British Women Writers of Fiction 1910-1960 (T)

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

INTRODUCTION
A	BA–BH	BI-BRA	BRE-BY	CA-CLA
CLE-CU	D	EA-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 418 pages!

BRITISH WOMEN WRITERS OF FICTION 1910-1960 (PDF)

Updated 6/9/2017

[Current total: 1,893 writers]

Tahourdin, Jill           see SPENCER, JILL

TALBOT, ETHEL M[ARY]. (26 May 1880 – 26 May 1944) 1910s – 1940s One of the major authors of girls' school stories, who published more than 100 titles in all. Sims and Clare consider them notable for their emotional intensity, though they also report that most readers either love her books or hate them. Titles include The School on the Moor (1919), The New Girl at the Priory (1923), The Bravest Girl in the School (1924), Patricia, Prefect (1925), The School at None-Go-By (1926), Jan at Island School (1927), The Half-and-Half Schoolgirl (1928), The Foolish Phillimores (1931), The Mascot of the School (1934), Diana the Daring (1938), and The Warringtons in War-TIme (1940).

TALBOT, LAURA (1908 - 1966) (pseudonym of Ursula Winifred Stewart Chetwynd-Talbot, married name Hamilton) Wife of novelist Patrick Hamilton. Author of five novels, most notably The Gentlewomen (1952), set during the war and reprinted by Virago in the 1980s. The other four are Prairial (1950), Barcelona Road (1953), The Elopement (1958), and The Last of the Tenants (1961).

TALLENTYRE, S. G. (1868 - 1956) (pseudonym of Evelyn Beatrice Hall) 1910s Biographer of Voltaire and author of at least three novels—Early-Victorian (1910), about village life, Matthew Hargraves (1914), and Love Laughs Last (1919). Oddly, the British Library says the "S" stands for Stephen and gives "his" life dates as "1868-1919".

Tate, Ellalice           see HIBBERT, ELEANOR

Taylor, Alison           see ROBERTSON, MIMA (JEMIMA) [SIMPSON TAYLOR]

TAYLOR, DORIS (dates unknown) 1940s – 1960s Author of religious books and four works for children, including two girls' school stories, Victory for Vera (1955) and The Girl from India (1961), as well as The Magic Plane (1947) and Life-Saver Lyn (1954).

TAYLOR, ELIZABETH (3 Jul 1912 – 19 Nov 1975) (née Coles) 1940s – 1970s Certainly the only writer on this list whose career was hindered by sharing a name with a film star, Taylor remained underrated, despite critical acclaim, until Virago's staunch advocacy of her work since the 1980s. She published twelve novels, four story collections, and a children's book. Her debut, At Mrs. Lippincote's (1945), is a powerful novel of late World War II tensions and fatigue, and her third, A View of the Harbour (1947), is set in the immediate aftermath. A Game of Hide-and-Seek (1951), one of her most acclaimed works, packs a diverse cast of character into a tale of star-crossed lovers. Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont (1971), set in a hotel for the elderly in Kensington, was made into a film starring Joan Plowright in 2005, while Angel (1957), about an author of romantic novels who is disappointed when real life doesn't live up to them, was filmed by François Ozon in 2007. Her other novels are Palladian (1946), A Wreath of Roses (1949), The Sleeping Beauty (1953), In a Summer Season (1961), The Soul of Kindness (1964), The Wedding Group (1968), and Blaming (1976). Virago released her Collected Stories in 2012, which includes all four of her story collections as well as previously uncollected and unpublished stories. She also published one children's title, Mossy Trotter (1967), which I reviewed here. Nicola Beauman, founder of Persephone, published a biography called The Other Elizabeth Taylor (2009). One of Taylor's closest literary friends was Ivy COMPTON-BURNETT.

TAYLOR, ELLA M. (dates unknown) 1930s Untraced author of two romances—Her Dangerous Freedom (1930) and Tangled Lives (1934).

TAYLOR, GERTRUDE WINIFRED (1880 – 13 Apr 1948) 1910s Author of two early novels with D. K. BROSTER—Chantemerle (1911) and The Vision Splendid (1913)—and one later novel of her own, The Pearl (1918), discussed in Anna Bogen's Women's University Fiction, 1880–1945. Her other works appear to be plays. One other short book, The Ruminations of Ruffles (1922), could be fiction as well.

TAYLOR, [EDITH] MARJORIE TAYLOR (1912 – 8 Dec 1938) 1930s Author of three girls' Guide stories, all set in Scotland with Scottish heroines, including With the Speedwell Patrol (1938), Prior's Island (1940), and The Highland School (1940), the last with a backdrop of school.

TAYLOR, SUSAN (13 Mar 1905 – 25 Dec 1990) (pseudonym of Kathleen Phyllis Taylor Collier, married name Mackenzie) 1930s – 1950s Sister of Ann DEERING and author of 10 Mills & Boon romances. Titles are Love Is a Dream (1938), Sweetest Folly (1939), Mists Around the Moon (1940), Rose for Spain (1947), Spring Comes Again (1948), Dear Pretender (1949), Dreaming Bride (1950), Come Back to Me (1951), Sweet Unrest (1952), and The Happy Moment (1952).

Tempest, Jan           see SWATRIDGE, IRENE MAUDE

Tempest, Sarah           see PONSONBY, DORIS ALMON

TEMPLE, [GERTRUDE] PEGGY (MARGARET) (5 Dec 1913 – Jun 2001) (married name Archer) 1920s A child author following in the footsteps of Daisy Ashford, Temple published a humorous novel, The Admiral and Others (1926), at age twelve, which Bookman called "one of those fresh, unaffectedly humorous books that certainly add to the gaiety of the world."

