937), These Are My Friends (1946), a verse
narrative about the life of Jesus Christ, The
Winnowing Years (1950), The Hidden
Fairing (1951), The Keeper of Time
(1953), The Following Wind (1954), The Other Traveller (1957), Thea (1962), and Haworth Harvest: The Story of the Brontes (1969). She also
published more than two dozen romantic novels under her pseudonym, including The Buchanans Move In (1943), Sun on His Face (1951), and April Folly (1953).
|
Morrison, Peggy
see COST, MARCH
|
MORROW, CHARLOTTE (29 May 1906 - 1998)
(pseudonym of Mary [Molly] Morrow, married name
Kirwan)
1960s
Author of three novels—The Singing and
the Gold (1960), The Noonday Thread
(1962), and The Watchers (1963).
The first, which was in Barbara Pym's library, is about seven years in the
life of a young girl. Presumably she is the same author who published three
children's titles in the 1970s—The
Glory House (1972), The Marigold
Cut (1975), and The Rain Woman
(1978).
|
Morrow, Jacob
see MANNING, OLIVIA
|
MORTIMER, PENELOPE [RUTH] (19 Sept 1918 – 19 Oct 1999)
(née Fletcher, earlier
married name Dimont, aka Penelope Dimont)
1940s – 1980s
Memoirist,
biographer, and author of ten novels, including bitterly humorous tales of marriage and motherhood. Daddy's Gone a-Hunting (1958,
reprinted by Persephone) deals with a troubled marriage, while The Pumpkin Eater (1962) is about a
mother's emotional breakdown. The latter was made into a film with Peter
Finch and Anne Bancroft in 1964. Her other novels are Johanna (1947, as Penelope Dimont), A Villa in Summer (1954), The
Bright Prison (1956), Cave of Ice
(1959), My Friend Says It's Bulletproof
(1968), The Home (1971), Long Distance (1974), and The Handyman (1983). Her memoirs are About Time (1979) and About Time Too: 1940-78 (1993). She
also wrote one controversial royal biography, Queen Elizabeth: A Life of the Queen Mother (1986). Her second
husband was John Mortimer, creator of the Rumpole
mystery series.
|
Mortlake, G. N.
see STOPES, MARIE
|
Morton,
Cecil
see MARTIN, CLARA [ISABELLE]
|
MORTON, STELLA [MARGARET] (12 Sept 1902 – 4 Feb 1991)
(married name Dover)
1920s – 1960s
Author of
sixteen novels about which little information is available. Titles are Turn of Days (1939), Shadow of Wings (1940), Garden of Paradise (1942), The Convoys Pass (1942), "And We Shall Build—"
(1943), Listen Beloved (1945), "Out of Tomorrow—" (1947), This Brittle Glory (1948), The Unfamiliar Name (1950), Source of the River (1952), The Unrelenting Day (1954), Jan (1955), The Everlasting Answer (1957), The Strong Are Bound (1958), Bring
Back the Singing (1959), and The
Unchanging Shore (1961).
|
MOSELEY, MABOTH (11 Jul 1906 – 16 Oct 1975)
1930s
Author of four novels—Cold Surge
(1930), This Lady Was a Gentleman
(1931), God Created Them Apart
(1932), and War Upon Women (1934),
the last a futuristic comedy about a dictator's affects on women. Later, she
wrote a biography of inventor Charles Babbage (1964).
|
Mossop, Irene
see SWATRIDGE, IRENE MAUDE
|
MOUNTAIN, ANNE (dates unknown)
1940s
Untraced author of one girls' school story, The Ghost of Aston Abbey (1948), set in an Anglican convent and
told from both adult and children's perspectives, and one other work of
fiction, The Green Bracelet (1947).
|
MOYES, PATRICIA (19 Jan 1923 – 2 Aug 2000)
(née Pakenham-Walsh, later married name Haszard)
1950s – 1990s
Mystery writer whose novels usually feature Scotland Yard Chief Inspector
Henry Tibbett and his wife Emmy, whose close, convincing relationship and
believable teamwork add depth to the series. Moyes incorporated many of the
interests she and her husband shared in real life, resulting in vivid details
about skiing in her debut novel Dead
Men Don't Ski (1959) and sailing in the follow-up, The Sunken Sailor (1961, aka Down
Among the Dead Men), as well as details of life in the Netherlands in Death and the Dutch Uncle (1968) and Night Ferry to Death (1970). Murder a la Mode (1963) reflects her
time working for Vogue, and Falling Star incorporates her
experiences in the film industry. Johnny
Under Ground (1965) makes prominent retrospective use of Emmy's wartime
experiences (based on Moyes' own in the Radar Section of the British Women's
Auxiliary Air Force). Other titles include Death on the Agenda (1962), To
Kill a Coconut (1966, aka The
Coconut Killings), Who Saw Her Die?
