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E. S. B.
see BAKER, EMILY [SARAH]
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EAST, ALDGATE (1880 - 1946)
(pseudonym of Amy Adelaide Ebdell, née Skellam)
1930s
Author of a single novel, Darrimore
(1939), a portrait of a woman doctor.
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EASTON,
DOROTHY [ISOLDA TYTHERLEIGH] (8 Jun 1889 – Aug 1991)
(married name
Ivens)
1920s – 1930s
Author of two novels—Tantalus
(1923), about "a clergyman's love-affair with the French governess of
his sister-in-law's children" (Spectator)
and Bid Time Return (1934), which
sounds like a somewhat Brontëan romance, She also wrote a memoir, You Asked Me Why (1936), and a
gardening book with the evocative title, Gay
Gardening: A Book of Tips for Amateur Gardeners (1932).
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EASTON, GRACE M[ARY]. (23 Sept
1895 - 1980)
(née ?????)
1930s
Daughter and wife of missionaries in China, and author of one
Christian-themed girls' school story, The
School on the Hill (1940), appropriately and uniquely set in a school for
children of missionaries. She also published one additional children's book, Merry-All-the-Time (1936). We found
references to her husband, but a marriage record has proven elusive, so her
maiden name remains unknown.
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EASTWAYS, W. W. (dates unknown)
1930s – 1940s
Untraced (probably pseudonymous) author of three school stories which take
place at a single school over the course of almost a decade—Greycourt (1939), The Girls of Greycourt (1944), and Christine of the Fourth (1949).
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EASTWICK,
FLORENCE E[LIZA]. (1855 - 1941)
1900s – 1910s
Co-author, with her sister Beatrice HERON-MAXWELL, of two romance-themed
novels, A Woman's Soul (1900) and The Fifth Wheel (1916).
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EASTWOOD, HELEN (17 Jul 1892 -
1984)
(née Baker, aka Olive Baxter, aka Fay Ramsay)
Author of well over 100 novels under her own name and her pseudonyms, mostly
romantic suspense. Crime Fiction IV suggests that her more straightforward
mystery/thrillers include Beloved
Intruder (1949), Fugitive Wife
(1960), and The Ghostly Melody
(1977). Among her other titles are To
Be Worthy of Shadows (1938), Green
Eyes for Torture (1939), Synthetic
Halo (1940), Ken's Watery Shroud
(1942), Destiny for Jill (1961),
and Sweet Trespasser (1978).
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Ebel, Suzanne
see GOODWIN, SUZANNE
[CECILE]
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ECKERSLEY,
DAISY (9 Aug 1917 - 1986)
(née Mudge, but
may have been changed to Brown in her childhood)
1940s
Wife of designer and artist Tom Eckersley and mother of three more
illustrators and/or designers, Richard, Paul, and Anthony Eckersley. She
published a single children's book illustrated by her husband, Cat o' Nine Lives (1946). Many of the
illustrations are posted here.
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ECKERSON,
OLIVE (23 Feb 1901 – 24 Feb 1985)
(née Taylor)
1950s – 1960s
Author of two historical novels—My Lord
Essex (1955), about Queen Elizabeth I's romance with the Earl of Essex,
and The Golden Yoke: A Novel of the
Wars of the Roses (1962).
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EDEN, MARION (dates unknown)
1930s
Untraced author of two girls' school stories—Success for Jane (1936) and Felgarth's
Last Year (1938)—the first of which Sims and Clare described as "rambling,
repetitive, and pretentious."
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Edgar, Josephine
see EDGAR, MARY
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EDGAR,
MARY (27 Dec 1907 – 2 Mar 1991)
(married name
Mussi, aka Mary Howard, aka Josephine Edgar)
1930s – 1990s
Author of romantic and historical novels spanning more than sixty years, most
of them under her Howard pseudonym. Titles include Windier Skies (1930), Partners
for Playtime (1938), Devil in My
Heart (1941), Have Courage, My
Heart (1943), Sixpence in Her Shoe
(1950), The House of Lies (1960), The Bachelor Girls (1968), and A Dark and Alien Rose (1991).
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EDGE, K[ATHLEEN]. M[ARY]. (23
May 1878 – 11 Aug 1946)
(married name Caulfield)
1900s – 1910s
Author of four novels, three of which—Ahana (1902), The After Cost (1904), and The
Shuttles of the Loom (1909)—display her knowledge of India, where she
lived with her father and then her husband. The fourth, Through the Cloudy Porch (1912), is set in South Africa. OCEF describes Shuttles as about "a strong silent man who falls in love and
dies in a cholera epidemic," while her last novel is about a woman who
discovers her terrible husband is really her half-brother.
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EDGINTON, MAY (20 Dec 1883 – 17
Jun 1957)
(pseudonym of Helen Marion Edginton, aka H. M. Edginton, married name
Baily)
1900s – 1950s
Playwright and popular author of more than 50 romantic novels. Oh!
James! (1914) was adapted for stage and screen as “No, No, Nanette”. The Sin of Eve (1913) deals with a
suffragist who leaves the cause to get married. Married Life, or, The True Romance (1917) is about an unhappy
wife who finds new freedom and power while her husband is away on a business
trip. Woman of the Family (1935) is
about a secretary who, tired of being underpaid, becomes a dance club
hostess. Other titles include The
Weight Carriers (1908), Ladies Only
(1922), The Child in Their Midst
(1924), The Peach's Progress
(1927), The Women Who Squandered Men
(1927), Call Her Fanny (1930), Dance of Youth (1932), Emergency Wife (1937), Wedding Day (1939), The Harvest Is Mine (1944), The Tall Man (1950), and Two Lost Sheep (1955).
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EDISFORD,
ROSEMARY (dates unknown)
(1950s)
Unidentified author of a single novel (or possibly biography, depending which
review you consult), A Picnic in the
Shade (1958), about an eccentric family in a country home. A contemporary
review says she was living at Kidmore End in South Oxfordshire, but I’ve not
been able to locate any records for her, suggesting that the name is a
pseudonym. If the family home she wrote about was in Kidmore End, it might
well have been Kidmore
House?
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EDMISTON, [HELEN] JEAN [MARY] (9 Aug
1913 – 22 Feb 2008)
(aka Helen Robertson)
1950s – 1960s
Author of four mystery
novels under her pseudonym—The Winged
Witnesses (1955), about a young woman who finds intrigue on a camping
holiday in the Orkney Islands, Venice
of the Black Sea (1956), which deals with a "suspected
sororicide" in "the seedy, shabby-genteel atmosphere of Clapham and
thereabouts," The Crystal-Gazers
(1957), about the murder of an alchemist and the theft of a valuable jewel,
and the most acclaimed, The Chinese
Goose (1960, aka Swan Song),
about a young woman who drowned following an attack by swans, of all things—I
wrote a bit about that one here. She also wrote one additional novel, The Shake-Up (1962) under her real name, described as a witty
look at power struggles among the staff of a chemical works.
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EDMONDSTON,
MARY E[LIZABETH]. (24 Nov 1916 – 6 Aug 2013)
1940s – 1950s
Author of three children’s titles—Adventure
in the North (1944), Strangers in
the Islands (1948), and Secret in
the Sand (1953)—all or most set in Shetland. Although Mary was born and
lived in England, her family had close connections to Shetland. Adventure in the North seems to be set
just before WWII and feature children bringing down a gang of Nazi spies.
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EDWARDS, DOROTHY (1903 – 6 Jan
1934)
1920s
Welsh writer whose career—including only one story
collection, Rhapsody (1927), and
one novel, Winter Sonata (1928)
(both reprinted by Virago in the 1980s)—was tragically cut short by suicide.
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EDWARDS, GILLIAN MARY (7 Oct 1918 – 20
Mar 1994)
1950s – 1970s
Novelist and scholar of word origins.
Her first novel, Sun of My Life (1951), has a man researching the life
of a college acquaintance, a poet whom he has saved from suicide only to have
him die soon after of pneumonia. Wormwoodiana reviewed it here and compared its structure to Symons’ The
Quest for Corvo. She didn’t publish again until The Road to Hell
(1967), in which "a well-meaning man enlists the aid of the dark powers
to bring prosperity to an unsophisticated village in the Mediterranean, and,
in doing so, brings the village people all the ills of civilisation.” I Am
Leo (1969) is about the downfall of an arrogant prince in Renaissance
Italy, and Tower of Lions (1971), also set in that locale, features
Giulio d’Este, imprisoned by the Borgias for 50 years due to a youthful
indiscretion, reflecting on his life and times. Accidental Visitor
(1974), set in the present, deals with an author living in isolation on an
island, who must share his space for a time with a suicidal, recently-widowed
woman. I could find no details about her final novel, Fatal Grace
(1978). She also published three volumes about word origins—Uncumber and
Pantaloon: Some Words with Stories (1968), Hogmanay and Tiffany: The
Names of Feasts and Fasts (1970), and Hobgoblin and Sweet Puck: Fairy
Names and Natures (1974).