TEMPLE, URSULA (26 May 1861 – 13 Apr 1943) (pseudonym of Elizabeth [nicknamed Bessie] Ursula Joyce) 1900s – 1910s Author of one girls' school story which just barely fits the date range of this list—Form IIIB (1910)—and three earlier titles, Through Strange Paths (1903), The Squire's Will (1907), and When Mother Was in India (1907).

TENISON, EVA MABEL (1880 – 10 Aug 1961) 1920s Historian, biographer, and author of at least three novels—The Valiant Heart (1920), Alastair Gordon, R.N. (1921), and The Undiscovered Island (1924), the last set in France during WWI.

Tennant, Catherine           see EYLES, KATHLEEN MURIEL

TERRELL, DOROTHY À BECKETT (1879 – 18 Jan 1949) (pseudonym of Dorothy Margaret Elisa Terrell [à Beckett is her father's middle name], married name James) 1910s – 1920s Author of five romantic novels—Sister-in-Chief (1912), which won a £250 prize for girls' stories, Emancipation: The Story of a Girl Who Wanted a Career (1914), Oh, Mary! (1920), Last Year's Nest (1924), and Common of Angels (1926).

TERRINGTON, RENA (c1898 - 1973) (full name, Rena de Vere Humphrey Woodhouse, Baroness Terrington, née Shapland-Swiny, aka Rena Woodhouse) 1930s Author of two novels—All That For Nothing (1931), in which she stated that she had tried to capture the spirit of her youth, and It Happened to Me (1937). Other details are lacking.

TEY, JOSEPHINE (25 Jul 1896 – 13 Feb 1952) (pseudonym of Elizabeth MacKintosh, aka Gordon Daviot) 1920s – 1950s Novelist, playwright, and mystery writer, known particularly for one of the most famous of all Golden Age mystery novels, The Daughter of Time (1951), in which her series detective, Inspector Alan Grant, while bedridden with an injury, "solves" the mystery of Richard III and the Princes in the Tower. Miss Pym Disposes (1946), set at a girls' physical education school, features a former teacher, now the author of a bestseller about psychology, who must track a murderer. Alan Grant also features in The Man in the Queue (1929), A Shilling for Candles (1936), which was adapted by Alfred Hitchcock into the film Young and Innocent, To Love and Be Wise (1950), and The Singing Sands (1952), and he appears as a supporting character in The Franchise Affair (1948). Tey's other novels are Kif: An Unvarnished History (1929), The Expensive Halo (1931), Brat Farrar (1949), and The Privateer (1952). She was also a successful playwright, most notably with Richard of Bordeaux (1932). There's an informative site about her and her work here.

THIRKELL, ANGELA [MARGARET] (30 Jan 1890 – 29 Jan 1961) (née Mackail, later married name McInnes) 1930s – 1960s Author of more than 30 novels, most of them part of her popular Barsetshire Chronicles, interwoven novels set in the fictional county originally created by Anthony Trollope. The series begins with High Rising (1933), and some of her fans' favorites include Pomfret Towers (1938), The Brandons (1939), Cheerfulness Breaks In (1940), Northbridge Rectory (1941), and Peace Breaks Out (1946). The series continued until Three Score and Ten (1961), which was finished by C. A. Lejeune following Thirkell's death. Her popularity began to wane in the 1950s as her politics became more conservative and more explicitly detailed in her books. She published a handful of non-Barsetshire novels, including the early comedy Ankle Deep (1931), Trooper to the Southern Cross (1934), a semi-autobiographical novel about her trip to Australia, and O These Men, These Men! (1935), about an abusive marriage, but she soon realized that Barsetshire was her forte. In reading the Barsetshire novels, pay particular attention to the character of Laura Morland, a ditzy writer of silly mysteries, who is Thirkell's caricaturish alter-ego.

THOMASSET, M[ARJORIE]. P[HYLLIS]. (1880 – 10 Nov 1965) (née Stringer) 1920s Mother of Katharine SIM and author of four novels—The Fairy Spectacles (1920), Princess Crystal (1920), Gentleman—Unafraid (1921), and Joseph & M.O. (1927).

THOMPSON, FLORA [JANE] (5 Dec 1876 – 21 May 1947) (née Timms) 1940s Author of five novels, most famously the trilogy known as Lark Rise to Candleford, comprised of Lark Rise (1939), Over to Candleford (1941), and Candleford Green (1943). These were lightly fictionalized tales of Thompson's own youth, set in turn-of-the-century Oxfordshire and popularly dramatized for television. According to her ODNB entry, "Few works better or more elegantly capture the decay of Victorian agrarian England." Heatherley, a sort of sequel making use of Thompson's time as a postal clerk in Grayshott, Hampshire (during which time her customers included the likes of George Bernard Shaw and Arthur Conan Doyle), was written in 1944 but not published until 1979. One additional novel, Still Glides the Stream (1948), was published posthumously.

THOMPSON, SYLVIA [ELIZABETH] (4 Sept 1902 – 27 Apr 1968) (married name Luling) 1920s – 1950s Author of more than a dozen novels, best known for her third, The Hounds of Spring (1926), about the repercussions of World War I. The war is also a backdrop in The Rough Crossing (1921), and Chariot Wheels (1929). Others include Battle of the Horizons (1928) Winter Comedy (1931), Breakfast in Bed (1934), Third Act in Venice (1936), The Gulls Fly Inland (1941), The People Opposite (1948), and The Candle's Glory (1953).

