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BRABY, MAUD
CHURTON (c1875 - 31 Dec 1932)
1910s
Journalist and author of two novels—Downward:
A 'Slice of Life' (1910), about an unmarried mother, and The Honey of Romance (1915)—and two
early marriage manuals, Modern Marriage
and How to Bear It (1909) and The
Love-Seeker: A Guide to Marriage (1913).
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BRADBY, VIOLET [ALICE] (26 Dec
1871 – 21 May 1956)
(née Milford, incorrectly listed in BL catalogue as “Violet Brady”)
1910s – 1930s
Successful author of children's fiction whose work seems to make liberal use
of fairies. Titles include Matthew and
the Miller (1909), The Capel
Cousins (1912), Judy and the Others
(1916), Lodgings to Let (1918), The
Fairy Gifts (1919), The Crimson
Ramblers (1921), Potter's Haven
(1923), The Broken Lilies (1924), More Fairy Gifts (1926), The Four Little Brothers (1928), Meadowsweet Farm (1934), and One at Bedtime (1936).
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BRADLEY,
ANNE (dates unknown)
1950s
Untraced author of four children's titles, including The Widening Path (1952), The
Problem Patrol (1957), The Guides
in Hanover Lane (1958), and Katherine
at Feather Ghyll (1959). The last was reviewed here and
recommended as a good housekeeping story.
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BRADLEY,
NORAH MARY (27 Dec 1897 – 25 Mar 1979)
(married name
Gibbs, aka Prudence Boyd, aka Lisette Garland, aka Sharon Heath, aka Noelle
Ireland, aka Felicity Kerr, aka Lynne Merrill, aka Claire Ritchie, aka Nina
Shayne, aka Heather Wayne, and Sara Whittingham)
1940s – 1970s
Author of more than 60 romantic novels, at first mainly using the name Claire
Ritchie, but branching into numerous other pen names by the late 1960s. Her
many titles include The Sheltered Flame
(1949), Love Builds a House (1950),
Bright Meadows (1951), Lighted Windows (1952), Sun on the Sea (1954), The Gentle Wind (1954), Dreaming River (1957), The Sunflower's Look (1958), Hatful of Cowslips (1960), The Fair Adventure (1961), Ride on Singing (1964), To Greet the Morning (1966), Daffodil Journey (1966), Nurse at Moorcroft Manor (1967), Hope Is My Pillow (1967), Happiness Wears a Red Coat (1969), Nurse Elaine and the Sapphire Star
(1973), Rainbow Romance (1974), Castle Perilous (1979), and Lodestone for Love (1980).
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BRADLEY, NORMA (dates unknown)
1940s
Untraced author of two girls' school stories—The New Girl at Greylands (1948) and Ghostly Guests at Greylands School (1949).
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BRADSHAW,
ANNIE (1859 – 23 May 1938)
(née Cropper,
aka Mrs. Albert S. Bradshaw)
1880s – 1930s
Advocate for animal rights and author of an uncertain number of novels, some
of which seem to be rather sensational thrillers and/or melodramas. A Crimson Stain (1885) has to do with
the sons of a Spanish executioner having harrowing adventures in England. Wife or Slave? (1890) has to do with a
tyrannical husband and some relatives who decide to rid themselves of the
heroine. False Gods (1897) is about
a woman who deserts her husband and child to obtain an inheritance. The Gates of Temptation (1898) has a
woman seeking fortune as a singer in Paris—to her own doom. Ashes Tell No Tales (1906) tells of a
beautiful woman who will stop at nothing, even murder. The Rags of Morality (1911) is about a widow who remarries for
money and makes herself and her husband miserable with guilt. Tracking her
later novels has been complicated by lack of media coverage and the fact that
reprints appeared during her lifetime, some perhaps with alternate titles,
but one of her final works, Murder at
the Boarding House (1936), seems to have been her one foray into
straightforward mystery—set in a Bloomsbury boarding house and featuring a
Scotland Yard Detective-Inspector Hardwick.
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BRADSHAW, NINA (27 Mar 1893 -
????)
(pseudonym of Marguerite Hills, aka Maureen Heely)
1930s – 1960s
Author of dozens of romantic novels, including Wild Sanctuary (1933), The
Beach of Lost Souls (1934), Knight
in Armour (1935), Millionaire's
Widow (1938), The Short Chain
(1940), The Four Friends (1946), The Way of the Huntress (1948), The Artist's Daughters (1950), Girl of the Woods (1952), Stern Sentinel (1956), and Appointment with Romance (1960).
According to Channel Islands Occupation Registration Cards on Ancestry, she
lived on Jersey during the Nazi occupation.
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BRAHMS, CARYL (8 Dec 1901 – 5
Dec 1982)
(pseudonym of Doris Caroline Abrahams)
1930s – 1970s
Playwright, children's author, theatre critic, and
novelist, best known for a series of humorous mysteries and novels
co-authored with S. J. Simon. The mysteries include A Bullet in the Ballet (1937), Casino for Sale (1938, published in the US as Murder à la Stroganoff), Envoy on Excursion
(1940), and Six Curtains for Stroganova (1945, published in the US as Six
Curtains for Natasha). No
Bed for Bacon (1941), one of their humorous novels taking
considerable liberties with history, was quite possibly plagiarized by the
creators of the film “Shakespeare in Love.” Their other collaborations
are The Elephant Is White (1939), Don't, Mr Disraeli! (1940), Titania Has a Mother (1944), No Nightingales (1944), Trottie True (1946), and You Were There (1950). Following
Simon's sudden death, Brahms wrote songs for television, collaborated with
Ned Sherrin on numerous plays and television screenplays, and wrote several
more novels, some also with Sherrin. These include Away Went Polly (1952), Cindy-Ella,
or, I Gotta Shoe (1962), No
Castanets (1963), Rappel 1910
(1964), Benbow Was His Name (1967),
and Enter a Dragon, Stage Centre
(1979).