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Edwards,
June
see FORRESTER, HELEN
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EDWARDS,
LILIAS (dates unknown)
1950s – 1970s
Children's author whose works include Hiking
Holiday (1955), about two teenage girls hiking and hosteling, and its
sequel Annabelle Joins In (1959).
Other titles are Flannelfeet
(1961), Calling All Bears (1964), The Dancing Pony (1965), Silver Blaze (1968), and Stable to Let (1973).
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EDWARDS,
MONICA [LE DOUX] (8 Nov 1912 – 18 Jan 1998)
(née Newton)
1940s – 1970s
Children's author best known for the Romney Marsh series, beginning with Wish for a Pony (1947), and the
Punchbowl series, starting with No
Mistaking Corker (1947). Both feature adventures based around country and
farm life, and are noted for their strong characterization. Other titles are Black Hunting Whip (1950), Spirit of Punchbowl Farm (1952), No Entry (1954), Frenchman's Secret (1956), No
Going Back (1960), Dolphin Summer
(1963), A Wind Is Blowing (1969),
and Badger Valley (1976)
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EDWIN, MARIBEL (23 Apr 1895 – 25
Sept 1985)
(née Thomson)
1920s – 1960s
Author of 20 volumes of fiction for adults and children. These include a
mystery novel, Sound Alibi (1935),
in which a blind criminologist's secretary falls prey to murder. Her other
novels for adults are The Valiant
Jester (1930), Windfall Harvest
(1931), Atmosphere for Gloria
(1935), and Return to Youth (1937),
which seem to be romantic dramas. After the 1930s, Edwin turned to children's
fiction, often prominently featuring animals and nature settings. Titles
include This Way to Greenacres
(1950), The Zigzag Path (1955), The Bridge Under the Water (1957),
about a family moving to the Scottish Highlands, The Hidden House (1963), and Bilberry
Summer (1960). She also published Wild
Life Stories (1933), a nature title lavishly illustrated by Raymond
Sheppard.
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Egerton, Lucy
see MALLESON, LUCY BEATRICE
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ELDER, JOSEPHINE (6 Dec 1895 –
24 Jul 1988)
(pseudonym of Olive Gwendoline Potter, aka Margaret Potter)
1920s – 1960s
A doctor in general practice for
60 years, and author of 17 volumes of fiction. She published 11 children's
titles, many of them school stories, including Evelyn Finds Herself
(1929), considered by many to be one of the best of that genre. Her other
children's titles are Erica Wins
Through (1924), The Scholarship
Girl (1925), The Scholarship Girl
at Cambridge (1926), Thomasina
Toddy (1927), The Redheads
(1931), The Upper Fifth at St. Anne's
(1934), a farm school trilogy comprised of Exile for Annis (1938), Cherry
Tree Perch (1939), and Strangers at
Farm School (1940), and Barbara at
School (1946). Elder also wrote 6 adult novels, often centered around
medicine and most of them reprinted in recent years by Greyladies. Titles are
Sister Anne Resigns (1931), The Mystery of the Purple Bentley
(1932), her one mystery, about
a woman doctor whose disappearance is investigated by her nurse/assistant, Lady
of Letters (1949), The Encircled Heart (1951), Doctor's Children (1954), and Fantastic Honeymoon (1961). I've
discussed some of Elder's titles here.
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ELIAS, EDITH L[EA]. (2 May 1879
– 15 Feb 1952)
(née Morice)
1910s – 1940s
Author of several works of non-fiction for children and adults, as well as
more than a dozen works of children's fiction, including two girls' school
stories—Elsie Lockhart, 3rd Form Girl
(1925) and Deanholme (1926)—which,
according to Sims & Clare, eschew melodrama and focus on relationships.
Others include Periwinkle's Island
(1919), The Old Treasure House
(1925), Her Majesty Runs Away
(1939), Peasant Princess (1944),
and Under the Sea and Back Again
(1947).
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ELIOT, [GERMAINE] ELIZABETH
[OLIVE] ELIOT (13 Apr 1911 - 1991)
(married names James and Kinnaird)
1950s
Author of five acclaimed novels and two works of non-fiction. Her clever,
darkly humorous debut, Alice
(1950), was compared to Nancy Mitford. The other novels are Henry (1950), Mrs. Martell (1953), Starter's
Orders (1955), and Cecil
(1962). Heiresses and Coronets
(1959, published in the U.K. as They
All Married Well (1960), is non-fiction about prominent European/American
marriages. She also published Portrait
of a Sport: A History of Steeplechasing (1957). I wrote about all of
Eliot's novels here, and they've been reprinted as Furrowed Middlebrow books by Dean
Street Press.
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ELIOTT, LYDIA S[USANNA]. (5 Nov
1882 – 23 May 1974)
(née Graham)
1930s – 1960s
Author of more than two dozen works for children, including fiction,
non-fiction, and Bible stories, some for younger children, as well as a
single adult novel, Lake of Destiny
(1948), about which information is lacking. Children's titles that appear to
be fiction for older children include Susan
of Red Rock Fjord (1949), The
Chief's Secret (1951), Ceva of the
Caradoes (1953), The Girl from
'Chinooks' (1954), The Young
Explorers (1958), and Found in the
Forest (1958). Interestingly, her 1950 title Children of Galilee was illustrated by Mollie M. Kaye, later
better known as novelist M. M. KAYE.
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Elizabeth
see VON ARNIM, ELIZABETH
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ELLAMS, WINIFRED (18 Dec 1917 -
????)
(married name Hammond, possibly other earlier married name[s])
A schoolteacher herself
and the daughter of a headmaster, Ellams published a single girls' school
story, The Girls of Lakeside School (1949).
In 2014, a comment on a forum from her niece reported that Ellams was 97
years old and still living in the Midlands.
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Elliott, Ellen
see WESTMARLAND, ETHEL LOUISA
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ELLIOTT,
LILIAN ELWYN (1874 – 7 Feb 1963)
(married names
Summers and Joyce, aka L. E. Elliott Joyce)
1920s
Author of several travel books about Central and South America, as well as a
single novel, Black Gold (1920).
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ELLIS, BETH (ELIZABETH) (17 Sept 1874 – 2 Aug 1913)
(married name Baker)
1900s – 1910s
Aunt of Elizabeth FAIR. Author of a travel book, An English Girl's First Impressions of
Burmah (1899), described by one source as "one of the funniest travel books ever written,"
and of seven novels, most historical romance. Titles are Barbara Winslow: Rebel (1903), Madame, Will You Walk? (1905), The Moon of Bath (1907), Blind
Mouths (1907), The King's Spy
(1910), A King of Vagabonds (1911),
and The King's Blue Riband (1912).
She reportedly died in childbirth.
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Ellis,
Mrs. Havelock
see LEES, EDITH
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ELLSWORTH, EDITH ELLEN (2 Jul
1886 – 12 Jun 1956)
(née Bennett)
1930s – 1960s
Author of one girls' school story, Doctor
Noreen (1945), as well as numerous other children's stories, many for
young children. Titles include Strong
Wing (1939), The Highwayman Came
Riding (1944), Smuggler's Bay
(1949), Strongwing (1954), and The Magic Chestnut (1961).
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ELRINGTON,
HELEN (23 Jul 1854 – 31 Dec 1950)
1870s, 1900s – 1920s
Travel writer, children's author, and author of nearly 20 volumes of fiction,
including several boys' school stories. Titles include A Scandal—or, Is It True? (1878), In the Days of Prince Hal, or The Little Forester (1901), The Two Christophers (1902), Mark or Molly? (1903), Ralph Wynward: A Story for Boys
(1903), The Schoolboy Outlaws
(1904), Ralph and Percy (1906), The Luck of Chervil (1907), The Burleighs (1911), The Red House of Boville (1925), Maurice Pomeroy (1927), and The Outside House (1928).
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Elsna, Hebe
see ANSLE, DOROTHY PHOEBE
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EMSLEY,
CLARE (23 Sept 1912 – 12 Apr 1980)
(full name
Clare Emsley Plummer, aka Clare Plummer)
1940s – 1970s
Daughter of crime novelist T. Arthur Plummer and romance writer Cora LINDA.