Thomson, China           see BRAND, CHRISTIANNA

THOMSON, CHRISTINE CAMPBELL (1897 – 29 Sept 1985) (married names Cook and Hartley, aka Flavia Richardson) 1920s – 1930s Best known for popular anthologies of horror fiction in the 1920s and 1930s, beginning with Not at Night (1925), which often included her own stories under her pseudonym. Thomson also published at least half a dozen novels, including Bourgoyne of Goyce (1921), The Noble Army (1921), The Incredible Island (1924), In a Far Corner (1926), His Excellency (1927), Port of Call (1936), and Hawk of the Sahara (1939).

THORNBER, LEON (1892 - ????) (sometimes Leonora, pseudonym of Emmeline Mary Thornber, née Sherwood) 1930s Author of three novels—Bitter Glory (1935), about Chopin, And One Man (1936), and Portrait in Steel (1938)—discussed in some depth by her granddaughter here.

Thorne, Mary see PEARSON, MOLLIE (MARY) SUSAN SEYMOUR

THORPE, SYLVIA (1926 -           ) (pseudonym of June Sylvia Thimblethorpe) 1950s – 1980s Author of nearly 30 historical romances with settings in Regency, Georgian and other periods. Titles include Beggar on Horseback (1953), Rogues' Covenant (1957), The Highwayman (1962), Fair Shine the Day (1964), and The Scarlet Domino (1970).

THURBURN, ROSE (ROSEMARY) [MINNA ROBINSON] (13 Jan 1906 - 1993) (married names Congreve and Hilleary) 1950s Author of four novels. Of The Colour of the Glass (1953), a review says, "Sensitivity, intelligence, and the fresh revealing phrase mark this story of two fine, mature people who fall in love." The others are The Wilderness Is Yours (1950), The Pulling Stones (1959), and Alien's Sunshine (1959).

THURSTON, KATHERINE CECIL (18 Apr 1875 – 5 Sept 1911) (née Madden) 1900s Author of six novels in rather sensational "new woman" style, including The Circle (1903), The Gambler (1905), John Chilcote, M.P. (1905), The Mystics (1907), The Fly on the Wheel (1908, reprinted by Virago), and Max (1910). Thurston died tragically young, officially as a result of a seizure, but ODNB suggests the possibility of suicide.

THYNNE, MOLLY (MARY) [HARRIET] (1881 – 10 May 1950) 1920s – 1930s Author of six mystery novels, including The Red Dwarf (1928), The Murder on the "Enriqueta" (1929), The Case of Sir Adam Braid (1930), The Crime at the "Noah's Ark" (1931), Murder in the Dentist's Chair (1932), and He Dies and Makes No Sign (1933), as well as one earlier novel, The Uncertain Glory (1914). American artist James McNeill Whistler was her great uncle on her mother's side. Thynne's books have now been reprinted by Dean Street Press.

TIBBITS, ANNIE O[LIVE]. (1871 - 1935) (née Brazier) 1910s – 1920s Author of fourteen "sixpenny" novels, including Marquess Splendid (1910), Love Without Pity (1915), Broken Fetters: A Thrilling Story of Factory and Stage Life (1917), The Grey Castle Mystery (1919), Paid in Full (1920), and Under Suspicion (1921).

TIBBLE, ANNE NORTHGRAVE (29 Jan 1912 – 31 Aug 1980) 1920s Best known for her three volumes of memoirs—Greenhorn: A Twentieth Century Childhood (1973), One Woman's Story (1976), and Alone (1979)—Tibble also published a novel, The Apple Reddens (1924), set in Yorkshire, and collaborated with her husband on a biography of John Clare. She also edited African-English Literature: A Short Survey and Anthology of Prose and Poetry up to 1965 (1965).

TIDDEMAN, L[IZZIE]. E[LLEN]. (1849 – 28 May 1937) 1880s – 1930s Author of more than 70 volumes of fiction, mostly for children. Titles include Toddy (1888), A Humble Heroine (1895), A Fairy Grandmother (1897), Patience and Her Knight, and Ted (1902), The Adventures of Jasmin (1910), True to Her Colours (1917), Quicksands! (1924), and Ralph Does His Best (1931).

TILLYARD, AELFRIDA [CATHERINE WETENHALL] (5 Oct 1883 – 12 Dec 1959) (married name Michaelides) 1920s – 1930s Poet, "mystic", and author of five novels, including two dystopian fantasies, Concrete: A Story of Two Hundred Years Hence (1930) and The Approaching Storm (1932). The others are The Young Milliner (1929), The Way We Grow Up (1929), and Haste to the Wedding (1931). According to information about her archive at Cambridge, she wrote additional novels in the 1940s and 1950s, which remain unpublished.

TIMPERLEY, ROSEMARY [KENYON] (20 Mar 1920 - 1988) (married name Cameron) 1950s – 1980s Author of more than 60 volumes of fiction, including ghost stories, romance, mysteries, and adventure. Titles incude A Dread of Burning (1956), Yesterday's Voices (1961), Devil's Paradise (1965), My Room in Rome (1968), The Long Black Dress (1972), The Nameless One (1977), Justin and the Witch (1979), Night Talk (1982), and Inside (1988).