(1970, aka Many Deadly Returns), The Curious Affair of the Third Dog
(1973), A Six-Letter Word for Death
(1983), and Twice in a Blue Moon
(1993). Moyes also wrote one mystery for teen readers, Helter Skelter (1968). I've written about several of her books here.
|
MOYNIHAN,
C. C. (20 Oct 1907 – 1975)
(full name Claire Chadwick Moynihan, née Clara
Klein, name change to Chadwick, earlier married name Lustgarten)
1940s
Author of three
novels—A Song for Your Sorrows
(1945), about the problems of a young married couple, described by one critic
as "on the sob side but full of humanity", Foreigner's Child (1947), and Before
the Fruit Comes (1948). She emigrated to the US in the 1950s and died in
Brooklyn.
|
MUIR, MARIE [AGNES] (25 Aug 1904 -
1998)
(née Johnson, aka Monica Blake, aka Monica Clynder,
aka Barbara Kaye [but not to be confused with Barbara KAYE, listed
separately], aka Jean Scott)
1930s – 1980s
Author whose publishing history spans nearly five decades, including romance
novels under her several pseudonyms, as well as several children's books in
the 1950s-1960s, among them a series about the Torridon family. Titles
include In a Web of Sin (1936), Laird of Castle Croy (1949), Torridons' Triumph (1960), The Browns of Bencraig (1967), Steps in the Dark (1968), The Passion-Flower Hedge (1972), The Girl in Room 750 (1972), and Blind Flight (1983). Although she and
Barbara Kenwick Muir both wrote under the name Barbara Kaye (and even for the
same publisher), they do not appear to be related. See Barbara KAYE. Thanks
to John Heap at the British Library for additional information regarding this
author.
|
MUIR, SUSAN (22 Aug 1903 – 8 Oct 1992)
(pseudonym of Nina Cairns Robinson, married name
Griffiths)
1930s – 1940s
Author of three novels—On Ordinary Feet
(1939), Nigel's Daughters (1943),
and Time Is Whispering (1945)—about
which little information is available.
|
MUIR, WILLA (WILHELMINA) [JOHNSTONE] (13 Mar 1890 – 22 May 1970)
(née Anderson, aka Agnes
Neill Scott)
1930s
Known for her
translations, with husband Edwin, of Kafka and other prominent German
writers, Muir also published three novels—Imagined Corners (1931), Mrs. Ritchie (1933), and Mrs.
Grundy in Scotland (1936)—and a memoir, Belonging (1968). Two
later novels remain unpublished.
|
MULHOLLAND, CLARA (1849 – 30 May 1934)
1870s – 1920s
Sister of Rosa GILBERT. Children's author and novelist whose work,
according to OCEF, has "a
pious Catholic cast." Titles include The
Little Bog-Trotters (1878), Percy's
Revenge (1887), A Striking Contrast
(1895), The Lost Chord: A Story for
Girls (1905), Through Mist and
Shadow (1909), Sweet Doreen
(1915) and Her Last Message (1926).
|
MUNDAY, MADELEINE C[ONSTANCE]. (7 or 17 Nov 1895 – 6
Mar 1981)
1930s
Author of three romantic novels—The
Coast Road (1932), Gypsy Heart
(1933), and The Ravelled Sleeve
(1933). She also wrote a travel book about The Far East (1935) and a volume of journalism, Rice Bowl Broken (1946), about Japanese
activities in China 1936-1941. Different records give her birthdate as 7 Nov
or 17 Nov.
|
MUNDY-CASTLE, [AGNES] FRANCES (6 Jul 1898 – 13 Nov 1975)
(née Whitehouse, aka Peggy
Whitehouse, aka Quiet Woman)
1920s – 1940s
Poet and author of at least eight novels, all but one as Peggy Whitehouse. The Chemist's Wife (1940) was
described by one critic as "Madame
Bovary in a different key", but details of her other fiction are
lacking. Other titles are Oscar Strom
(1927), Stairs of Sand (1927), A Young Woman Grows Up (1928,
published under her own name), Collingridge
(1930), Mortal Measure (1932), Discovery by Torchlight (1933), and Mary by the Lake (1946). She has also
been identified as the author of A
Democrat's Chapbook (1942), published under the name "Quiet
Woman," which was subtitled "a chronicle of some of the events of
the present war, up to the entry of America, December 1941, with reflections."
|
MUNRO, ELSIE SMEATON (c1880 – 20 Dec
1961)
(married name Bilsland)
1910s – 1920s
Author of a story collection, Glasgow
Flourish: Short Sketches (1911), and a children's book, Topsy-Turvy Tales (1923).
|
Munro, Emma
see CLAVERING, MOLLY
|
Munro,
Mary
see HOWE, DORIS [KATHLEEN]
|
MURDOCH, [JEAN] IRIS (15 Jul 1919 – 8 Feb 1999)
(married name Bayley)
1950s – 1990s
Novelist and philosopher, known for the rich, complex, and often funny
explorations of good and evil in her 26 novels, complicated by her lack of
belief in a god but her simultaneous attraction to religion as a practice.