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BRAMSTON, MARY [ELIZA] (1841 – 2
Feb 1912)
1860s – 1910s
Half sister of Esme STUART. Author of more than 50 volumes of fiction for
children and adults, as well as religious writings. She was also, according
to Sims & Clare, the "first British writer to develop a series …
about the same group of girls and women, which included a significant amount
of school interest." That series includes The Snowball Society (1877), Home
and School (1883), Rosamond Ferrars
(1875), and Rosamond's Girls
(1905). Her novels include Erick
Thorburn (1869), Cecy's
Recollections: A Story of Obscure Lives (1870), The Panelled House: A Chronicle of Two Sisters' Lives (1872), The Carbridges: A Suburban Story
(1874), Em, or, Spells and
Counter-Spells (1877), The Thorn
Fortress: A Tale of the Thirty Years' War (1879), The Heroine of a Basket Van (1886), Apples of Sodom (1889), Abby's
Discoveries (1891), Five Victims: A
Schoolroom Story (1892), Punch,
Judy, and Toby (1896), Miss Carr's
Young Ladies (1897), The Villagers
in Town (1900), The Fortunes of
Junia (1906), The Failure of a
Hero: A Tale of Shakesperian Days (1909), and Pastor Oberlin: A Family Chronicle of the Eighteenth Century (1912).
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BRANCH, PAMELA [JEAN] (1920 – 25
Nov 1967)
(née Byatt, other married names Faulker and Stuart-Lyon)
1950s
Author of four widely-acclaimed humorous mysteries, which in their time drew
comparisons to the Marx Brothers, Nancy SPAIN, and Evelyn Waugh. The Wooden Overcoat (1951) centers
around murders at the Asterisk Club, a London association for
"wrongfully acquitted murderers." The Lion in the Cellar (1951), which the Spectator called a "charnel-house frolic," is about a
family descended from a long line of hideous murderers. Murder Every Monday (1954) again makes use of the members of the
Asterisk Club, who have now started to teach courses on committing the
perfect murder, only to find an unexpected one in their midts. And Murder's Little Sister (1958), named
by Carolyn Hart as one of her five favorite mysteries of all time, is about
the zany criminal goings-on at a popular magazine—including the attempted
murder of a suicidal columnist. According to Rue Morgue Press, which
reprinted all four of Branch's books, a fifth novel, set in the Scottish
Highlands, was in the works by 1962, but it never appeared and a few years
later Branch died of cancer at the age of 47.
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BRAND, CHRISTIANNA (17 Dec 1907
– 11 Mar 1988)
(pseudonym of Mary Christianna Milne, married name Lewis, aka Mary Ann
Ashe, aka Annabel Jones, aka Mary Roland, aka China Thomson)
1940s – 1970s
Author of mysteries, romance, and children's fiction. Best known for her
seven Inspector Cockrill mysteries—Heads
You Lose (1941), Green for Danger
(1944), set in a hospital during the Blitz, Suddenly at His Residence (1946, aka The Crooked Wreath), also making use of WWII, Death of Jezebel (1948), set in the
immediate postwar period, London
Particular (1952), Tour De Force
(1955), and The Three Cornered Halo
(1957), as well as a series of stories, The
Spotted Cat and Other Mysteries from Inspector Cockrill's Casebook
(2002). She wrote two novels featuring Inspector Charlesworth—Death in High Heels (1941) and The Rose in Darkness (1979)—and two
more featuring Inspector Chucky—Cat and
Mouse (1950) and A Ring of Roses
(1977, under her pseudonym Mary Ann Ashe). Her other novels include The Single Pilgrim (1946, writing as Mary
Roland), Welcome to Danger (1949), Starrbelow (1958, writing as China
Thompson), Dear Mr. MacDonald
(1959), Heaven Knows Who (1960), Blood Brothers (1965), My Ladies' Tears (1965), Twist for Twist (1967), Court of Foxes (1969), Alas, for Her That Met Me! (1976,
writing as Mary Ann Ashe), The Honey
Harlot (1978), and The Brides of
Aberdar (1982). For a change of pace, she also wrote the three children's
books which form the basis of Emma Thompson's Nanny McPhee films—Nurse
Matilda (1964), Nurse Matilda Goes
to Town (1967), and Nurse Matilda
Goes to Hospital (1975).
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BRANDON, GRANIA
(21 May 1902 - ????)
(full name
Grania Lillian Mary Joyce Brandon)
1930s – 1950s
Daughter of mystery writer John G. Brandon. Author of a highly-praised novel,
Upon This Rock (1936), about a show
business family in the early 20th century. She later turned her attentions to
children's fiction with a series of tales about a family-run circus,
beginning with Sengler's Circus.
One final story for children was The
Prews Go North (1956), "about a delightful family who go to live in
a derelict farmhouse on the Yorkshire moors." Despite her father's
prominence, official records of Grania are difficult to find, apart from the
fact that she was living in London when her first book appeared and in Essex
with her parents on the 1939 England & Wales Register.
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BRASH, MARGARET M[AUD]. (7 Feb
1880 – 17 Oct 1965)
(aka John Kendall)
1920s – 1950s
Author of nearly two dozen novels, at least some of which are historical
adventures. Titles include Jannock
(1928), The Rooftree Rides (1929), Over the Windmills (1932), Cresset Lights (1935), All Valiant Dust (1937), Singing Dust (1942), Vagabond Hope (1945), The Silver Ladder (1949), Proud Pageant (1953), and Ride Forth Singing (1958). Under her
pseudonym, she published one science-fiction novel, Unborn Tomorrow (1933), set in 1995 and dealing with a U.K.
beaten-down by Communist rule and on the brink of revolution.
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Braybrooke, Frances
see WELLESLEY-SMITH, FRANCES
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BRAZIL, ANGELA (30 Nov 1868 – 13
Mar 1947)
1900s – 1940s
One of the most prolific and widely-known writers
of girls' school stories (though not the inventor of the genre, as has been
claimed), Brazil (pronounced Brazzle) is known for her flowery prose and her
characters' frequent use of creative slang. She published 47 school stories
in all, often dealing with schoolgirls solving mild mysteries. Titles include
The Fortunes of Philippa (1906), A Fourth Form Friendship (1911), A Pair of Schoolgirls (1912), The Youngest Girl in the Fifth (1913),
The Girls of St. Cyprian's (1914), For the Sake of the School (1915), The Head Girl of the Gables (1919), The Madcap of the School (1922), Captain Peggie (1924), The Little Green School (1931), The School at the Turrets (1935), An Exciting Term (1936), and The Secret of the Border Castle
(1943). A few of her books, such as in The
Luckiest Girl in the School (1916), A
Patriotic Schoolgirl (1918), and For
the School Colours (1918), include references to World War I, though they
generally present war in the most idealized way, and during World War II,
Brazil published The Mystery of the
Moated Grange (1942) and The Secret
of Border Castle (1943), both of which involve evacuated schools. In
1925, Brazil published her only memoir, My
Own Schooldays.
