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

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

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

You can download the entire list in a single PDF. Clicking on the link below will open a Google Docs page displaying the entire list in PDF. To save a copy of the PDF, just click on the little down arrow in the upper left. You can also print the list from the Google Docs page, but be warned that it now weighs in at 544 pages! 

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

[Current total: 2,391 writers] 

UPDATED 2/29/2024

 

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).

MCANALLY, GERTRUDE HELLEN (10 May 1879 - 28 Feb 1957) (née Sandilands) 1920s – 1930s Co-author, with Marguerite BRYANT, of two novels. The Chronicles of a Great Prince (1925) is a Ruritanian adventure set in 1817. Breakfast for Three (1930), a mystery set on fictional Redmoor, in which a wanderer comes across a cottage with a corpse inside, was praised for its local color.

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).

METCALFE, JOLLIFFE (22 Aug 1908 – 31 Jul 1944) (pseudonym of Alice Metcalfe) 1930s Playwright and author of two novels. Finished Abroad (1930) deals with a Swiss finishing school fo well-to-do girls, and Metcalfe adapted it into a successful play. Substitute (1932) is written in the form of a young man’s defense against a charge of philandering with three different women. Another play, They Do These Things in France, seems to have been less of a success. She also translated a play by Jean Giono in 1935. “Jolliffe” seems to have been a traditional middle name on her father’s side. Tragically, her premature death seems to have been by suicide.

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, FAVELL [MARY GATHORNE] (17 Oct 1886 – 3 Jan 1969) (née Hill) 1920 - 1930s Author of ten novels which seem to have largely melancholy themes. A contemporary review of Dark Dream (1929) calls it ““a study of a morbid, neurotic young woman, whose career is foredoomed to futility, if not (as actually turns out to be the case) to tragedy, so that over the whole book lies the shadow of a sort of despondent hopelessness.” Likewise, in Lorna Neale (1932) “Lady Miles … gives us a portrait of a heroine who seems to have been invented only to be hurt.” The Second Lesson (1936) features the victim of an overpossessive mother who makes the same mistakes with her own child. Her other titles are The Red Flame (1921), Ralph Carey (1922), Stony Ground (1923), The Fanatic (1924), Tread Softly (1926), Love's Cousin (1927), and This Flower (1933).

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, which has now been reprinted in the British Library Women Writers series. The Guardian memorably noted: "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 lesser figure than Philip Larkin as “the great Gladys.” Author of 66 novels featuring the quirky forensic psychiatrist Beatrice Adela Lestrange Bradley (later Dame Beatrice). The early books tend to be packed with eccentric and unexpected, even wacky, twists which can make a full understanding of the crime difficult, but they are often also her most entertaining. Later novels tend to be more restrained, for better or worse. Among the 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 mysteries as Malcolm Torrie—Heavy as Lead (1966), Late and Cold (1967), Your Secret Friend (1968), Churchyard Salad (1969), Shades of Darkness (1970), and Bismarck Herrings (1971). These feature amateur detective Timothy Herring, who works with a historic preservation society. Mitchell also wrote nine children's titles, some with mystery elements, and her short fiction was collected in Sleuth’s Alchemy (2005). 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.

MONCKTON, ELLA M[ARION]. (27 Feb 1899 – 15 Oct 1990) (married name Webb) 1930s – 1950s Wife of artist and illustrator Clifford Webb. Children’s writer and novelist. Many of her children’s titles are for younger children, but The Gates Family (1934), surely a tongue-in-cheek autobiographical look at life in an unconventional artistic family, is for older children, and a sequel, August in Avilion (1940), in which the family takes possession of a ramshackle home in Cornwall, was marketed for adults. I reviewed the latter here. The Place Where They Belong (1952) is also a novel, set in the immediate postwar, with a family returning to their village after wartime separation and finding both village and each other changed. Left Till Called For (1937) is about a girl on the run from her boarding school, and The Key and the Chest (1957) is another holiday story and a treasure hunt on a family estate dating back to William the Conqueror.

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), about thefts and murder in a luxurious London club on New Year’s Eve, The Death Box (1946), in which “the body of each victim is delivered to the house of the next in an antique oak chest,” and Another Little Murder (1947), involving a snowbound woman mixed up in murder at a lonely country house. 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."