Author of more than 20 romantic novels, including Painted Clay (1947), The
Broken Arcs (1951), Call Back
Yesterday (1958), Unknown Heritage
(1963), Doctor at the Crossroads
(1966), and A Time to Heal (1971).
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ENGLAND,
JANE (27 Sept 1896 - 1967)
(pseudonym of
Vera Murdock Stuart Jervis, née Coysh, earlier married name Southgate)
1920s – 1960s
Author of more than 50 novels, probably romantic tales, many set in Africa.
Titles include Red Earth (1926),
set in South Africa, The Sjambok
(1929) and Rhodesian Farm (1933),
both set in Rhodesia, The Solitary
Place (1937), The Flowering Veld
(1940), Yorkshire Farm (1943), The Camphorwood Chest (1954), set in
Ireland, and Pandora's Box (1964).
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ENGLISH, ISOBEL (9 Jun 1920 – 30
May 1994)
(pseudonym of June Guesdon Braybrooke, née Jolliffe, earlier married
name Orr-Ewing)
1950s – 1970s
Author of three novels—The Key that
Rusts (1954), Every Eye (1956),
and Four Voices (1961)—which were
highly acclaimed in their day, as well as one story collection, Life after All (1973). Muriel Spark
said that Every Eye, which has been
reprinted by Persephone, was "intensely evocative of the period,
remarkable in its observations of place and character."
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ENOCK, ESTHER E[THELIND]. (13
Jun1874 – 5 Jun 1947)
1910s – 1940s
Author of more than 20 volumes of Christian-themed children's fiction and
non-fiction, including Four Girls and a
Fortune (1935), set in part in a girls' school. Other titles include Those Dreadful Girls (1913), The Children of Eversley Grange
(1916), The Girls Of Clare Hall
(1919), The Quest of Three (1926), Greta The Steadfast (1931), The Golden Stair (1934), Joan of Glencairn (1937), Daneleigh Court (1946), Four Girls and a Fortune (1948), and The Happy Road (1949).
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ERSKINE, ANN (dates unknown)
(pseudonym of John Erskine Tuck and Ann Hawkesworth, who remains
untraced)
1950s
Authors of a single girls' school story, Kath
of Kinmantel (1958). The British Library spells the name "Ann,"
while Worldcat spells it "Anne" and credits the author with an
earlier book of poetry, Some Simple
Things (1933).
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ERSKINE, CICELY [GRACE] (10 Sept
1873 – 12 Aug 1969)
(née Quicke)
1930s
Author of several sex education and birth control books in the 1920s, Erskine
also wrote one novel, Whisper
(1931), about “a curious matrimonial situation,” possibly involving a wife
dying in childbirth.
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ERSKINE, KATHLEEN (10 Apr 1904 –
10 Jul 1991)
(née Brookes)
1930s
Author of three novels—Design (1934), The Pursuers
(1935), and They Carry the Fire
(1938). The Morning Post said that
the first was "almost Galsworthian," but details are lacking.
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ERSKINE, MARGARET (2 May 1901 –
4 Jul 1984)
(pseudonym of Margaret Doris Wetherby Williams)
1930s – 1970s
Born in Canada but raised in England. Author of more than two dozen crime
novels, many featuring series character Inspector Septimus Finch. Many of her
novels appear to have been published first in the U.S., and some seem not to
have appeared in the U.K. at all. Titles (and alternate titles, if available)
are And Being Dead (1938), The Limping Man (1939, aka The Painted Mask), The Whispering House (1947, aka The Voice of the House), Caravan of Night (1948), I Knew MacBean (1948), Give up the Ghost (1949), The Disappearing Bridegroom (1950), The Silver Ladies (1951), Don't Look Behind You (1952), Death of Our Dear One (1952, aka Look Behind You, Lady), Dead by Now (1953), Fatal Relations (1953, aka Old Mrs. Ommanney Is Dead), The Voice of Murder (1956), Sleep No More (1958), The House of the Enchantress (1959), A Graveyard Plot (1959), The Woman at Belguardo (1961), The House in Belmont Square (1963, aka
No. 9 Belmont Square), Take a Dark Journey (1965), The Family at Tammerton (1965), Case with Three Husbands (1967), The Ewe Lamb (1968), The Case of Mary Fielding (1970), The Brood of Folly (1971), Besides the Wench Is Dead (1973), Harriet Farewell (1975), and The House in Hook Street (1977).
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ERSKINE-LINDOP, AUDREY [BEATRICE
NOËL] (26 Dec 1920 – 7 Nov 1986)
(married name Leslie)
1940s – 1970s
Actress, screenwriter, and author of romantic, mystery, and historical
fiction. She is included in Twentieth-Century
Romance and Historical Writers, but the editors qualify her inclusion by
noting that her work "usually offers the reader far more than a single
male/female relationship and there is very rarely a simplistic or
conventionally happy ending." She wrote more than a dozen novels in all,
including Fortune My Foe (1947, aka
In Me My Enemy), Soldiers' Daughters (1948), The Tall Headlines (1950), Out of the Whirlwind (1951), The Singer Not the Song (1953, aka The Bandit and the Priest), set in
Mexico, Details of Jeremy (1955,
aka The Outer Ring), The Judas Figures (1956), Mist Over Talla (1957, aka I Thank a Fool), Nicola (1959), The Way to
the Lantern (1961), set during the French Revolution, I Start Counting (1966), which won the
Prix Roman Policier, Sight Unseen
(1969), Journey Into Stone (1972),
and The Self-Appointed Saint
(1975).
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ERTLING, CHRISTINE [VIOLET] (28
Apr 1905 – 5 Feb 1980)
(originally Oertling, married name Carr, aka Christine Oertling)
1910s, 1930s
Child prodigy who published her first two books—The Passing of the Shadows (1919), "The Lure of Melody"
(1920)—and a play while still in her teens. She later dropped the O from her
name and published two novels for Mills & Boon, The Fiddler Played It Wrong (1934) and Design with a View (1935).
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ERTZ, SUSAN (13 Feb 1887 – 11
Apr 1985)
(married name McCrindle)
1920s – 1970s
Author of two dozen works of fiction, including novels with domestic themes,
story collections, and one children's book. Her debut, Madame Claire (1923), is about a matriarch maneuvering and
guiding her family. I reviewed it here. Now East, Now West (1927),
according to the Orlando Project, "presents a contrast between the
societies of England and America." The
Proselyte (1933) deals with the early days of the Mormons in Utah. One Fight More (1939) is about three
sisters and their domestic problems, while Anger in the Sky (1943) is Ertz's contribution to "blitz
lit". Charmed Circle (1956)
deals with a dysfunctional family. Other titles include Nina (1924), Julian Probert
(1931), No Hearts To Break (1937), Two Names Under the Shore (1947, aka Mary Hallam), In the Cool of the Day (1960), and The Philosopher's Daughter (1976).
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ESCOTT, [CICELY] MARGARET (9 Jul 1908 -
15 Aug 1977)
(aka C. M. Allen)
1930s
Poet and author of three novels. As C. M. Allen,
she published Insolence of Office
(1934), about a teenage piano prodigy in London, and Awake at Noon (1935), in which a London publisher, still
traumatized by his experiences in World War I, falls in love with a woman
doctor. Under her own name, Escott published Show Down (1936, aka I Told My Love) about a dairy farmer
in New Zealand and his relationship with a visiting Englishwoman. The last
was reprinted in 1973 as part of a New Zealand Fiction series. Escott was
born and raised in Britain, but spent time in New Zealand as an adult and
emigrated there in the late 1930s.
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ESSEX,
JOY (dates unknown)
1930s
Untraced author of a single short romance novel, A Fiancée for Hire (1930).
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Essex, Mary
see BLOOM, URSULA
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Estoril, Jean
see ALLAN, MABEL ESTHER ALLAN
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EUDACOLT,
BELLA (dates unknown)
1920s
Untraced author of a single novel, probably a romance, An Impossible Pair (1923).
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Euphan,
Barbara
see TODD, BARBARA EUPHAN
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EUSTACE,
ALICE (c1868 - ????)
(pseudonym of
Mary Ann [or Anne] Thomas, née Rees)
1920s – 1930s
Author of eight romantic novels, most for Mills & Boon, including Cloistered Virtue (1925), Flame of the Forest (1927), A Girl from the Jungle (1928), The Make-Believe Lover (1929), Diamonds and Jasmin (1929), Smoke-Haze (1930), He'll Love Me Yet (1932), and My Purdah Lady (1933).