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BREARLEY, HILDA (26 Sept 1901 –
15 Apr 1955)
(married name Barber)
1940s – 1950s
Daughter of Henry Brearley, a well-known singer at the turn of the century.
Author of three children's books during and after World War II, including Island Farm (1940), Castle in the Sun (1947), and Adventure for Elizabeth (1952).
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BREARLEY,
MARY (1879 – 28 Mar 1971)
(pseudonym of
Mary Salkeld Jayne, née Robinson)
1920s – 1930s
Biographer and author of five novels. Monte
Felis (1923) sounds distinctly melodramatic, about a woman whose husband
is institutionalized, who falls in love with another man only to find that
her husband has been released. Other titles are Marsh Fires (1925), The
Owners of Sorrows End (1926), A
Good Marriage (1928), and Papa and
Mama (1933). She spent much of her life in Lisbon, and her one biography
dealt with the Lisbon Inquisition.
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BREARY, NANCY (ANNIE) [FLORENCE]
(7 Mar 1903 – 8 Dec 1988)
1940s – 1960s
Author of nearly 30 energetic and humorous girls’ school tales, somewhat
based on her own school days at Kingsdown School in Dorking. Titles include Give a Form a Bad Name (1943), No Peace for the Prefects (1944), A School Divided (1944), The Snackboat Sails at Noon! (1946), Juniors Will Be Juniors (1947), It Was Fun in the Fourth (1948), Five Sisters at Sedgewick (1950), Hazel, Head Girl (1952), Fourth Form Detectives (1954), Study Number Six (1957), Junior Captain (1960), The Fourth Was Fun for Philippa
(1961), and Too Many Girls (1962).
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BRENNAN,
ELIZABETH (?1907 - ????)
1940s
Untraced Irish author of six works of fiction in the 1940s, at least some of
them for children. The early titles include Out of the Darkness (1945), The
Wind Fairies (1946), Am I My
Brother's Keeper (1946), Whispering
Walls (1948), The Wind Fairies
Again (1948), and Wind Over the
Bogs (1950). We have confirmed that she is not the same Elizabeth Brennan who published romantic novels in
the 1960s-1980s.
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BRENT-DYER, ELINOR M[ARY]. (6
Apr 1894 – 20 Sept 1969)
(pseudonym of Gladys Eleanor May Dyer)
1920s – 1960s
Author of nearly 100 books, including the longest
and most successful series of girls' school stories, the Chalet School series, which included 58 titles in its original
editions (split into 62 when released, in sometimes heavily abridged
versions, in paperback) and spanned nearly 50 years, beginning with The School at the Chalet (1925) and
concluding with Prefects of the Chalet
School (1970), published posthumously. The Friends of the Chalet School
website here is an
invaluable resource for Brent-Dyer fans. Several books in the series, most
notably The Chalet School in Exile
(1940) and The Chalet School Goes to It
(1941, reprinted as The Chalet School
Goes to War), deal with World War II. Brent-Dyer also wrote other shorter
series, including the La Rochelle series beginning with Gerry Goes to School (1922), and a dozen or so standalone
stories, as well as one novel for adults, Jean
of Storms, serialized in 1930 but not published in book form until 1996.
I've written a bit about Brent-Dyer here.
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BRERETON, D. KATHERINE (dates
unknown)
1950s?
Particularly elusive author of one children's title, The Savages on Gale Island. Even the year of publication is in
some doubt, though 1950 seems to be a bookseller consensus. The book is not
listed in the British Library or Library of Congress catalogues, nor in
Worldcat, though copies are available for sale. She was also the author of a
number of stories in periodicals at around the same time.
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Brett, Rosalind
see WARREN, LILLIAN
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BRIDGE, ANN (11 Sept 1889 –
9 Mar 1974)
(pseudonym of Mary Ann Dolling O'Malley,
née Sanders)
1930s – 1970s
Author of more than 20 novels, often set in exotic locales, combining
historical perspective, romance, and the excitement of travel and making use
of her own experiences as a diplomat's wife. Her first novel, Peking
Picnic (1932), garnered comparisons to E. M. Forster's A Passage to India. Illyrian Spring (1935), set in
Yugoslavia, was credited with sparking that nation's tourism industry. Bridge
herself was most proud of the novels which made use of historic turning
points of the recent past, including Frontier
Passage (1942), The Dark Moment
(1952), A Place to Stand (1953) and
The Tightening String (1962), the
latter two taking place in Hungary before and during World War II. She also
wrote a series of romantic thrillers featuring Julia Probyn, beginning with The Lighthearted Quest (1956).
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BRIDGMAN, EDA KATHLEEN (1886 – 23 Dec
1946)
(née Wolseley-Bourne,
earlier married name Hole, aka Jean Barre, aka Jean Barr, aka Lee Lindsay)
1920s – 1940s
Author of more than 40 novels under
two main pseudonyms, many romantic comedy adventures, some with definite
mystery or thriller elements. A 1936 review refers to “her usual
sorcery of brilliant colouring, music, quick and unexpected happenings and
humour ‘straight off the ice,’ and lures us into forgetting that there are
such things as boredom, stormy weather and lack of money.” Among her Barre
titles, The Swiftest Thing in Life (1931) tells of three young London
flatmates and their adventures in love, with side tracks to the U.S.,
Cornwall, and Sicily. A Hunting We Will Go (1934) features a young man
in a battle of wits with jewel thieves—a review described it as “not exactly
a thriller,” but praised it nonetheless. The King's Pearl (1934) also
features jewel thievery, involving an impoverished young gentlewoman and the
title jewel, formerly belonging to Charles II. The Desert Son (1935)
is “an arresting tale in which a man who has lived an amazingly lawless life
in the desert suddenly bounces into English country life with oddly humorous
results.” Gather Ye Rosebuds (1937) is “the story of little Tara
Mallison, who blossoms from being her aunt’s unofficial lady’s-maid to
mistress of a mansion. Interwoven with the main theme are the love affairs of
two charming characters—Rosita and Roselle Vesant, known as the ‘Rosebuds’ of
New York.” Other Barre titles include Rabbits in Fate’s Hat (1930), The
Mill of Happiness (1931), All Sorts of Rebels (1933), Darke
Ladyes (1933), Spanish Secret (1935), The Twisted Stair
(1936), The Ivory Goddess (1938), The Chivalrous Quest (1939), Gallantry
Fights On (1940), and Youth's in the Saddle (1943). Four early
titles published by Andrew Melrose use the name Jean Barr instead of Barre,
but judging from reviews they certainly appear to be the same author—the
Barre spelling seems to have begun with her switch to Wright & Brown. The
Lee Lindsay titles, also romantic and adventurous in tone, perhaps have a bit
more melodrama thrown in. The Three Buccaneers (1934) features a
heroine abducted by an unrequited lover. In The Moon Through Trees
(1935), a young Chelsea model is on a quest to find her father and sister. Unarmoured
Knight (1936) features a stolen Buddha with a curse attached. And Dress
Rehearsal (1937) features a love triangle playin out in a theatre. The
others are A Song on the Road (1933), Perilous Seas (1934), Hide
Me! (1935), The Rogue's Progress (1938), and The Adventures of
a Lady (1944).