TINDALL, GILLIAN [ELIZABETH] (4 May 1938 -             ) (married name Lansdown) 1950s – 1990s Daughter of Ursula ORANGE, whom she discusses in Footprints in Paris: A Few Streets, A Few Lives (2009), and niece of Monica TINDALL. Author of a dozen novels before turning in recent years to non-fiction centered on the study of place and particularly on urban history. Novels include No Name in the Street (1959, aka When We Had Other Names), The Water and the Sound (1961), The Youngest (1967), Fly Away Home (1971), The Intruder (1979), Looking Forward (1983), and Spirit Weddings (1992). Her non-fiction includes The Fields Beneath: The History of One London Village (1977), Countries of the Mind: The Meaning of Place to Writers (1991), Célestine: Voices From a French Village (1995), Three Houses, Many Lives (2012), and most recently The Tunnel Through Time: A New Route for an Old London Journey (2016), about the building of London's Crossrail Tube line. She has also published two biographies, The Born Exile: George Gissing (1974) and The Man Who Drew London (2002), about engraver Wenceslaus Hollar, as well as a critical work about Rosamond LEHMANN (1985).

TINDALL, MONICA [MCLEAN] (1907 - 1999) (married name Campbell) 1940s Sister-in-law of Ursula ORANGE and aunt of Gillian TINDALL. Author of a single novel, The Late Mrs. Prioleau (1946), which I enthusiastically reviewed here and which has now been reprinted by Dean Street Press.

Tinker, Beamish           see JESSE, F. TENNYSON

TIPPETT, MRS. HENRY (1880 - 1969) (pseudonym of Isabel Clementine Binny Tippett, née Kemp, aka Mrs. Isabel C. Tippett) 1900s – 1920s Suffragist, nurse, and mother of composer Sir Michael Tippett. Author of eight New Woman and "marriage problem" novels—Flower of the World (1908), The Purple Butterfly (1910), The Power of the Petticoat (1911), The Waster (1912), Green Girl (1913), Life-Force (1915), Living Dust (1922), and Honey and Fish (1923).

TOBIAS, LILY (1887 - 1984) (née Shepherd) 1920s – 1930s Born in Wales to Jewish immigrant parents, Tobias is best known for Eunice Fleet (1933), about conscientious objectors in World War I. Her other novels are My Mother's House (1931), Tube (1935), and The Samaritan (1939, subtitled "An Anglo-Palestinian Novel"). She published one story collection, The Nationalists and Other Goluth Studies (1921). In recent years, Eunice Fleet and My Mother's House have been reprinted by Honno Press. Born and raised in Wales, she moved to Palestine in the 1930s, where she lived until her death. A biography—The Greatest Need: The Creative Life and Troubled Times of Lily Tobias, a Welsh Jew in Palestine—appeared in 2015

TODD, BARBARA EUPHAN (9 Jan 1890 – 2 Feb 1976) (married name Bower, aka Barbara Euphan) 1930s – 1960s Playwright, poet, novelist and children's writer. Best known for her ten children's books featuring Worzel Gummidge, a talking scarecrow. ODNB notes, about that series: "Clear sensory evocation of country scenes provides background for the adventures of John and Susan, visiting city children privy to a lively community of scarecrows unknown to the adult world." Todd also published a single adult novel, Miss Ranskill Comes Home (1946, reprinted by Persephone), a World War II comedy about a woman, stranded on an island since before the war, who is finally rescued and must adapt to wartime life. Todd collaborated on two more novels with her husband, John Graham Bower—The Touchstone (1935) and South Country Secrets (1935).

TOM-GALLON, NELLIE (1874 – 1 Feb 1938) (pseudonym of Helen Kate Gallon) 1920s – 1930s Author, with Calder Wilson, of Monsieur Zero (1923), a collection of crime stories set in Monte Carlo, and He Who Walked in Scarlet (1924). She later wrote four novels on her own, which sound more like romances—Dawn of Desire (1927), Full Passionate Mood (1928), The Man Who Changed His Wife (1928), and I Meant No Harm! (1935).

TONKS, ROSEMARY [DESMOND BOSWELL] (17 Oct 1928 – 15 Apr 2014) 1940s – 1970s Poet, children's author, and author of six novels. Her two children's books—On Wooden Wings: The Adventure of Webster (1948) and The Wild Sea Goose (1951)—qualify her for this list. Her novels are Emir (1963), Opium Fogs (1963), The Bloater (1968), Businessmen as Lovers (1969), The Way Out of Berkeley Square (1970), and The Halt During the Chase (1972).

TORDAY, URSULA [JOYCE] (19 Feb 1912 – 6 Mar 1997) (aka Paula Allardyce, aka Charity Blackstock, aka Lee Blackstock, and aka Charlotte Keepel) 1930s, 1950s – 1980s Author of nearly 60 novels, including mysteries and historical romance. After three early novels under her own name—The Ballad-Maker of Paris (1935), No Peace for the Wicked (1937), and The Mirror of the Sun (1938)—Torday stopped writing until well after World War II, during which time her activities included social work with Jewish children who survived Nazi concentration camps, experiences she later detailed in Wednesday's Children (1966, aka The Children). When she returned to publishing, her focus was primarily on historical romance and gothic novels, but among her early works under her Charity Blackstock pseudonym (some published in the U.S.—for whatever reason—under the name Lee Blackstock), Torday seems to have published some more or less straightforward mysteries.  Dewey Death (1956) was described by the Spectator as a "first-class first novel that gives new twist to old theme of corpse-in-the-library." Other of Torday's early mysteries include Miss Fenny (1957, aka The Woman in the Woods), The Shadow of Murder (1958, aka All Men Are Murderers) and The Foggy, Foggy Dew (1958). Among her non-mysteries, also under her Blackstock pseudonym, is The Briar Patch (1960), set in Paris shortly after World War II, focused on two teenagers, one a Jewish Holocaust survivor.  Twentieth-Century Romance and Historical Writers noted that "Blackstock's consistently realistic characters, whose reactions can be readily related to common experience, have contributed to her success in the field of romantic fiction."