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EVANS, MARGIAD (17 Mar 1909 – 17
Mar 1958)
(pseudonym of Peggy Eileen Williams, née Whistler)
1930s – 1950s
Novelist and
memoirist who often focused on the border of England and Wales, where she
grew up, including in her best-known novel Country Dance (1932). Her other novels are The Wooden Doctor (1933), Turf
or Stone (1934), and Creed
(1936). She also wrote three memoirs—Autobiography
(1943), A Ray of Darkness (1952),
which deals with her experiences with epilepsy, and The Nightingale Silenced (1954), which deals with the progress of
the brain tumor with which she had been diagnosed in 1953. She also published
two volumes of poetry and a story collection, The Old and the Young (1948). She died of cancer on her 49th
birthday.
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EVEREST,
[MARY] KATE (CATHERINE) (1860 – 23 Aug 1946)
1910s – 1920s
Poet and author of five novels—Lady
Beaufoy (1914), Stolen Brains
(1917), Life's Fitful Fever (1918),
The Bond That Held (1920), and The Mandarin's Spy-Glass (1928). Two
early works, The Shadow on the Purple
(1911) and The Searchlight on the
Throne (1912), are apparently memoirs of life in the foreign service.
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EVERETT, MRS. H[ENRIETTA].
D[OROTHY]. (1851 – 16 Sept 1923)
(née Huskisson, aka Theo Douglas)
1890s - 1920
Author of 20 volumes of fiction, largely historical
romances and melodramas, sometimes with a supernatural component. Iras: A Mystery (1896), dealing with
an Egyptian mummy brought back to life, is considered a precursor to modern
sci-fi and fantasy fiction. According to OCEF, Malevola (1914) is an anti-feminist
vampire story with lesbian themes. A
White Witch (1908) is set in 17th century Oxford, while White Webs (1912) is set in Sussex in
the 1700s. Other titles include Windygap
(1898), Miss Caroline (1904), One or Two (1907), Cousin Hugh (1910), The Grey Countess (1913), and Miss Maybud: Marriage-Maker (1920).
She also published a collection of ghost stories, The Death-Mask and Other Ghosts (1920). Her early novels used her
pseudonym, but after her marriage she began using her own name. A trivial
detail from OCEF: Her great-uncle
was William Huskisson, the first man in England to be run over by a train.
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EVERETT-GREEN, EVELYN (17 Nov
1856 – 27 Apr 1932)
(aka Cecil Adair, E. Ward, and Evelyn Dare)
1880s – 1930s
Nurse, novelist,
and children's author whose works often reflected her strong Methodist
beliefs and who published more then 300 books in all. Of her adult novels
under the Adair pseudonym, the British
Weekly said they were "full of an unforced gaiety. We get a
straightforward story, plenty of love-making, a variety of human interests,
with a clean tone and an invigorating belief in goodness." She wrote a
single girls' school story, Queen's
Manor School (1921), which Sims and Clare call "curiously
Victorian." Among her other titles are Fighting the Good Fight (1884), Joint Guardians (1889), Dorothy's
Vocation (1890), The Percevals, or,
A Houseful of Girls (1890), The
Lord of Dynevor: A Tale of the Time of Edward the First (1892), In Pursuit of a Phantom (1905), Lady Elizabeth and the Juggernaut
(1906), The Cossart Cousins: A Story
for Girls (1908), The Family Next
Door (1908), Half-a-Dozen Sisters
(1909), Silver Star-Dust (1925), Greenberg (1925), Quadrille Court (1929), and Hills
of the West (1932).
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EWER, MONICA (21 Jan 1889 – 22
Nov 1964)
(née Thompson)
1920s – 1950s
Well known as the drama and film critic for the Daily Herald, Ewer reportedly wrote 50+ romantic novels, though
the British Library lists fewer. Some, like Insecurity (1930), make use of her knowledge of journalism, film,
and the theatre, and Ring o' Roses
(1939) was adapted for the screen. Others include The Film of Fortune (1922), Susan
Plays a Lone Hand (1932), Fifty Bob
a Week (1934), Because We Love
(1945), Shadow in the Limelight (1946),
Clouded Sunshine (1949), Be Single Hearted (1952), and There Will Be Time (1957).
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EYLES,
KATHLEEN MURIEL (17 Dec 1913 – 4 Aug 1969)
(went by Merle,
her real middle name, married names Knox and Rennick, aka Catherine Tennant)
1930s – 1950s
Author of nine novels, six of them under her Tennant pseudonym. Titles are Snow on Water (1932), Chorus of Old Men (1933), Poor Rebel (1935), Children of the Foam (1939), Major Road Ahead (1942), Last Orders, Please! (1943), The Wheels Turn Round (1946), Matilda Jones (1951), and Tomorrow Is Free (1953).
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EYLES, [MARGARET] LEONORA (1
Sept 1889 – 27 Sept 1960)
(née Pitcairn, married name Murray, aka Elizabeth Lomond? [see separate
entry for Lomond])
1910s – 1930s
Journalist and author of nearly a dozen novels in all. She focused on working
class women in her non-fiction The
Woman in the Little House (1922)
and in novels like Margaret Protests (1919)
and Hidden Lives (1922), the latter
the story of a woman doctor in a poor urban neighborhood. She published
several successful mysteries in the 1930s—They
Wanted Him Dead (1936), a humorous tale of the murder of an unlikable
head of household in the Sussex Downs, Death
of a Dog (1936), about a journalist who comes under suspicion for her
husband’s murder, with a psychoanalyst to provide the solution no less, and No Second Best (1939), about a woman
doctor in poor London neighborhoods, who has an affair and pays the price.
Other fiction includes Elfin Gold
(1923), The Hare of Heaven (1924), The Shepherd of Israel (1929), and Strength of the Spirit (1930). During
World War II Eyles wrote For My Enemy
Daughter (1941), a series of letters to her daughter, who had married an
Italian and was living in Italy. Perhaps also of interest are Eyles'
cookbook, Eating Well in War-time
(1940), and her wartime advice book Cutting
the Coat: A Book for Every Housewife in War-time (1941). In 1932, a novel
called I Have Been Young (1932)
appeared, credited to "Elizabeth Lomond". Critics coyly suggested
that it was an autobiographical work by an established novelist. Comparing
the novel’s themes with the bios of writers on my list, Lomond seems almost
certainly to have been Eyles, though I'm retaining a separate entry for
Lomond because as far as I know this has never been definitely established.
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Fabyan, Evylyn
see WOLFE, ELIZABETH [SOPHIA
FRANCIS]
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FAGAN, [SUSAN] ELISABETH (1866 –
28 Jun 1939)
(née Kirby)
1920s – 1930s
Actress and author of four novels—Dear
Ann (1923), All the Way (1927),
Things Were Different (1927), and Penny Got (1933)—and one volume, From the Wings (1922), which appears
to be a memoir of theatrical life. Dear
Ann is focused upon "the follies and the insincerity of a modern
Society woman." Of All the Way,
the Bookman said "the reader
gets many delightful glimpses behind the scenes, in a provincial touring
company, and is introduced to some refreshing characters." Things Were Different is set around
the 1870s and purports to be the diary of an aunt who, if real, seems to have
had extraordinary adventures. And according to the Spectator, Penny Got,
the story of a 19th century farm family, has the unique characteristic of
being narrated by their house.
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FAHY, MINA (c1861 - 1916)
1910s
Author of a single girls' school story, St.
Clement's (1910). She was born in Ireland and apparently ran a small
school along with her sister.
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FAID, MARY ALICE (1897 - 1990)
(married name Dunn)
1940s – 1970s
Author of 10 Scottish girls' stories described by Sims and Clare as
"evangelistic," which trace one character from her school years to
adulthood, beginning with Trudy Takes
Charge (1949) and extending through Trudy
and Family (1970). She also wrote other children's fiction and nearly a
dozen adult novels, including Dear
Dominie (1954), A Bride for the
Laird (1955), The Singing Rain
(1958), Mrs. Drummon's Daughters
(1960), Daffodil Square (1962), The Glass Keepsake (1965), and The Other Side of the Park (1972).
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FAIR,
ELIZABETH [MARY] (7 Jul 1908 – 22 Aug 1997)
1950s
Author of seven novels, including six published in her lifetime which make
use of romance and village comedy and which were compared in their day to the
likes of Angela Thirkell, Margery Sharp, Anthony Trollope, and Jane Austen.
Those titles are Bramton Wick
(1952), Landscape in Sunlight
(1953, aka All One Summer), The Native Heath (1954, aka Julia Comes Home), Seaview House (1955, aka A View of the Sea), A Winter Away (1957), and The Mingham Air (1960). In 2021,
Fair's heirs discovered the manuscript of an unpublished seventh novel, The Marble Staircase, which was
published by Dean Street Press as a Furrowed Middlebrow book, along with the
earlier six that were already reprinted. I've written about Fair here.