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BRIGGS, ELSPETH
[MARGARET] (8 Jun 1902 – 20 Feb 1961)
1930s – 1960s
Sister of novelist, children's author, and scholar Katharine Mary BRIGGS.
Historical novelist and children's author with a particular interest in the
17th century. Her novels are Borrowed
Names (1932), Restoration
(1935), The Rhyme for Porringer
(1939), Service Is None Heritage
(1948), Another Unicorn (1954), and
Seven Bold Sons (1962), the last of
which was Briggs' favorite of her works. Her children's titles are The White King (1948) and Squire's Fairing (1960).
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BRIGGS,
KATHARINE MARY (8 Nov 1898 – 15 Oct 1980)
1930s – 1970s
Sister of Elspeth BRIGGS. Playwright, actress, and literary scholar best
known now for her children's titles, including the fantasy tales Hobberdy Dick (1955), about a
hobgoblin in 1650s England, and Kate
Crackernuts (1963), about a girl trying to protect her sister from a
witch—both of which were reprinted by Faber Finds. She also published two
earlier historical novels for adults, The
Lisles of Ellingham (1935) and The
Castilians (1949), and several non-fiction works on Shakespeare and
folklore. Her Selected Works was
published by Routledge in 2003.
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BRIGGS, PHYLLIS [MIDWOOD] (18
Apr 1904 – 11 Jun 1981)
(aka Philip Briggs)
1930s – 1960s
Author of around 20 works of children’s fiction, roughly half under her
masculine pseudonym. Among those titles are two works of junior
science-fiction, Escape from Gravity
(1955) and The Silent Planet
(1957). Other titles include Wolf of
the North (1937), North with the
"Pintail" (1943), The Cat
of Pine Ridge (1944), The Keeper of
the Lake (1945), Orchid Island
(1947), The Turning Point (1953),
and Three Rovers (1958).
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BRIGHT, PAMELA
[MIA] (1914 – 13 Aug 2012)
1950s – 1970s
Red Cross nurse and author of three novels—Breakfast at Night (1956), which "describes the first three
years of a nurse's training at one of the most famous teaching hospitals in
the world, Edinburgh Infirmary", The
Day's End (1959), about life and death in a cancer ward, and Hospital at Night (1971). Life in Our Hands (1955) was her
memoir of her time with the British Second Army during the last year of WWII.
The Nurse and Her World (1961) was
non-fiction for children, and A Poor
Man's Riches (1966) dealt with her travels in the Middle East and with
the UN relief efforts in Palestine.
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BRILL, EDITH [MAY] (11 Feb 1899
– 13 Feb 1986)
(married name Timperley)
1930s
Probably best known now for various
books about the culture and history of the Cotswolds and for her late
children’s title, The Golden Bird (1970), a retelling of a Polish folk
tale illustrated by Jan Pienkowski, which has enthusiastic reviews on Goodreads, Brill also published five novels—The
Mink Coat (1930), a family story which garnered praise from the Spectator,
New Bed (1931), about a woman who marries an older man to escape life
as a barmaid, Heart Alone (1933), described as a “quiet and pleasantly
written romance,” Three Maids of Islington (1933), and London
Ladies (1934).
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BRINKLEY, MATILDA (dates unknown)
1930s
Author of historical fiction,
including Sussex, Once Upon a Time… (1932), a collection of stories
based on history and legend, Tell the Bees (1935), a novel described
in a blurb as “a tale of Warwickshire and witches in the reign of Henry
VIII,” and Not for Caesar (1936), a romance about a beautiful British
slave, set in Nero’s time. I know that Brinkley lived near Claverdon in
Warwickshire until 1934 or so, then moved to Weybridge. She had published
articles in motoring and travel journals as well as about Roman Britain and
Warwickshire history. I can get no further in identifying her.
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BRINTON, SYBIL G[RACE]. (12 Aug
1874 – 26 Feb 1927)
(married name Preen)
1910s
Author of a single novel, Old Friends
and New Fancies: An Imaginary Sequel to the Novels of Jane Austen (1914),
generally claimed as the originator of the genre of Jane Austen sequels and
spin-offs, which combines characters from all six Austen novels into a new
romance. The novel was reprinted by Sourcebooks in recent years, and was
positively reviewed here.
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BRITTAIN, VERA [MARY] (29 Dec
1893 – 29 Mar 1980)
(married name Catlin)
1920s – 1940s
Novelist and memoirist best known for Testament
of Youth (1933), a devastating memoir about the personal ravages of World
War I on her life, which included losing not one but two fiances, a close
friend, and her brother, with whom she was very close. The book also
describes her subsequent involvement with pacifism. It was made into a film
in 2015. Although less well-known than her memoir, Brittain also published
five novels, which often deal with war and its traumas as well as her
pacifist beliefs. The Dark Tide
(1923) is about two young women at Somerville College immediately after WWI,
and contains a thinly veiled portrait of her friend Winifred HOLTBY. Honourable Estate (1936), a family
saga, is often considered her best novel. The others are Not Without Honour (1924, Account
Rendered (1945), and Born 1925
(1948). England's Hour (1941) was
Brittain's memoir of the early days of World War II. According to Jenny
Hartley, Brittain's pamphlet Seed of
Chaos (1944) was "almost the only public protest against the
obliteration bombing of German cities." In more recent years, Brittain's
diaries and letters have begun to be published, including Chronicle of Youth: The War Diary,
1913-1917 and Wartime Chronicle:
Diary 1939-1945.