According to Peter J. Conradi in her ODNB
entry, "She wanted Buddhism to educate Christianity, to create a
non-supernatural religion." Among her most acclaimed novels are The Bell (1958), A Fairly Honourable Defeat (1970), The Black Prince (1973), The
Sea, the Sea (1978), which won the Booker Prize, and The Book and the Brotherhood (1987). Conradi goes on to say,
"Her best novels combine Dostoyevsky with Shakespearian romance and
love-comedy." Her major philosophical works were The Sovereignty of Good (1970), The Fire and the Sun (1977), and Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals (1992). She was diagnosed with
Alzheimer's in 1997. She was portrayed, both in early years and in her final
days, by Kate Winslet and Judi Dench in the film Iris (2001), based on husband John Bayley's memoir.
|
MURRAY, ELIZABETH [KATE] (4 Feb 1903 –
4 Apr 1997)
(married name Driver)
1920s – 1930s
Author of four novels—Comedy
(1927), The Partridge (1928), The Gilded Cupid (1930), and June Lightning (1932)—about which I've
found no details.
|
MURRAY, EUNICE GUTHRIE (21 Jan 1878 – 26 Mar 1960)
1910s
Suffragist and
biographer, author of two novels, The Hidden Tragedy (1917), about the suffrage movement, and The Lass He Left Behind (1918), about
working class women, as well as the non-fiction The Old School of Cardross: A Chapter in Village
Life (1950).
|
MURRAY, ROSALIND (17 Oct 1890 – 9 May 1967)
(married name Toynbee)
1910s – 1920s
Daughter of classical scholar Gilbert Murray and wife (for more than three
decades before a late divorce) of historian Arnold Toynbee. Author of five
novels, as well as later books about religion and faith. Her first novel, The Leading Note (1910), earned
acclaim from E. M. Forster. The others are Moonseed (1911), Unstable
Ways (1914), The Happy Tree
(1926), reprinted by Persephone in 2014, and Hard Liberty (1929).
|
Murray, Ruth
see GILBERT, ROSA
|
MURRAY, V[IOLET]. TORLESSE (27 Mar
1874 – 27 Oct 1956)
(née Holland)
1920s
Author of three novels and one play. A review of Surplus Goods (1924) says it "tells the life stories of four
girls under the modern conditions brought about by the preponderance in
numbers of women over men." Her other novels are The Call of Life (1923) and The
Rule of the Beasts (1925). Her play was Bringing It Home (1926).
|
MURRELL, SHIRLEY (25 May 1899 – 1 Aug 1986)
(pseudonym of Olive
Pitter, married names Edwards and Scott Hansen)
1940s – 1970s
Author of more than a dozen novels, many historical in theme. Titles are Perilous Rock (1948), Physician Extraordinary (1949), Farewell, Sweet Life (1950), Gentlemen's Country (1951), Squire Neptune (1952), Young Man's Fancy (1953), The Sin Flood (1954), My Lord Admiral (1954), Fortune of the Ships (1955), The Man from Martinique (1957), Children Under Arms (1958), King's Pawn, Queen's Honour (1959), The Young Josephine (1960), Royal Interlude (1962), The Young Ninon (1964), and Young Doctor Simpson (1971).
|
MUSKETT, NETTA [RACHEL] (1887 – 29 May 1963)
(née Hill, aka Anne Hill)
1920s - 1980
Author of nearly 70 romance and gothic novels under her own name and her
pseudonym, including The Jade Spider
(1927), The Flickering Lamp (1931),
The Shadow Market (1938), Love In Amber (1942), Cast The Spear (1950), The White Dove (1956), and The Fettered Past (1961).
|
MYERS, ELIZABETH (23 Dec 1913 – 24 May 1947)
1940s
Sister-in-law of Theodore, Llewelyn, & John Cowper Powys. Author of three
acclaimed novels—A Well Full of Leaves
(1943), about four siblings and their unhappy home life, The Basilisk of St. James’s (1945), a historical novel about
Jonathan Swift, and Mrs. Christopher
(1946), a psychological tale of murder. The last was made into a film
starring Dirk Bogarde. She also published numerous short stories. In 2013,
Sundial Press published a selection of her stories, some previously
uncollected, as Twenty-Two Tales.
|
MYERS, MARY (dates unknown)
1950s
Unidentified author of six novels—The
Thin Gold Ring (1950), The Immortal
Echo (1951), The Key Called Promise
(1952), Gold in the Dust (1953), A Candle to Saint Anthony (1954), and The Far-Off Fountain (1954)—the first
of which, at least, deals with Catholic themes.
|
MYLREA, NORAH (14 Oct 1904 – 21 Jun 1994)
(married name Easey)
1930s – 1950s
Author of nine children's titles, including six girls' school stories, most
with thriller elements—Lisbeth of
Browndown (1934), Browndown Again!
(1936), Unwillingly to School
(1938), That Mystery Girl (1939), Lorrie's First Term (1940), and Spies at Candover (1941). Others are The Story of Tarn (1947), Holiday Adventure (1949), and The Goose Green Mill Mystery (1952).
|
I highly recommend Cousin Betty by Geraldine Mockler. It's a really charming story in which the main heroines achieve their career dreams. I'm not quite sure when it was written but it seems 19-teensish. It's not a children's story.
ReplyDeleteThe Rebellion of Margaret is good too, as is The Four Miss Whittingtons.
Not difficult to find secondhand (online anyway).