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FAIRBANK, EVELEEN LENORA (25 Mar
1891 – 22 Oct 1986)
(née Hannah, aka Judith Carr, aka Elisabeth Morley)
1940s – 1950s
Only recently identified thanks to an email from her adopted granddaughter,
Fairbank published at least eleven girls' school stories. Three of these—Jess of the Juniors (1947), Girls in Green (1949), and Judy's Triumph (195?)—utilized her
Morley pseudonym, while seven more—The
Templeton Twins (1947), Scholarship
Sue (1948), The Jays of St John's
(1948), Screen Fashions (1948), Penelope's Prefects (1950), The New Girls of Netherby (1951), Madcap Melody (1953), and Gipsy at Greywalls (1955)—were
published as Judith Carr. Her granddaughter recalled that Fairbank had also
published a single title under another pseudonym, but that name has not yet
been identified.
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Fairfax-Lucy, Alice
see BUCHAN, ALICE [CAROLINE
HENRY]
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FALCON, CECILIA [FRANCES] (24
Jan 1889 – 13 May 1959)
(née Gledhill [uncertain but probable identification])
1950s
Author of two girls' school stories—Deborah's
Secret Quest (1950) and The Best
Term Ever (1952)—with an emphasis on adventure and intrigue.
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FANE,
LENOX (22 Jan 1900 – 5 Jul 1937)
(pseudonym of
Elizabeth Adeline Mary Bligh)
1920s
Barrister, journalist, and occasional book author. She published one
pseudonymous novel, Legation Street
(1925), a volume of poems (1934), and the non-fiction Living in the Country: Essays and Personal Reminiscences in the Form
of Letters (1935).
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FANE,
VALERIE (1893 – 13 Nov 1936)
(pseudonym of
Frances Viggars, née Milligan)
1930s
Author of two romantic novels, Spring
Melody (1935) and Secret Heart
(1936).
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FANSHAW, CAROLINE
(15 Jan 1919 – 12 Aug 2008)
(pseudonym of
Barbara Kate Cust)
1950s – 1960s
Author of nearly two dozen romantic novels, including Restore My Dreams (1954), Turn
Back to Me (1956), Fascinating
Stranger (1958), Spring Will Return
(1959), Melody of Summer (1961), River of Romance (1964), Encounter with Love (1966), and Marry Me Never (1969).
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FARJEON,
ANNABEL (19 Mar 1919 – 8 Feb 2004)
(married names
Adams and Anrep)
1940s
Ballet dancer and niece of Eleanor FARJEON, about whom she wrote a biography,
Morning Has Broken (1986). She
published one adult novel, The Alphabet
(1943), about "the childhood and adolescence of a remarkably
self-engrossed young woman," and five much later children's titles,
including Maria Lupin (1967), The Siege of Trapp's Mill (1975), The Unicorn Drum (1976), The Cock of Round Hill (1977), and The
Lucky Ones (1984).
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FARJEON, ELEANOR (13 Feb 1881 –
5 Jun 1965)
1920s – 1960s
Aunt of Annabel FARJEON. Prolific author of poetry and fiction for
younger children, Farjeon also published a dozen novels for adults, often
inspired by or incorporating fairy tales. These include Martin Pippin in the Apple-Orchard (1922), The Soul of Kol Nikon (1923), Ladybrook
(1931), The Fair of St. James
(1932), The Humming Bird (1936), Miss Granby's Secret (1940), Brave Old Woman (1941), Golden Coney (1943), The Fair Venetian (1943), Ariadne and the Bull (1945), Love Affair (1947), and The Two Bouquets (1948). I wrote about
Miss Granby’s Secret here. According to ODNB, her best children's poetry is
included in Silver-Sand and Snow
(1951) and The Children's Bells
(1957), while her best stories for children are in The Little Bookroom (1955). She published two memoirs—A Nursery in the Nineties (1935), her
account of her childhood, and Edward
Thomas: The Last Four Years (1958), which covered the years in which she
was close friends with Thomas and his wife. This was intended as the first of
several volumes of memoirs, but Farjeon died before she could complete the
proposed second volume.
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FARMER, CICELY [HILDA] (13 Sept
1870 – 7 May 1955)
(married names Baden-Powell and Monier-Williams)
1920s – 1930s
Wife of "sea scouting" pioneer Warington Baden-Powell (therefore
sister-in-law of Robert Baden-Powell) and author of at least four novels.
Titles are The Painted Show (1924),
Waters of Fayle (1925), Anna (1931), and Artemis Weds (1932). A fifth title, The Bending Sickle (1931), first published in the U.S., may be an
American edition of one of her other works or it may be a fifth novel. She
also published two books about her travels—Dragons and a Bell (1931), about a trip through China, Malaysia,
Burma, and Sri Lanka, and Sunrise Over
India (1934). Farmer was born in New Zealand, but her family had
relocated to England by the 1881 census.
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FARMER,
PENELOPE [JANE] (14 Jun 1939 - )
(married names
Mockridge and Shorvon)
1960s – 1990s
Author of more than 20 volumes of fiction for children and adults. Her career
began with The China People (1960),
a collection of fairy tales, but she is best known for Charlotte Sometimes (1969), the story of a contemporary girl who
travels back in time to 1918. Other children's titles include The Summer Birds (1962), The Seagull (1965), A Castle of Bone (1972), Year King (1977), The Runaway Train (1980), and Stone
Croc (1991). In the 1980s and 1990s, she published several novels for
adults, including Standing in the
Shadow (1984), Eve: Her Story
(1985), Away from Home (1987), Glasshouses (1988), Snakes and Ladders (1993), and Penelope: A Novel (1996).
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FARNES,
ELEANOR (6 Jun 1906
- 1989)
(pseudonym of Grace Winifred
Rutherford, née Tomlins [uncertain but probable identification])
1930s – 1970s
Author of nearly 70 Mills & Boon romances, including Merry Goes the Time (1935), Tangled
Harmonies (1936), Bloom on the
Gorse (1941), Stormcloud and
Sunrise (1945), The Golden Peaks
(1951), A Stronger Spell (1959), Rubies for My Love (1969), A Serpent in Eden (1971), and The Amaranth Flower (1979).
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FARQUHAR, MARION JAUNCEY (dates
unknown)
1930s
Untraced author of one novel, Sowing Moon (1936), about which little information is available.
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FARR, FLORENCE [BEATRICE] (7 Jul
1860 – 29 Apr 1917)
(married name Emery)
1890s, 1910s
Composer, playwright, actress and novelist, known in large part for a
high-profile affair with George Bernard Shaw and her collaborations with
William Butler Yeats. She published two novels—The Dancing Faun (1894) and the self-published The Solemnization of Jacklin (1912).
The former, according to OCEF,
includes a scene in which an actor—reportedly based on Shaw and on Farr's
husband, with whom she lived for only four years—is shot by a "New
Woman."
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FARRE,
ROWENA (26 Feb 1921 – 9 Jan 1979)
(pseudonym of
Daphne Lois Macready)
1950s
Author whose debut, Seal Morning
(1957), was published as a memoir of childhood on an isolated Scottish croft,
but which is now generally considered an autobiographical novel. She wrote
two additional books: A Time from the
World (1962, aka Gypsy Idyll)
dealt with her time among the Romanies, and The Beckoning Land (1969) is about her time in India and Ceylon.
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FARRELL, KATHLEEN [AMY] (4 Aug
1912 – 25 Nov 1999)
1940s – 1960s
Author of six novels, sometimes compared in their day to the work of Barbara
Pym. Titles are Johnny's Not Home from
the Fair (1942), Mistletoe Malice
(1951), Take It to Heart (1953), The Cost Of Living (1956), The Common Touch (1959), and Limitations of Love (1962). I’ve
discussed some of her work here. She was the companion of novelist Kay DICK for 22 years.
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Farrell,
M. J.
see KEANE, MOLLY
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FARRER, KATHARINE [DOROTHY] (27
Sept 1911 – 26 Mar 1972)
(née Newton)
1950s
Wife of an Oxford don, Farrer wrote three mysteries—The Missing Link (1952), set at Oxford, Gownsman's Gallows (1954), and The Cretan Counterfeit (1957), set in and around the British
Museum. She also published one mainstream novel, At Odds with Morning (1960), described by Rue Morgue Press's bio
as "a satire of a self-appointed saint."