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BROADBENT, UNA [FRANCES DELMA
RUSSELL] (14 May 1900 – 1 Jun 1984)
1930s
The author of several plays in the 1930s, Broadbent
also published one novel, Perilous
Grain (1934), set in Homeric Greece.
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BROADWOOD, J. W. (30 Dec 1867 –
11 Aug 1945)
(pseudonym of Jane [sometimes Judith] Winifred Kate Bradshaw, married
name Sheldrake)
1920s
Author of three novels—Pawning Tomorrow
(1924), The Keys of Heaven (1927),
and The Horoscope of Duke Camillo
(1928), the last of which, at least, is historical in theme.
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BROEMEL, ROSE (???? – 28 Jan
1935)
(née Mills, aka Rose D'Evelyn)
1930s
Apparently a well-known singer under her stage name Rose D'Evelyn, Broemel
published—in book form—only a single novel, The Elusive Criminal (1930). But at least three more mysteries
seem to have been serialized in newspapers in subsequent years but never
appeared in book form. Those include The Mystery of Amberlin House, The
Murder at the Playhouse, and Pawns in the Game, all apparently
featuring Detective-Inspector James Larrett. She was previously traced as one
Rose Edith Mills born 1867, but John Herrington has now disproven this as that
Mills died 1901. One census which seems to be the author gives her middle
name as Esme.
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BROMIGE, IRIS [AMY EDNA] (2 Jun
1910 – 1 Oct 2004)
(née ?????)
1940s – 1990s
Author of around 50 romantic novels, often set in the English countryside. Twentieth-Century Romance and Historical
Writers describes her work as “pleasant, family oriented novels set in an
England where late 20th-century realism rarely intrudes.” Titles include The Traceys (1946), Chequered Pattern (1947), April Wooing (1951), Gay Intruder (1954), A New Life for Joanna (1957), The Flowering Year (1959), Fair Prisoner (1960), The Family Web (1963), An April Girl (1967), The Broken Bough (1973), The Happy Fortress (1978), and Farewell to Winter (1986).
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BROOKE,
CAROL (8 Jun 1924 – 7 Jan 2013)
(pseudonym of
Valerie Patricia Ramskill, née Roskams)
1940s – 1960s
Author of 16 romantic novels. Her debut, Light
and Shade (1947), seems to be set during WWII. Others include To Reach the Heights (1948), Devils' Justice (1948), The Changing Tide (1952), As Others See Us (1952), No Other Destiny (1955), Shadow of the Past (1960), This Day's Madness (1962), and Till All the Seas (1964).
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BROOKE, EMMA FRANCES (24 Dec
1844 – 28 Nov 1926)
(aka E. Fairfax Byrrne)
1880s – 1910s
Author of more than a dozen volumes of religious fiction for adults and
children, including the school story Reaping
the Whirlwind (1885). Others include A
Superfluous Woman (1894), The
Engrafted Rose (1899), Susan Wooed
and Susan Won (1905), The Story of
Hauksgarth Farm (1909), and The House
of Robershaye (1912).
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BROOKE, MONICA (dates unknown)
1950s
Untraced author of a single girls' school story, The Girl Who Hated School (1950). It seems likely that she is the
same Monica Brooke who published two romance novels the following year—When Passion Waits (1951) and Divided Desire (1951)—but this is not
certain.
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BROOKE-ROSE, CHRISTINE [FRANCES
EVELYN] (16 Jan 1923 – 21 Mar 2012)
(married name Peterkiewicz)
1950s - 2000s
Critic, poet, and author of sixteen experimental
novels known for their wordplay, unusual structures, and occasional forays
into science-fiction. Titles include The
Languages of Love (1957), The Dear
Deceit (1961), Out (1964), Thru (1975), Amalgamemnon (1984), Xorandor
(1986), Verbivore (1990), Textermination (1991), and Life, End Of (2006). Brooke-Rose
worked with British Intelligence at Bletchley Park during World War II.
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BROPHY, BRIGID [ANTONIA] (12 Jun
1929 – 7 Aug 1995)
(married name Levey)
1950s – 1970s
Novelist, critic, and early campaigner for animal rights. Brophy’s experimental,
philosophical, and politically-engaged fiction includes Hackenfeller's Ape
(1953), The King of a Rainy
Country (1956), Flesh (1962), The Finishing Touch (1963), The
Snow Ball (1964), In Transit (1969), and Palace Without Chairs:
A Baroque Novel (1978). She also published one work for children, Pussy
Owl (1976), which was read on the BBC.
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BROSTER, D[OROTHY]. K[ATHLEEN].
(2 Sept 1878 – 7 Feb 1950)
1910s – 1940s
Author of sixteen novels, most historical in nature. Her first two novels
were co-written with Gertrude Winifred TAYLOR. Some of her best-known solo
works were The Yellow Poppy (1920),
set in the unrest following the French Revolution, Mr. Rowl (1924) (which, incidentally, is read by a character in
Diana TUTTON’s Guard Your Daughters),
her Jacobite trilogy—comprised of The
Flight of the Heron (1925), The
Gleam in the North (1927), and The
Dark Mile (1929)—The Sea without a
Haven (1941), and The Captain's
Lady (1947). In the 1930s, Broster tried her hand at parody with Ships in the Bay! (1931), set in 18th
century Wales, and Word under Snow
(1935), co-written with G. Forester, a parody of detective fiction (possibly
Dorothy L. SAYERS in particular). Broster is also known for her short tales
of horror, collected in the volumes A
Fire of Driftwood (1932) and Crouching
at the Door (1942).