Torrie, Malcolm           see MITCHELL, GLADYS

TOWERS, FRANCES (1885 - 1948) 1940s A long-time Bank of England employee and later a teacher of English and History. Author of a single story collection Tea with Mr. Rochester (1949, reprinted by Persephone). Towers's only other published work appears to have been a children's non-fiction book about The Two Princesses (1940).

TOWNSHEND, DOROTHEA (c1853 - 1930) (née Baker) 1890s – 1910s Biographer and author of at least ten works of fiction, including children's books and novels. Her children's fiction include Captain Chimney-Sweep: A Story of the Great War (1900), The Faery of Lisbawn (1900) and The Children of Nugentstown and Their Dealings with the Sidhe (1911). Novels include Strange Adventures of a Young Lady of Quality MDCCV (1893), A Lost Leader: A Tale of Restoration Days (1902) and Whither?: The Story of a Flight (1918).

TRACY, CAMILLA (29 Apr 1899 – 22 Jan 1983) (pseudonym of Vera Benedicta Gage, married name Birch) 1950s Author of one novel, Cousin Charles (1950), about which I've found no details.

TRACY, HONOR [LILBUSH WINGFIELD] (19 Oct 1913 – 13 Jun 1989) 1950s – 1970s Travel writer and author of 13 novels, which often satirize British/Irish relations. Titles are The Deserters (1954), The Straight and Narrow Path (1956), The Prospects Are Pleasing (1958), A Number of Things (1960), A Season of Mists (1961), The First Day of Friday (1963), Men at Work (1966), The Beauty of the World (1967, aka Settled in Chambers), The Butterflies of the Province (1970), The Quiet End of Evening (1972), In a Year of Grace (1975), The Man from Next Door (1977), and The Ballad of Castle Reef (1979). She was also well known for her humorous travel books, such as Mind You, I've Said Nothing! (1953), Silk Hats and No Breakfast (1957), and Winter in Castile (1973).

TRAFFORD-TAUNTON, WINIFRIDE (1866 - 1951) (née Hetherington) 1900s – 1910s Author of eight apparently rather melodramatic novels, including The Doom of the House of Marsaniac (1905), The Romance of a State Secret (1911), and The Night Dancer (1912).

TRAIL, VALENTINE (1859 - 1932) (pseudonym of Felicite Valentine, née Edwards) 1900s, 1930s Author of four novels, of which little seems to remain except largely negative reviews. Titles are David Armstrong's Curse (1904), John Paxton: Gentleman (1907), Was He a Coward? (1909), and The Mock Brahman (1931). Of the first, The Publisher's Circular said, "The story is badly written and as amateurish a performance as we have read for many a long day."

TRASK, [MARGARET] BETTY (ELIZABETH) [LISLE] (2 Jan 1893 – 25 Jan 1983) 1920s – 1950s Author of more than 30 romantic novels, including Cotton Glove Country (1928), Flute, Far and Near (1929), Beauty, Retire (1932), A Bus at the Ritz (1935), Feather Your Nest (1938), The Sun Fades the Stars (1940), Change for a Farthing (1942), and Bitter Sweetbriar (1955).

Travers, John           see BELL, EVA MARY

TREADGOLD, MARY (16 Apr 1910 – 14 May 2005) 1940s - 1970 BBC radio producer and author of more than a dozen children's books. Best known for her classic We Couldn't Leave Dinah (1941), about children who miss the evacuation of a fictional Channel island (because they can't leave their horse behind) and end up aiding the resistance to the Nazis. ODNB said of it: "Treadgold combined evocative landscape descriptions with a gripping adventure story, giving a powerful and moving account of the complexities of divided loyalties, collaboration, and threatened relationships in an occupied country, seen through the analytical eyes of teenagers." A sequel, The Polly Harris (1949), follows the children into the immediate postwar years. Others include No Ponies (1946), The Running Child (1951) The Winter Princess (1962), Maids' Ribbon (1965), and The Rum Day of the Vanishing Pony (1970).

TREE, VIOLA (17 Jul 1884 – 15 Nov 1938) (married name Parsons, aka Hubert Parsons [with Gerald du Maurier]) 1920s Niece of novelist Max Beerbohm and half-sister of film director Carol Reed. Actress, singer, and playwright. With Gerald du Maurier she wrote one pseudonymous novel, The Dancers (1923), which they then adapted into a play starring Tallulah Bankhead. Tree wrote a second play on her own, The Swallow (1925), and a memoir, Castles in the Air (1926). She made a cameo appearance in the film version of Pygmalion (1938), having previously played the lead in a stage production of it.

TREFOR, EIRLYS (31 May 1918 – 14 Jul 1994) (pseudonym of Eirlys Olwen Williams, née Morris) 1950s, 1970s, 1990s Trained nurse and author of four works of fiction widely separated in time, including two children's books—The New Umbrella (1950) and The Old Man of Gilfach (1993)—and two novels—Light Cakes for Tea (1958) and Woman in a Valley of Stones (1972). She also co-wrote a travel book about Yugoslavia (1955).