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FAULDING, GERTRUDE MINNIE (19
Dec 1875 – 26 Dec 1961)
1910s
Known for children's books about flowers and
fairies, Faulding published two novels in collaboration with Lucy DALE—Time's Wallet (1913), an epistolary
novel composed of correspondence between two young, educated,
politically-involved women, and Merely
Players (1917), about a woman writer's troubled marriage.
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Faulkner, Mary
see LINDSAY, KATHLEEN
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FAVIELL,
FRANCES (10 Jun 1903 – 13 Oct 1959)
(pseudonym of Olivia Faviell Parker, née Lucas, earlier married name
Fabri)
1950s
Author of two highly praised memoirs—A Chelsea Concerto (1959), about the
author's harrowing experiences during the Blitz, and The Dancing Bear (1954), about life in Germany immediately after
World War II. She also published three novels—A House on the Rhine (1955), clearly also inspired by her time in
Germany, Thalia (1957), about an
18-year-old art student spending a year as companion to a woman and her two
children in Brittany, and The
Fledgeling (1958), about a young man who has gone AWOL from his National
Service. I've written about all of Faviell's works here, and they have
all been reprinted as Furrowed Middlebrow titles by Dean Street Press.
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FAXON,
FREDERICKA (dates unknown)
(pseudonym of
Mary F. Browne)
1940s
Author of a single novel, Rehearsal
(1941), described as dealing with “the trials of being born beautiful, and
tells how small-town Amy Braide suffered through her looks till an accident
robbed her of them.” A copyright entry provides us with the author’s real
name, which is too common to trace. It is interesting that there was an
American author named Frederick W. Faxon, though he does not appear to have
had children.
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Fay,
Erica
see STOPES, MARIE
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FAYRER, E[ILEEN].
M[ARGARET]. (21 Sept 1901 - 12 Nov 1956)
1930s
Author of one novel The Scoundrel Lass (1934),
about the origins of Nell Gwynne. It received acclaim for its portrayal of
low life in Restoration London.
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FEARON, ETHELIND [EMILY] (18 Dec
1898 – 22 Apr 1974)
(née Ratcliff)
1940s – 1960s
Memoirist, children's writer, and author of guides to cooking, homemaking,
and entertaining. Her humorous guide The
Reluctant Hostess (1954) was reprinted by Penguin in 2015, but her
humorous memoirs, including Most Happy
Husbandman (1946, aka The Happiest
of Men), Me and Mr Mountjoy
(1951), The Fig and the Fishbone
(1959), which tells of her experiences opening a tearoom in a 600-year-old
Essex cottage, The Marquis, the Mayonaisse
and Me (1961), about life on an Essex farm, and A Privy in the Cactus (1965), about her time renovating and
occupying a decrepit house in Majorca, may be of most interest to readers of
this blog. Her several children's titles include The Sheep-Dog Adventure (1953), The Young Market Gardeners (1953), The Secret of the Château (1955), and Pluckrose's Horse (1955). Sadie Stein
wrote an enthusiastic article about Fearon for the Paris Review following the Penguin reprint, which can be read here.
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FEATHERSTONHAUGH, GWENDOLEN
(dates unknown)
1940s
Untraced author of two children's titles—The
Romance of a China Doll (1946) and Caroline's
First Term (1947). The latter is a girls' school story with a far-fetched
plot but, according to Sims and Clare, a pleasingly ironic tone and strong
characters. John Herrington found a particularly likely candidate if the name
is real—one Gwendolen Winifred Featherstonehaugh, later Oliver, then Taylor,
born 1913—but there's nothing to definitely confirm that she was the author.
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Fellowes,
Anne
see MANTLE, WINIFRED
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FELTON, MONICA (23 Sept 1906 – 3
Mar 1970)
(née Page)
1940s
Later known for her writings on North Korea and India, including That's Why I Went: The Record of a Journey
to North Korea (1953) and A Child
Widow's Story (1966), Felton began her career with one novel, To All the Living (1945), which,
according to the Observer,
"explores a huge war-time munition works, and follows its worker into
their offices, shops, and homes."
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Fennessy, J. C.
see HAYTER, ALETHEA
[CATHERINE]
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Fenton, Elizabeth
see LINDSAY, KATHLEEN
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Ferguson,
Helen
see KAVAN, ANNA
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FERGUSON, MARGARET [ARIELL] (7
Jul 1904 – 29 Jul 1979)
1930s – 1970s
Author of more than 60 volumes of romance, suspense, and other popular
fiction. Flambeau (1934) deals with
a large family living in the Cotswolds, and The Sign of the Ram (1943) is set in Cornwall. Harvest of Nettles (1952) is a crime
novel set in Ceylon, about a nurse willfully implicated in her suicidal
patient's death. Other titles include Forbidden
Fires (1930), The Pinching Shoe
(1932), The Bachelor's Table
(1935), Vain Bondage (1938), Last Year's Rose (1941), The Waning of the Moon (1949), A Bed of Brambles (1954), Here Are Dragons (1956), Summer's Darling (1960), Crooked Corner (1963), Bird on the Wing (1968), and A House of Echoes (1973).
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FERGUSON,
RACHEL [ETHELREDA] (17 Oct 1892 – 26 Nov 1957)
1920s – 1950s
Novelist, satirist, and playwright. Author of 12 humorous and eccentric
novels—False Goddesses
(1923), The Brontës Went to Woolworth's
(1931, reprinted by Bloomsbury), The
Stag at Bay (1932), Popularity's
Wife (1932), A Child in the Theatre
(1933), A Harp in Lowndes Square
(1936, reprinted by Dean Street Press), Alas,
Poor Lady (1937, reprinted by Persephone), A Footman for the Peacock (1940, reprinted by Dean Street Press),
Evenfield (1942, reprinted by Dean
Street Press), The Late Widow Twankey
(1943), A Stroll Before Sunset
(1946), and Sea Front (1954). She
also published several volumes of very arch satire—Sara Skelton: The Autobiography of a Famous Actress (1929), Victorian Bouquet: Lady X Looks On
(1931), Nymphs and Satires (1932),
and Celebrated Sequels (1934)—as
well as one play, Charlotte Brontë
(1933), two memoirs about life in Kensington, Passionate Kensington (1939) and Royal Borough (1950), an autobiography, We Were Amused (1958), and two biographical works which appear to
be for children—Memoirs of a Fir-Tree
(1946), about Elsa Tannenbaum, and And
Then He Danced (1948), about Edouard Espinosa. I've written about Ferguson's
work numerous times—see here—and the three
Dean Street Press titles noted above are Furrowed Middlebrow books.
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FERGUSON,
RUBY [CONSTANCE] (28 Jul 1899 – 11 Nov 1966)
(née Ashby, aka R. C. Ashby)
1920s – 1960s
Author of 30 volumes of fiction, including
mysteries, supernatural tales, children's fiction, and mainstream novels. Perhaps
still best known for her popular series of girls' horse stories, beginning
with Jill's Gymkhana (1949). Under
her maiden name, R. C. Ashby, she published eight early novels. The Moorland Man (1926), about the
tragic love story of a Northern farmer, was called “a clean, wind-swept,
dale-and-mountain romance.” The Tale of
Rowan Christie (1927) deals with a young woman who tires of Yorkshire and
moves to London, but ultimately returns to her destined love. Beauty Bewitched (1928) features the
granddaughter of “a famous witch,” and the doom and dread awakened either by
her actual powers or the widespread belief in them. One Way Traffic (1933) is a story of London family life during
the Depression: “Their troubles in running a shop, a club, and an expensive
love affair are delightfully blended in a story of human emotions.” The other
four Ashby novels are more or less straightforward mysteries, some with
supernatural elements. Death on Tiptoe
(1931) is a gothic detective tale set in an ominous castle. Plot Against a Widow (1932) deals with
a woman murdered in the London chambers of “a fraternity of ex-officers”—one
critic said “here is a masterpiece of its kind—bizarre drama, written with
urgent convincingness.” He Arrived at
Dusk (1933) deals with an apparent ghost wreaking havoc in a mansion on the
Northumbrian moors. And Out Went the
Taper (1934) is a mystery in which some of the apparently supernatural
elements remain unexplained.One additional work from this period, Miss Graham's Guest, was apparently
serialized in 1932 but never published in book form. Under her married name, Ferguson
published twelve novels, including the nostalgic Lady Rose and Mrs. Memmary (1937), a Persephone reprint, and Apricot Sky (1952), a delightful D. E.