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BROUGHTON,
RHODA (29 Nov 1840 – 6 Jun 1920)
1860s - 1920
Best known as a Victorian novelist who, according to ODNB, wrote "eloquently about the economic pressures upon
women" and was “shocking” in her day. Her debut, Cometh Up as a Flower (1867), was a major bestseller. Subsequent
novels include Red as a Rose Is She
(1870), Goodbye, Sweetheart (1872),
Belinda (1883), A Beginner (1894), Concerning a Vow (1914), and A Fool in Her Folly (1920). She was
also known for her ghost stories, collected in volumes such as Tales for Christmas Eve (1873, aka Twilight Stories), Strange Dream and Other Stories
(1881), and Betty's Visions and Mrs.
Smith of Longmains (1886). A selection of these tales was published in
1995.
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BROWN, BEATRICE CURTIS (24 Aug
1901 – 18 Apr 1974)
(married name Horton)
1920s – 1930s
Author of four well-received novels, all but one historical in nature and
most based in fact. Elizabeth
Chudleigh, Duchess of Kingston (1927) is about an 18th century society
woman convicted of bigamy. Alas Queen
Anne (1929) seems to have been taken by some critics as a biography, but
it appears to have been at least somewhat fiction. For the Delight of Antonio (1932) received particular acclaim,
telling of an Englishman participating in the Venetian revolt against
Austria. The Sancroft Sisters
(1934) was nearly contemporary in subject matter, following three young girls
growing up in the 1920s. Brown also published a popular volume of poetry for
children, Jonathan Bing and Other
Verses (1934), biographies of Anthony Trollope and Isabel Fry, and a
memoir, Southwards from Swiss Cottage
(1948).
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Brown, Bellamy
see BROWN, JOAN MARY WAYNE
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BROWN, DELIA
(dates unknown)
1950s
Untraced author of a single novel, Gin
and Lilies (1953), described in a snippet review as a "murder at the
poker table mystery." This seems to have been the pseudonym of an
established romance writer, but it's not known which one.
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BROWN, EDITH CHARLOTTE (30 Jan
1876 – 6 Jun 1947)
(née Hubback, aka Mrs Francis Brown)
1920s
Great niece of Jane Austen, who published two Jane
Austen sequels, Margaret Dashwood, or, Interference
(1929), and Susan Price, or, Resolution
(1930). Brown also “finished” Austen’s The
Watsons in 1928, as had her grandmother, Catherine Hubback, before her.
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BROWN,
FRANCES (dates unknown)
1920s – 1930s
Untraced author of nine romantic novels—A
Lover on Loan (1927), Caught on the
Rebound (1927), The Girl on a
Pedestal (1928), A Lost Chance
(1928), The Unwanted Bride (1930), Barbara Lee (1931), Fooled by a Flirt (1931), A Beautiful Temptress (1933), and His Dancing Daughter (1937).
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BROWN,
JOAN MARY WAYNE (21 Apr 1906 – 26 Apr 1998)
(aka Mary
Gervaise, aka Hilary Wayne, aka Bellamy Brown, aka Mary Julian)
1920s – 1970s
Best known for her dozens of girls' school and pony books under the name Mary
Gervaise, especially the
Georgie series (1950-1965), Brown also published dozens of adult novels and
romances under her Wayne and Brown pseudonyms, and two novels with mystery
elements as Mary Julian. Among her straightforward school stories are Tiger's First Term (1928), Don-Margery, Schoolgirl (1928), Nancy No-good at School (1929), The School on the Hill (1930), Nutmeg at School (1933), Pat in the Fifth (1937), and The Two Veronicas (1939). Horse
stories (some with school content) include A Pony of Your Own (1950), Ponies
in Clover (1952), The Pony Clue
(1955), The Vanishing Pony (1958),
and Puzzle of Ponies (1964).
Romances include Sweet and Kind
(1947), Gay Experiment (1948), It Happened to Hilary (1952), Flower of the Night (1955), Wish for a Whirlwind (1958), Beware of Loving (1966), and Perilous Freedom (1972). As Mary
Julian, she published Lucifer’s Court (1935), about a country house
wedding party which “develops into a thrilling story of mystery and murder”,
and The Wedding Guest (1935), about a village in Kent and “a romance
lavish with marriage, dark secrets and untimely death.”
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BROWN,
MARIE R. (dates unknown)
1920s
Untraced author of a single romantic novel, The Girl They Scorned (1927).
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BROWN, PAMELA [BEATRICE] (31 Dec
1924 – 26 Jan 1989)
(married name Masters)
1940s – 1970s
Actress and children's author (not to be confused with another actress,
Pamela Mary Brown) whose work often made use of her own theatrical
experiences. The Swish of the Curtain
(1941), written at the precocious age of 15, tells of children setting up
their own theatre, Family Playbill
(1951) deals with a theatrical family in the Victorian era, and Backstage Portrait (1957) is about a
girl working as stage manager in her uncle’s theatre. Other titles include Blue Door Venture (1949), The Windmill Family (1954), Showboat Summer (1956), The Other Side of the Street (1965), Summer Is a Festival (1972), and Every Day Is Market Day (1977).
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BROWNE,
ALICE MAUDE (1848 – 13 Apr 1936)
(aka John Ryce)
1890s – 1920s
Author of three novels, two under her pseudonym—The Rector of Amesty (1891) and An Oath in Heaven: An Early Victorian Romance (1903)—and one, That Colony of God (1923), as Alice M.
Browne.
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BROWNE, ANNA
MARIA (27 Oct 1938 – 1 Jun 2002)
1950s
Author of a single novel, Whom the Gods
Love (1959), described by no lesser reviewer than Muriel Spark as
"an effective and sometimes thrilling account of young life in Rome
under Nero."
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BROWNE, EDITH OPHELIA (1883 – 4 Mar
1937)
1920s – 1930s
Author of nine novels,
about which information is scarce. The titles are The Wall of Shields (1927), The
Broken Cup (1928), When the Saints
Slept (1930), The Green Eagle
(1932), Fair Rosamund (1932), The King's Evil (1933), The Fair Age of Youth (1933), A Kingdom Divided (1934), and Thus Merlin Said (1934). She had
already published Short Biographies of
the Worthies of Worcestershire (1916).