MORISON, NANCY [VIOLET] (21 Sept 1895 – 28 Nov 1979) (married names Lesmond and Campbell, aka Juliet Armstrong) 1930s – 1970s Author of more than 40 romantic novels for Mills & Boon, including Single Ticket (1938), The Singing Flame (1940), Frail Amazon (1941), Who Pays the Piper (1943), I'll Never Marry! (1945), Caught in a Moonbeam (1950), The House of the Swallows (1955), Mirror to Miranda (1960), and Wind Through the Vineyard (1969). Add Morison titles and clarify.

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, EVELYN [WINIFRED] (1891 – 4 Aug 1939) (née Haynes) 1930s Co-author of one full-length novel with her husband Riddell Preston Morrison, Written in Red (1934), set during World War I, "a vivid account of the scenes in France which greeted the arrival of that 'contemptible little army' of 80,000 men, who faced overwhelming odds at Mons and Le Cateau, described by one who served in both actions. The story shows what invasion means—roads blocked with fugitives—men and women torn from their homes." During 1933-1935, she also published at least eight short (64 page) romances for Mellifont Press.

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). Several later titles have Caribbean connections, reflecting her and her husband’s enjoyment of that part of the world. 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, D. ERSKINE (3 Apr 1889 – 9 Oct 1977) (pseudonym of Dorothy Agnes Muir, née Sheepshanks, aka Dorothy Muir) 1910s, 1930s – 1940s Teacher, historian, biographer, and author of four novels. Her first, Summer Friendships (1915), is an epistolary novel in which a group of caravanners venturing from the Scottish borders to Loch Maree all write letters to a young widow relative, "who herself becomes involved in the plot before the happy end is reached." Following her husband’s premature death in 1932, she took to writing again to support the family, including three mysteries based on true crimes—In Muffled Night (1933), based on the 1862 murder of a servant, Jessie McPherson, in Glasgow, Five to Five (1934), on the 1909 Glasgow murder of Marion Gilchrist, and In Memory of Charles (1941), on an unidentified case, but one which, Muir assured her readers, happened as described. Her mysteries have been reprinted in recent years by Moonstone Press. In addition to fiction, Muir published biographies of Queen Elizabeth, Florence Nightingale, Machiavelli and Cromwell, histories of Milan and Germany, a guide to Oxford, and other works of local history, as well as The Art of Conversation (1953). Lift the Curtain (1955) was subtitled "reminiscences of the author's early life."

Muir, Dorothy           see MUIR, D. ERSKINE

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).

MULKERNS, VAL[ENTINE] (14 Feb 1925 – 10 Mar 2018) (married name Kennedy) 1950s, 1970s – 1980s Journalist, broadcaster, and author of four novels and several story collections. A Time Outworn (1951) is about the tragedies resulting from a triangle of young Irish lovers. In A Peacock Cry (1954), a journalist comes to Galway to visit an uncle and recover from tuberculosis—"He finds a wild and beautiful country, and a strange family dominated by Dara Joyce, a novelist of the ‘stark’ school.” The Summerhouse (1984), which one critic compared to Louisa May Alcott, is “the story of an Irish family, each chapter told by a different member of it.” And Very Like a Whale (1986) is about a man’s return from abroad to his family and native city of Dublin, to find both radically changed. Her story collections are Antiquities (1978), An Idle Woman (1980), and A Friend of Don Juan (1988). Memory and Desire (2016) was comprised of stories selected from the earlier collections. Friends with the Enemy (2017) is her memoir.

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.

MURPHY, BERNADETTE (dates unknown) 1920s – 1930s Unidentified author of three novels, the settings of which suggest that she was likely Irish, though a copyright notice says she was living in London in 1934. The House in the Country (1927) deals with “ordinary happenings in an old country house in the West of Ireland, seen through the eyes of a little girl” and was compared to Proust for its observation of intimate details. An Unexpected Guest (1934) has an element of magic or time travel to it, as a mature, very sophisticated women revisits her childhood home in Ireland. The Unwilling Player (1935) features a group of children at a country house writing a fairy play, only to be interrupted by World War I; after the war, they become entangled in circumstances that echo the plot of their play.

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, reprinted by Persephone, 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).