Stevenson-esque family comedy set in Scotland, which has been reprinted as a
Furrowed Middlebrow book by Dean Street Press (reviewed here). The Moment of Truth (1944), set in
Cannes and Germany, is about a young woman who becomes a tutor for an unusual
family, and ends with a Balkan escape from the Germans—the critic for the Liverpool
Evening Express raved about it and compared it to Rebecca. Our Dreaming Done (1946) begins with a
widow just after World War II, then flashes back to tell of her life in
occupied Paris, the daughter of a famous singer. Winter's Grace (1948) is historical, about a North Country family
involved with “the ’45.” Turn Again
Home (1951), set in Yorkshire, is about a family reunion brought on by a
family death. The Leopard's Coast
(1954) is a family story set in the Channel Islands. For Every Favour (1956) tells of the life of a perfect, devoted
English butler and his dedication to the family he serves. Doves in My Fig-tree (1957) is about a
successful author returning to his home in the Channel Islands to write a new
book, and stirring up family drama in the process. The Cousins of Colonel Ivy (1959) tells of a talented family
group working through its issues. Her final two adult novels—The Wakeful Guest (1962) and A Woman With a Secret (1965)—have
mystery elements, the former set in Bavaria just after WWII, the latter about
the murder of a kindly spinster in a French chateau. Ferguson’s perhaps
somewhat fictionalized autobiography was Children
at the Shop (1967).
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FERRARS, ELIZABETH (6 Sept 1907
– 30 Mar 1995)
(pseudonym of Morna Doris MacTaggart, married name Brown, aka E. X.
Ferrars, aka Morna MacTaggart)
1940s – 1990s
Author of more than 70 mystery novels spanning half a century, the main
characters of which are often creative types moving in a genteel,
upper-middle-class world, and which have been described as "politely
feminist." Ferrars wrote several sequences of novels with overlapping
characters and settings—a light-hearted early series featuring Toby Dyke; Inspector
Dittredge novels set in the fictional town of Helsington and its nearby
villages; Police Chief Raposo novels set in Madeira; several novels featuring
retired botany professor, Andrew Basnett; and a late series featuring
Virginia and Felix Freer, a separated (but not divorced) married couple.
Titles include Give a Corpse a Bad Name
(1940), Your Neck in a Noose
(1942), I, Said the Fly (1945), set
in wartime London, The March Hare
Murders (1949), Alibi for a Witch
(1952), Furnished for Murder
(1957), The Decayed Gentlewoman
(1964), A Stranger and Afraid
(1971), Skeleton in Search of a
Cupboard (1982), and Answer Came
There None (1992). Her mysteries were often published in the U.S. under
the name "E. X. Ferrars." She began her career with two mainstream
novels published under her own name, Turn
Simple (1932) and Broken Music
(1934).
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FEVEREL, JOANNA
(17 Jan 1908 – 1999)
(pseudonym of
Joan Ursula Darbyshire Pain, née Campbell)
1930s
Author of a single novel, Nothing Lasts
(1933), featuring young love in a boarding-house, which received largely
positive reviews.
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FIDLER,
KATHLEEN [ANNIE] (10 Aug 1899 – 8 Aug 1980)
(married name
Goldie)
1940s – 1960s
Author of more than 60 volumes of fiction in all, most for children. Best
known for her animal stories and two series, the Brydon family series,
beginning with The Brydons at
Smuggler's Creek (1946), and the Dean family series, beginning with The Deans Move In (1953). She also
published historical stories like The
Boy with the Bronze Axe (1968) and realistic fiction like The Desperate Journey (1964), focused
on an impoverished Scottish family. Other titles include The Borrowed Garden (1944), The
Mysterious Mr Simister (1947), I
Rode with the Covenanters (1950), The
Stallion from the Sea (1953), The
Man Who Gave Away Millions (1955), Escape
in Darkness (1961), and The Little
Ship Dog (1963).
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FIELD,
[VIOLET ELSIE] BRADDA (23 Jan 1893 – 4 Feb 1957)
1920s – 1930s
Born in Canada but raised in England. Author of three novels—The Earthen Lot (1928), tracing a girl
from childhood to motherhood, Small
Town (1932), which follows three sisters in a Canadian town, and Grand Harbour (1934). She later
published a biography, Miledi: Being
the Strange Story of Emy Lyon, A Blacksmith's Daughter who Became Emma, Lady
Hamilton (1942).
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Field, Christine
see LAURENCE, ELSIE FRY
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FIELD, KATHERINE [MARY IDA] (25
Sept 1875 – 26 Aug 1957)
1940s
Author of three mysteries published during World
War II and featuring Detective Inspector Ross Patterson. Disappearance of a Niece (1941) deals with the murder of an
elderly woman and a spy ring. The
Two-Five to Mardon (1942) includes murder via poisoned saccharine tablets
on a train. And in Murder to Follow (1944), a young woman
finds a misplaced baby in the chaos of pre-war evacuations, which has
connections to a murder in Westminster.
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FIELD, MARGARET C[ECILE]. (1 Jul
1903 – 5 Jul 1974)
(married name Sheminant [husband later legally changed name to Field])
1920s – 1930s
Possibly an actress or performer in early years, and author of eight girls'
school stories and one additional children's book. Titles are The Taming of Teresa (1926), A Strange Term (1927), Freda at School (1927), Cecile at St Clare's (1929), A Risky Term (193?), Hilary of Taunton (1931), Madelaine of the Middle Fourth (1934),
The Franklin Mystery (1935), and The Rival Schools (1936).
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FIELDEN, OLGA
(1903 - 1973)
(married name
Lamond)
1930s
Irish author of two novels—Island Story
(1933) and Stress (1936)—which were
praised for their realism in dealing with ordinary Ulster life. She wrote at
least one full length play, Three to Go
(1950), as well as later one-act plays for the BBC. She reportedly wrote a
third novel, Liam Donne, which
remained unpublished due to WWII.
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FIELDING, A. (dates unknown)
(pseudonym of Dorothy Feilding)
1920s – 1940s
Untraced author of more than two dozen mysteries, whose real identity remains
shrouded in obscurity despite much research and speculation. The Library of
Congress identifies the author as Algernon Fielding, but this has been
determined to be incorrect, as has an attribution to a Lady Dorothea Feilding
who died in Ireland in the 1930s. Researcher John Herrington believes she is
indeed a Dorothy Feilding, and has traced where she was living for a number
of years in the 1930s as well as the fact that she almost certainly was or
had been married to an A. Fielding, but little beyond that can be discovered.
Her work, however, has been made available in e-book format in recent years.
Titles include The Charteris Mystery
(1925), The Net around Joan Ingilby
(1928), Murder at the Nook (1929), The Craig Poisoning Mystery (1930), The Upfold Farm Mystery (1931), The Westwood Mystery (1932), The Cautley Conundrum (1934), Tragedy at Beechcroft (1935), Mystery at the Rectory (1936), Black Cats Are Lucky (1937), Murder in Suffolk (1939), and Pointer to a Crime (1944).
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FIELDING, ANN (ANITA) MARY (5 Feb 1907 – 6 Jun
1993)
(married name Mostyn)
1940s – 1950s
Author of three novels. The Mayfair Squatters (1945) is about a diverse group of people
who take over an empty London house during World War II. The Noxious Weed (1951) is about a British family becoming
tobacco growers in Africa, while Ashanti
Blood (1952) is apparently set among gold miners in Africa. Scholar
Elizabeth Maslen sees the last as distinctly racist, noting that
"Fielding represents the extreme of inbuilt prejudice," though in
his review of The Noxious Weed John
Betjeman had praised Fielding's portrayal of the growth of racism and
insensitivity in a family initially horrifed by British treatment of the
locals. Fielding herself spent some portion of her life in Kenya. According
to contemporary reviews, she claimed descent from Henry Fielding.
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Finch, Anne
see NICHOLSON, MARY
(1908-1995)
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FINDLATER, MARY [WILLIAMINA] (28
Mar 1865 – 22 Nov 1963) & JANE [HELEN] (4 Nov 1866 – 20 May 1946)
1890s – 1920s
Novelist sisters raised in Lochearnhead in Scotland, who published around 20
volumes of fiction between them, including at least three collaborations. ODNB describes their work as Victorian
in style but featuring surprisingly modern heroines. Their most famous work
is Crossriggs (1908), a
collaboration which was reprinted by Virago in the 1980s, and which OCEF describes as "partly a
lightly told vignette of Scottish village life at the turn of the century,
sharp in its observation of local values and prejudices, and partly a
despairing exploration of the lonely situation of an articulate and emotional
woman who lacks the conventional romantic appeal of either femininity or
wealth." Other novels published together or separately include The Green Graves of Balgowrie (1896), The Rose of Joy (1903), A Blind Bird's Nest (1907), Content with Flies (1916), and Beneath the Visiting Moon (1923). The
sisters never married, though ODNB
reports that Mary was once briefly engaged, but broke it off because she
couldn't be parted from Jane, after which they joked that their only option
would be to marry a Mormon.