TREFUSIS, VIOLET (6 Jun 1894 – 1 Mar 1972) (née Keppel) 1920s – 1970s Most famous for her affair and near-elopement with Vita SACKVILLE-WEST and for her mother Alice Keppel, who was the scandalous mistress of Edward VII, Trefusis also wrote eight novels, four in French and four in English. According to ODNB, she had earlier co-written Sackville-West's novel Challenge, a thinly-veiled fictional version of their adventures, which was scheduled for publication in 1920, then withdrawn by Sackville-West. It appeared in the U.S. in 1923, but wasn't published in Britain until 1974, in both cases credited only to Sackville-West. Trefusis also appears as the Russian Princess Sasha in Virginia WOOLF's Orlando, a fictionalized version of Woolf's own relationship with Vita, and Vita's manuscript recounting her relationship with Trefusis appeared only after her death in son Nigel Nicolson's Portrait of a Marriage (1973). Finally, Trefusis's fourth novel, Broderie Anglaise (1935), is her own response to Orlando, yet another side of the story of the women's three-way relationship. Her other novels in French are Sortie de Secours (1929), about a woman trying to make her lover jealous with another man, Écho (1931), based on her childhood holidays in Scotland, and Les Causes Perdues (1941), "set among an unpleasant group of aristocrats and their servants" (ODNB). Her four English-language novels are Tandem (1933), Hunt the Slipper (1937), about the British aristrocracy, which Lorna Sage called "splendidly malicious," Pirates at Play (1950), about wealthy Brits living in Florence, and one final work, From Dusk to Dawn (1972), also an aristocratic comedy, written to distract her from the pain of her final illness. Hunt the Slipper and Pirates at Play were reprinted by Virago in the 1980s. In 1952, Trefusis published her memoir, Don’t Look Round, which was not as revealing as readers hoped. The letters Trefusis wrote to Sackville-West were published in 1987.

TREMAYNE, EILEEN (1896 - 1974) (pseudonym of Eileen Marie Tremayne Wade, née Edwards) 1930s - 1950s Author of ten novels. Reading 1900-1950 reviewed Those Who Remain (1942) here. In The Flyer: British Culture & the Royal Air Force, 1939-1945, Martin Francis described Four Who Came Back (1941) as "a socially conservative novel, in which the heroes are officers from affluent families and the villain a pregnant working-class ATS typist, who wrongly accuses an army lieutenant of being the father of her child, in the hope of gaining his family's money." The others are —Quatrain (1933), Paul and Michael (1934), Jardinet (1936), Book of Louise (1938), English Family (1940), House Enduring (1944), The Façade (1947), and A Mirror for Reflection (1951).

Tremaine, Herbert           see LITTLE, MAUDE [AMELIA]

TRENEER, ANNE (3 [or 30] Jan 1891 – 22 Aug 1966) (aka S. K. Ensdaile) 1920s – 1930s Literary scholar, biographer, memoirist, and children's author. Her memoirs about life as a schoolteacher—School House in the Wind (1953), Cornish Years (1949), and A Stranger in the Midlands (1952), were reprinted in 1998. It was only recently revealed that she was also "S. K. Ensdaile," author of four girls' school stories—Philippa at School (1928), Marceline Goes to School (1931), Discipline for Penelope (1934), and Puck of Manor School (1938)—which Sims & Clare praise for their vivid characterization.

TRENERY, GLADYS GORDON (1885 - 1938) (aka G. G. Pendarves, aka Marjory E. Lambe, aka ????) 1930s A prominent author of ghost stories whose works, according to Richard Dalby, were mostly published in periodicals and remain uncollected. The British Library does show a single novel, Crag's Foot Farm: A Novel of Leicestershire (1931).

TRENT, ETHEL (dates unknown) 1930s Untraced author of three short romances—Fairy Gold (1932), All She Wanted (1932), and Second Best (1933).

Trent, Guy see PEARSON, MOLLIE (MARY) SUSAN SEYMOUR

TRENT, HILDA (dates unknown) 1920s – 1930s Untraced author of nearly 20 romantic novels, including The Madcaps (1922), Polly in a Pickle (1922), Nobody's Darling (1924), Bothersome Bunty (1926), A Winsome Widow (1926), Bunty Breaks Out (1927), The Latest Girl (1927), The Girl in His Past (1930), and The Bogus Heir (1931).

TREVELYAN, GERTRUDE EILEEN (1903 - 1941) 1930s Author of eight novels, including the acclaimed Appius and Virginia (1932), a dark fantasy about a spinster who adopts a baby ape and raises it as her son. The others are Hot-house (1933), As It Was in the Beginning (1934), A War without a Hero (1935), Two Thousand Million Man-Power (1937), William's Wife (1938), Theme with Variations (1938), and Trance by Appointment (1939).

TREVOR, BETTY (dates unknown) 1920s – 1940s Untraced author of nearly twenty romances, including An Adorable Minx (1923), A Boisterous Beauty (1923), Too Charming by Half (1927), A Bride for Sale (1929), Passions at Bay (1931), More Than Her Share (1933), Schoolgirl Wife (1939), The Betrayal of Daisy Lester (1941), and Her Two Lovers (1944).

TREVOR, [LUCY] MERIOL (15 Apr 1919 – 12 Jan 2000) 1940s – 1990s Biographer, children's writer, and author of 20 novels. Her fiction is consistently informed by her strong Catholic beliefs, and she earned particular acclaim for her 1962 biography of Cardinal Newman. The St. James Guide to Children's Writers notes that her children's fiction is often "a kind of fantasy that is peculiarly her own, mixing myth, magic, traditional folklore, and Christian allegory." Her 15 children's titles include The Forest and the Kingdom (1949), Sun Slower, Sun Faster (1955), The Caravan War (1958), The Midsummer Maze (1964), and The Crystal Snowstorm (1997). Her novels include The Last of Britain (1956), Shadows and Images (1960), The Two Kingdoms (1973), The Forgotten Country (1975), and The Wanton Fires (1979).

TREW, CECIL [GWENDOLEN/GWENDOLIN ST LEGER] (1897 – 4 Apr 1958) (née Russell, later married name Ehrenborg) 1930s Best known as an illustrator, including for two Primrose Cumming books, and for non-fiction on animals and drawing, Trew also published several children's books, including the pony stories Asido: The Story of a Mexican Pony (1935) and Wild Horse of the West (1937).