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BRUCE, DORITA (DOROTHY) [MORRIS]
FAIRLIE (20 May 1885 – 21 Sept 1970)
1920s – 1960s
One of the best known school story authors, known for several series,
including nine titles in the “Dimsie” series, six titles in the “Springdale”
series and a total of eight titles in the interrelated “St Bride’s” and
“Maudsley” series, as well as the shorter “Toby” and “Sally” series, each
containing three titles. Unlike most school story authors, Bruce followed
three of her heroines into adulthood, perhaps not coincidentally in stories
set during World War II—Dimsie in Dimsie
Carries On (1941), Toby in Toby at
Tibbs Cross (1943), and Nancy from the “St Brides’s” series in Nancy Calls the Tune (1944). She also
published nine novels for young adults (or in some cases, possibly originally
intended for adults) in the “Colmskirk” series—interrelated novels all set in
and around the fictional Scottish town of Colmskirk, probably modelled on
Largs. Four of these—The King's Curate
(1930), Mistress-Mariner (1932), A Laverock Lilting (1945), and The Bees on Drumwhinnie (1952)—are
historical, while the rest—Wild Goose
Quest (1945), The Serendipity Shop
(1947), Triffeny (1950), The Debatable Mound (1953), and The Bartle Bequest (1955), are set in
the present day. The latter were all reprinted by Girls Gone By in recent
years, but the historical titles are increasingly difficult to find. I’ve
written about her several times here.
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BRUCE,
HEATHER (dates unknown)
1930s – 1940s
Untraced author of four novels, probably romantic in nature—The Tide of Fortune (1938), Somebody After All (1939), The Cousin from Canada (1939), and The Everlasting Hills (1941).
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BRUCE,
KATE (KATHERINE) MARY (8 Nov 1897 – 30 Oct 1961)
(née Maugham)
1920s – 1950s
Niece of Somerset Maugham and author of sixteen novels, which seem to be
cheerful and humorous in theme. The
Chequer Board (1922) is set in the theatre just after World War I, while Clipped Wings (1923) is about a girl
married to the wrong man. The others are Romany
Stranger (1930), Rest Awhile
(1931), Tory Blaize (1932), Duck's Back (1933), Snow-Storm (1934), Guappa (1935), Company Drill (1937), Men
Are So Helpless (1938), Meet Me at
Gooly's (1939), Women Never Learn
(1940), Figures in Black-Out
(1941), Daughters (1949), The Poodle Room (1954), and Felicity (1956).
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BRUCE,
MARY (dates unknown)
1920s
Untraced author of a single romantic novel, The Pretty Sister (1928).
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BRUCE, MILDRED MARY (10 Nov 1895
– 21 May 1990)
(née Petre, aka Mrs. Victor Bruce)
1930s
Pioneering aviator, auto enthusiast, and businesswoman, who wrote memoirs of
her various exploits including Nine
Thousand Miles in Eight Weeks (1927) and The Bluebird's Flight (1931). Her semi-autobiographical humorous
sketches were published as The
Peregrinations of Penelope (1930), with illustrations by Joyce Dennys,
and just barely qualify her for this list.
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BRYANT, MARGUERITE (28 Nov 1870
– 13 Nov 1962)
(married name Munn)
1890s – 1920s
Author of seventeen novels which might be romantic in nature. Titles include A Great Responsibility (1895), A Woman's Privilege (1898), The Princess Cynthia (1901), Anne Kempburn, Truthseeker (1910), The Dominant Passion (1913), The Shadow on the Stone (1918), A Courageous Marriage (1921), Mrs Fuller (1925), and Dear Idiot (1926). Add titles with
Gertrude Hellen MCANALLY titles: The
Chronicles of a Great Prince (1925) is a Ruritanian adventure set
in 1817. Breakfast for Three
(1930), a mystery set on fictional Redmoor, in which a wanderer comes across
a cottage with a corpse inside, was praised for its local color.
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BRYHER (2 Sept 1894 – 28 Jan 1983)
(pseudonym of Annie Winifred Ellerman, married names McAlmon and
Macpherson)
1920s – 1970s
Novelist and memoirist, as well as an important mover and shaker in
avant-garde culture in the modernist period. Apart from her writing, her
claims to fame include being the partner of American poet and novelist H.D.
(Hilda Dolittle); helping Robert McAlmon finance the Contact Press in Paris
(first publisher of an extraordinary array of young modernists—including
Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Djuna Barnes, and William Carlos Williams);
supporting James Joyce and his family before Joyce became world famous;
starting the experimental film company POOL; and lending financial support to
Freud and the early psychoanalytic movement in Austria, as well as helping Jewish
refugees escape from Germany in the years before WWII. Her first two novels, Development (1920) and Two Selves (1923), appear to be the
first novels openly exploring a young woman's coming to terms with being a
lesbian. West (1925) is a travel
memoir inspired by a trip she and H.D. made to America. Most of her later
novels, including The Fourteenth of
October (1954), The Player's Boy
(1957), Roman Wall (1955), Gate to the Sea (1959), The Coin of Carthage (1964), and This January Tale (1968), have
historical settings, though in 1956 she revisited her WWII experiences in the
powerful novel Beowulf, about two
women running a tea shop during the Blitz (reportedly based on a real shop
she and H.D. frequented). She published two memoirs, The Heart to Artemis: A Writer's Memoirs (1963) and The Days of Mars: A Memoir 1940–1946
(1972).
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Bryan, John
see DELVES-BROUGHTON,
JOSEPHINE
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Bryson, Leigh
see RUTLEDGE, NANCY
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BUCHAN, ALICE [CAROLINE HENRY]
(5 Jun 1908 – 19 Dec 1993)
(married name Fairfax-Lucy, aka Alice Fairfax-Lucy)
1930s
Daughter of Susan TWEEDSMUIR and novelist John Buchan, niece of novelist Anna
BUCHAN (aka O. Douglas). Biographer and historian who began her career with a
single novel, The Vale of Maenalus
(1931), which, according to the Spectator,
is about "three ineffectual young people making love by quotation."
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BUCHAN, ANNA [MASTERTON] (24 Mar
1877 – 24 Nov 1948)
(aka O. Douglas)
1910s - 1940s
Sister of novelist John Buchan and sister-in-law of Susan TWEEDSMUIR. Author
of thirteen quiet novels of Scottish life, some with overlapping characters.