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FINDLAY,
MARY (dates unknown)
1920s
Untraced author of a single short romance, The Girl at Drumcorrie (1928).
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Finlay, Fiona
see FINLAY, VIOLET VIVIAN
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FINLAY,
VIOLET VIVIAN (2 Jan 1914 – 18 Aug 1986)
(married names
Stuart and Mann, aka Barbara Allen, aka Fiona Finlay, aka William Stuart
Long, aka Alex Stuart, aka Robyn Stuart, aka V. A. Stuart, aka Vivian Stuart)
1950s – 1990s
Author of more than 50 volumes of romantic and historical fiction. Her many
pseudonyms are challenging to unpack, and the situation is complicated by the
fact that some books seem to have been reprinted under alternate titles and
even under alternate pseudonyms. But titles include The Captain's Table (1953), Island
for Sale (1955), A Cruise for
Cinderella (1956), Doctor Lucy
(1956), The Peacock Pagoda (1959), Castle in the Mist (1959), The Gay Gordons (1961), Doctor Mary Courage (1962), The Valiant Sailors (1966), Bachelor of Medicine (1966), A Sunset Touch (1972), Victory at Sebastopol (1973), The Heroic Garrison (1975), Buccaneer's Lady (1981), and Mutiny in Meerut (1991).
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FINLAY, WINIFRED [LINDSAY
CRAWFORD] (27 Apr 1910 – 25 Sept 1989)
(née McKissack)
1950s – 1980s
Author of more than 20 volumes of adventure and mystery fiction for children,
as well as several collections of folktales, many of which she collected from
oral sources. Her titles include The
Witch of Redesdale (1951), Peril in
Lakeland (1953), Cotswold Holiday
(1954), Judith in Hannover (1955), The Cruise of the Susan (1958), The Castle and the Cave (1961), Mystery in the Middle Marches (1965), Danger at Black Dyke (1968), Summer of the Golden Stag (1969), and Beadbonny Ash (1973). She wrote
several series for the BBC Children's Hour. In the 1970s, she co-authored,
with Gillian Hancock, several collections of themed stories, including
ghosts, treasure hunters, and dog stories. She also published several late
volumes of fantasy fiction, including Secret
Rooms and Hiding Places (1982).
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Firebrace, Ethel
see TAYLOR, GAY &
WHITAKER, MALACHI
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FIRMINGER, MARJORIE [MCLEAN] (12
Feb 1899 – 23 Jun 1976)
(née Hiscox, later
married name Hemming)
1930s
Famous for an affair with novelist Wyndham Lewis and for her one novel, Jam To-day (1931), which viciously
satirized the London literary scene, earning her numerous enemies, Firminger
reportedly worked on other novels, but none were finished. In later life, she
worked in a department store. In the 1930s, her near neighbors in Chelsea
included the likes of Vera Brittain and Winifred Holtby.
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FISHER, BERTHA MARY (1859 – 3
Apr 1914)
1910s
Author of two (or perhaps three) children's titles, including The Player (1911) and An Unpopular Schoolgirl (1913), about
twins switching places at school. Sims and Clare came across references to a
third title, Honour and Dishonour,
which they were unable to trace.
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FISHER, DAISY [GERTRUDE] (7 Nov 1887 –
2 Apr 1969)
(married name Mason)
1930s
Playwright and author of five romantic novels—Piecrust
(1930), Memory of Grange (1931), The Gate Swings Open (1932), The
Hill Beyond (1933), and A Heart Was Lost (1936). The Gate
Swings Open deals with the coupling of a man with idealistic views of
marriage and a woman who wants adventure, and that heroine’s story is
continued in The Hill Beyond. Among her plays were the comedies Lavender
Ladies (1925), about spinster sisters reacting to the romance of their
young niece, and A Ship Comes Home (1937), about a successful actress
trying to get her first play produced while having romantic difficulties—the
latter featuring Michael Redgrave. She was married to film director Herbert
Mason, and had been a stage performer herself before World War I.
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FISK, DOROTHY MARY (13 May 1892 – 13 Nov 1972)
(married name Stephens)
1930s, 1950s
Author of several works about science for children,
one play, The Secondary Wife
(1955), and what appears to be an early novel, The Golden Isle (1930). Another later work, Bouquet for the Doctor (1954), could also be fiction.
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Fiske, Sharon
see HILL, PAMELA
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Fitt,
Mary
see FREEMAN, KATHLEEN
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FITZGERALD,
BARBARA (16 Dec 1911 – 21 May 1982)
(full name
Barbara Fitzgerald Somerville, née Gregg)
1940s, 1980s
Irish author of two novels, We Are
Besieged (1946) and Footprints Upon
Water (1983), both dealing with "big house" life in Ireland
during and after the unrest of the 1910s and 1920s. They were both reprinted
by Somerville Press in the early 2010s, to considerable acclaim.
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FITZGERALD,
EILEEN (28 Feb 1872 – 24 Mar 1947)
(pseudonym of
Lilian Alleyne Estelle Fitzgerald, née Jack, aka Lilian Clifford)
1900s – 1930s
Author of fifteen novels, at least some of which appear to be cheerful
romances. Titles are The Heart of a
Butterfly (1908), A Fetish of Truth
(1909), A Wayfaring Woman (1917), Eleanor's Husband (1918), Thistledown (1918), Judith Kersley, Spinster (1922), A Company of Sinners (1927), A Modern Adam (1927), Little Matters (1927), Love's Tragedy (1929), The New Law (1930), The Second Adventure (1931), The Way of a Fool (1933), Little French Girl (1936), and Mainly About Peter (1937).
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FITZGERALD,
ENA (5 Oct 1889 – 10 Jan 1962)
(pseudonym of
Georgina Fitzgerald MacMillan, née Galaher)
1900s – 1910s
Author of three Edwardian novels about which little information is available—Patcola: A Tale of a Dead City (1908),
The Witch Queen of Khem: A Tale of a
Wrong Made Right (1909), and And
the Stars Fought: A Romance (1912).
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FITZGERALD, ERROL (c1865 – 6 Jun
1953)
(pseudonym of Josephine Fitzgerald Clarke, née Moylan)
1920s – 1950s
Author of more than 40 Mills & Boon romances. Titles include Harvests of Deceit (1929), Dear Hatred (1930), Storms of Fate (1931), Gleanings of Passion (1932), The Whispering Witness (1934), Love Lies Deep (1935), Truth is Whispered (1936), Errant Wife (1938), Hasty Repentance (1939), Flight From Marriage (1941), The Secret Tenant (1943), Faithless Charmer (1945), A Borrowed Coat (1947), The Price of Silence (1950), and Beloved Deceiver (1951). Her birthday
seems to have been 23 May, but the year is still uncertain.
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FITZGERALD, SHEILA (1903 - 1940)
(pseudonym of Kathleen Maeve O'Callaghan)
1930s
Author of three novels. The first, Hungarian
Rhapsody (1934), is set among two feuding Hungarian families in Budapest,
the Riviera, and the countryside of Hungary. Bookman called it "a first-class piece of work." Wild Fruits (1935) presents an
eccentric and perhaps disturbing German family living in a castle above the
River Elbe. Snowed Under (1936) is
about the daughter of a Russian refugee who marries a man she believes to be
wealthy, only to find herself in a primitive hut in Switzerland. Fitzgerald
died in Ireland, but I've found no information about the cause of her
premature death.
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FITZPATRICK, LUCY GLADYS (24 Jun
1892 – 24 Jun 1970)
1920s
Author of one girls' school story, Sonia's
First Term (1927), about an American girl who comes to a boarding school
in Liverpool.
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Fitzroy, A. T.
see ALLATINI, ROSE
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FITZROY,
OLIVIA [GWYNETH ZOE] (27 May 1921 – 24 Dec 1969)
(married name
Bates)
1940s – 1950s
Author of eight children's
titles, most centered around the Stewart family, loosely based on the
author's own family. According to the Fidra Books website, the family would
holiday in the Scottish Highlands in the summer, but with the outbreak of war
the family relocated there year round. The area was remote, and FitzRoy's
first book, Orders to Poach (1941),
was written to entertain her sisters. Her other books are Steer by the Stars (1944), House in the Hills (1946), The Hill War (1950), Wandering Star (1953), The Island of Birds (1954), Wagons & Horses (1955), and The Hunted Head (1956). She appears to
have stopped writing after her 1956 marriage and sadly died of cancer at age
48.
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