TREWIN, YVONNE (?1917 - ????) (married name Williams?—uncertain but probable identification) 1940s A nurse herself and author of one girls' career story, Jean Becomes a Nurse (1947), which forms part of a series written by Doreen SWINBURNE.

TRICKETT, RACHEL (20 Dec 1923 – 24 Jun 1999) 1950s – 1960s Literary scholar, principal of St. Hugh's College, Oxford for nearly two decades, and author of five novels, which, according to her Guardian obit, "show a remarkable understanding of matters of the heart, and an approach to them which is at once melancholy, perceptive and humorous." Titles are The Return Home (1952), The Course of Love (1954), Point of Honour (1958), A Changing Place (1962), and The Elders (1966). Among her scholarly works are The Honest Muse: A Study in Augustan Verse (1967), Browning's Lyricism (1971), and Ruskin and the Language of Description (1982).

TROUBRIDGE, LAURA (c1865 – 8 Jul 1946) (née Gurney, aka Lady Troubridge) 1900s – 1930s Novelist, illustrator, and etiquette writer, related by marriage to Una Troubridge (Radclyffe HALL's partner). The Book of Etiquette (1931) and Etiquette and Entertaining (1939) were used to research the film Gosford Park. She published more than two dozen novels in all, including The Woman Thou Gavest (1907), Marriage of Blackmail (1909), The Creature of Circumstance (1912), Mrs Vernon's Daughter (1917), Passion Flower (1923), Exit Marriage (1929), and The Brighthavens at Home (1934).

Troy, Katherine           see MAYBURY, ANNE

TROY, UNA (21 May 1910 - 1993) (married name Walsh, aka Elizabeth Connor) 1930s – 1980s Irish playwright and author of seventeen novels, whose portrayals of sexuality and unmarried mothers caused some of her work to be banned in Ireland. Her first two novels, Mount Prospect (1936, aka No House of Peace) and Dead Star's Light (1938), as well as four plays written for Ireland's Abbey Theatre, appeared under her pseudonym. We Are Seven (1955) was filmed as She Didn't Say No (1958). Other novels include The Workhouse Graces (1959, aka Graces of Ballykeen), The Brimstone Halo (1965), The Castle That Nobody Wanted (1970), Out of the Everywhere (1976), and So True a Fool (1981).

TRUSCOTT, L. PARRY (?1869 - 1915) (pseudonym of Katherine Edith Spicer-Jay, married name Hargrave) 1900s – 1910s Journalist and author of nearly a dozen novels, including As a Tree Falls (1903), Motherhood (1904), The Question (1910), Hilary's Career (1913), and Obstacles (1916).

TUGWELL, ELIZABETH D[OROTHY]. M[AUD]. (15 Mar 1904 – 12 Jun 1975) 1930s – 1940s Author of four children's books, including Patsy Comes to Stay (1938), Jill Makes Good (1941), The Girls of Sweetbriar Farm (1946), and The Girl Who Couldn't Fit In (1947). The last is a girls' school story.

TURK, FRANCES [MARY] (14 Apr 1915 - 2004) 1930s – 1970s Author of nearly 60 romantic novels. Candle Corner (1943) is about an RAF pilot recovering from injuries and finding romance on a farm. The Five Grey Geese (1944) is a lively, gung-ho tale about a group of young Land Girls—who also find romance, of course. Goddess of Threads (1966) is apparently set in Iceland.  Other titles include Doctor Periwinkle (1937), Angel Hill (1942), Salutation (1949), The Small House at Ickley (1951), No Through Road (1957), A Lamp from Murano (1963), The Rectory at Hay (1966), and Whispers (1972).

TURNBULL, MARGARET (17 Nov 1872 – 12 Jun 1942) 1910s – 1930s Born in Scotland but emigrated to the U.S. with her family by the age of 12. Turnball was a successful screenwriter in both Hollywood and London, which formed the backdrop of some of her dozen novels. The Left Lady (1926) is succinctly summed up by the Bookman: "In which Miss Emmie romantically outwits middle age." The same publication rather condescendingly reviewed The Bride's Mirror (1934): "Turnbull drags out, dusts off and repaints the old problem of whether or not the heroine should disclose her scandalous past to her intended. Capably written feminine time-killer." And Kirkus sums up her final novel, The Coast Road Murder (1934): "American so-called society with a girl reporter acting detective. The setting is a roadhouse where a week end house party is disporting itself." Her other novels are Looking After Sandy (1914), Handle With Care (1916), The Close-Up (1918), Alabaster Lamps (1925), Madam Judas (1926), Rogues' March (1928), The Handsome Man (1929), A Monkey in Silk (1930), and The Return of Jenny Weaver (1932).

TURNER, ETHEL MARY (24 Jan 1870 – 8 Apr 1958) (née Burwell, changed to Turner upon mother's remarriage, married name Curlewis) 1890s – 1930s Children's author born in the U.K. but associated more with Australia. She published nearly three dozen works of fiction, but her most famous by far was Seven Little Australians (1894), which has been adapted for film, television, and the stage and spawned three sequels. Other titles include The Family at Misrule (1895), Three Little Maids (1900), The Secret of the Sea (1913), Laughing Water (1920), and The Ungardeners (1925). Her early story "The Child of the Children" (1897), deals with a group of upper class girls who attempt to transform a girl from the wrong side of the railroad tracks and pass her off as one of their class. When it was reprinted in 1958, editor James Bennett suggested that George Bernard Shaw may have stolen Turner's idea for his 1914 play Pygmalion, later turned into the stage and film musical My Fair Lady. The popularity of makeover plots both before and after Turner's story would, however, make such an allegation difficult to prove. Turner's middle name seems to have been Sybil at birth, possibly changed to Mary, but her marriage registration gives middle initial "I".

TURNER, LILIAN [WATTNALL] (21 Aug 1867 – 25 Aug 1956) (née Burwell, changed to Turner upon mother's remarriage, married name Thompson) 1890s – 1930s Sister of Ethel Mary TURNER. Born in the U.K. but emigrated with her family to Australia by her early teens. Author of two Australian school stories—The Girl from the Back Blocks (1914) and Jill of the Fourth Form (1924)—and about 20 other works of fiction, including April Girls (1911), The Happy Heriots (1926), and Ann Chooses Glory (1928).

TURNER, SHEILA [DOROTHEA] (15 Jul 1906 – 14 Feb 1965) (married name Tilney) 1960s Author of five novels, including Over the Counter: A Year in the Village Shop (1960), which just barely qualifies her for this list. That novel, according to Melissa, a reader of this blog, is a gently humorous tale along the lines of Miss Read. Turner's later novels, including This Is Private (1962), A Farmer's Wife (1963, published in the US as Farmer Takes a Wife), The Farm at King's Standing (1964, published in the US as A Little Place Called King's Standing), and Honestly, the Country! (1965), seem to become a bit darker in tone.

TUTTON, DIANA [CICELY] (19 Sept 1915 - 1991) (née Godfrey-Faussett-Osborne [uncertain but probably identification]) 1950s Author of three novels, most famously her debut, Guard Your Daughters (1953), which has been rediscovered by bloggers in recent years and is a fall 2017 reprint from Persephone. On the surface a humorous romance about a family of cheerful sisters looking for love despite their mother's anxieties, underneath it's a bit darker. Tutton's two later novels are understandably less popular—Mamma (1955), about a woman in love with her son-in-law, and The Young Ones (1959), which flirts with the idea of brother-sister incest.

Tweedale, J. or Judith           see BICKLE, JUDITH BRUNDRETT

TWEEDALE, VIOLET (1862 – 10 Dec 1936) (née Chambers) 1890s – 1920s Suffragist, journalist, and author of around 30 works of fiction, often influenced by her socialist beliefs and interest in the occult. Titles include And They Two (1897), Lord Eversleigh's Sins (1905), The Quenchless Flame (1909), The Heart of a Woman (1917), The School of Virtue (1923), and Mellow Sheaves (1927). She also published books about spiritualism, including the aptly titled Ghosts I Have Seen and Other Psychic Experiences (1919).

TWEEDSMUIR, SUSAN [CHARLOTTE] (1882 – 21 Mar 1977) (née Grosvenor, married name Buchan, Tweedsmuir comes from her title, Baroness Tweedsmuir, aka Susan Buchan) 1920s – 1960s Wife of novelist John Buchan, mother of Alice BUCHAN, sister-in-law of Anna BUCHAN. Biographer, memoirist, children's writer, and author of six novels. Cousin Harriet (1957), her best-known work by virtue of a Penguin reprint in the 1960s, tackles the story of a pregnant unmarried girl in epistolary style. This was one of three late novels all subtitles "A Victorian Story." The others were Dashbury Park (1959) and A Stone in the Pool (1961). Her three earlier novels were The Scent of Water (1937), The Silver Bell (1944), and The Rainbow through the Rain (1950). She published three slender volumes of memoirs—The Lilac and the Rose (1952), A Winter Bouquet (1954), and The Edwardian Lady (1966). She also published several biographies and children's books, the latter as Susan Buchan.

TYLER, F. M. (dates unknown) 1920s Untraced author of two girls' school stories, Bunty of Dormitory B (1929) and Patty's First Term (1929).

TYLER, PHILLIPA [ELISE] (1876 – 5 Feb 1946) (pseudonym of Phyllis Elise Tyler) 1910s – 1920s Author of three novels—The Lushington Mystery (1919), The Manaton Disaster (1920), and A Quest for a Fortune (1924).

TYNAN, KATHARINE (23 Jan 1861 – 2 Apr 1931) (married name Hinkson) 1890s – 1930s Mother of Pamela HINKSON. Prolific Irish poet and novelist with nearly 100 novels to her credit, including A Daughter of the Fields (1901), A Shameful Inheritance (1914), The House of the Foxes (1915), The Web of Farulein (1916), The Honourable Molly (1919), A Mad Marriage (1922), The Wandering Years (1922), and The Respectable Lady (1928).

TYRRELL, MABEL L[OUISE]. (1884 – 9 Jun 1962) 1920s – 1950s Playwright, children's writer, and novelist. Author of more than two dozen works of fiction in all, beginning with children's books, including two girls' school stories, Victoria's First Term (1925) and Miss Pike and Her Pupils (1928). Others include Secrets of the Mountains (1925), The Fortunes of the Braithwaits (1925), and The Enchanted Camp (1930). By the 1930s, she began writing primarily for adults. Chestnut Court (1929) focuses on an assortment of neighbors around a Paris courtyard. The Street of Fortune (1939) is about a happily married woman whose past trial for murder haunts her. The Secrets of Nicholas Culpeper (1945) is set in 17th century England—Kirkus summed it up: "Superstition giving way to facts, to scientific, medical and political investigation, this avoids the swashbuckling in preference for the battle of ideas, of mental progress in the early days of enlightenment." Others include The Mushroom Field (1931), Pull the House Down (1938), and Give Me a Torch (1951).