Titles are Olivia in India (1912), The Setons (1917), Penny Plain (1920), Ann and Her Mother (1922), Pink Sugar (1924), The Proper Place (1926), Eliza for Common (1928), The Day of Small Things (1930), Priorsford (1932), Taken by the Hand (1935), Jane's Parlour (1937), People Like Ourselves (1938), and The House that Is Our Own (1940). She
was at work on an additional novel, The
Wintry Years, when she died, and eight chapters of it were published in
the posthumous collection, Farewell to
Priorsford (1950). Her memoir, Unforgettable,
Unforgotten (1945), includes details of her family life and famous
brother. Barb at Leaves & Pages has reviewed most of Buchan's work—see here.
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Buchan, Susan
see TWEEDSMUIR, SUSAN
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BUCHANAN, EMILY HANDASYDE (22
Feb 1872 – 11 May 1953)
(aka Handasyde)
1900s, 1930s
Author of four high-society romances in the 1900s—A Girl's Life in a Hunting Country
(1903), For the Week-End (1907), Other Things Than Love (1909), and The Heart of Marylebone (1910)—along
with one volume of children's stories, The
Four Gardens (1907). She apparently returned to publish one further
novel, Spare That Tree, in 1939,
about which information is sparse.
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BUCHANAN, MERIEL (5 Sept 1886 –
6 Feb 1959)
(married name Knowling)
1910s
A journalist and memoirist of Russian political issues and biographer of
royalty and families, Buchanan also published two early novels, White Witch (1913) and Tania: A Russian Story (1914). Her
memoir, Ambassador's Daughter,
appeared in 1958. Among her biographies are Anne of Austria: The Infanta Queen (1936) and Queen Victoria's Relations (1954). She
also published a cookbook, Good Food
from the Balkans (1956).
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BUCK,
DOROTHY [LOUISA MARIAN] (15 Feb 1897 – 12 Jul 1946)
(married name
Chavanne)
1920s – 1940s
Author of a dozen books, of which the first, The New Lotus-Eaters (1928), appears to be a travel book about
Tunisia. Some of her novels are also set in North Africa. Titles include The Sliding Door (1930), My Friend Pierrot (1932), The Last Oasis (1932), The Dark Cavalier (1936), The Snake Charmer (1937), The Harem Window (1939), and Where the Road Ends (1946).
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BUCKINGHAM, M. E. (18 Oct 1903 -
1975)
(pseudonym of Agnes Mary Easton, née Huntingford)
1930s – 1960s
Author of seven children’s books, most or all featuring animals and set in
Asia and India. Titles are Phari: The
Adventures of a Tibetan Pony (1933), Zong:
A Hill Pony (1934), Argh: The Tale
of a Tiger (1935), Rajah the
Elephant (1937), Arrowflag
(1940), The Great Carlos (1945),
and Odd Boy Out (1963).
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BUCKLE,
ELIZABETH [BRAITHWAITE] (12 Dec 1865 – 14 Jan 1949)
(née Turner)
1910s – 1930s
Short story author and memoirist. Her first published work was a memoir of William
Collins, the bishop of Gibraltar, who had died in 1911. The following year
she published Wayside Lamps (1913),
wherein she, in her own words, “put down the simple stories of other brave
men and women in whose sacred hours of bodily weakness it has been my
priviliege to share.” Wayside Neighbours
(1914) followed, along the same line, and I’m counting these two volumes as
story collections. The Cup of War
(1915) is a short memoir of the outbreak of WWI and its effects on her
family, including her husband, a prominent general, and her son, who would
die in battle in 2018. A Kingly Grave
in France (1919) is a short memoir of her trip to visit her son’s grave,
while Triumphant Over Pain (1923)
deals with her time as a volunteer at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Netley,
Hampshire during the war. Her final work, Cottage
Pie (1931), might be a return to short stories. Tragically, her death in
1949 was the result of a fire accident in her home. My thanks to David Groen
for additional details about her.
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Buckley, Eunice
see ALLATINI, ROSE
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BUCKMASTER, CELIA [JOYCE] (28
Nov 1915 – 20 Oct 2005)
(married names Gibson-Fleming and Leach)
1950s
Wife of anthropologist Sir Edmund Leach and close
friend of poet Lynette ROBERTS. Painter and author of two novels of village
life, Village Story (1951) and Family Ties (1952), both originally published
by Hogarth Press and both reprinted by Dean Street Press as Furrowed
Middlebrow books in 2020. Reviewing the latter in the TLS Julian Symons said, "For all the apparent superficiality
of her comedy, Miss Buckmaster has a feeling for reality, her Thirkell is
tinged with Chekhov." I've written about her here. A third
novel, Story About Life and So On,
was written in the later 1950s or 1960s, but remains unpublished.
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BUCKROSE, J. E. (1868 – 9 Aug 1931)
(pseudonym of Annie Edith Jameson)
1900s – 1930s
Author of more than three dozen novels, apparently
mostly cheerful comedies of middle-class life. War-Time in Our Street (1917) is presumably a WWI home front
novel. Silhouette of Mary Ann
(1931) is a fictional portrayal of novelist George Eliot. Other titles
include The Wood End (1906), The Pilgrimage of a Fool (1910), Down Our Street (1911), Because of Jane (1913), Gay Morning (1914), Aunt Augusta in Egypt (1915), The Gossip Shop (1917), The Silent Legion (1918), Marriage While You Wait (1919), A Knight Among Ladies (1922), Susan in Charge (1923), Payment in Kind (1928), and Doctor's House (1932).
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BULLARD,
MARGARET [ELLEN] (23 Aug 1907 – 29 Jun 2009)
(née Thomas)
1950s
Author of three humorous novels—Wedlock's
the Devil (1951), described by John Betjeman as "a sort of
unscrupulous Cranford", A Perch in Paradise (1952), set in
Cambridge before, during, and after WWII and which, according to Marghanita
Laski, "varies from the exceptionally witty to the vulgar", and Love Goes West (1953), about an
English civil servant and his wife sent from their cozy life in England to
California in search of cheap sardines. She was the wife of Sir Edward Crisp
Bullard, a Cambridge scientist knighted for "ending the menace of the
German magnetic mine in the Second World War by inventing degaussing of
ships", and really did spend time with him in California, where he
worked in later years at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla.
Despite her high-profile husband, records on Margaret herself are difficult
to find, and the dates above are highly probable but not certain. She is,
however, not to be confused with the Margaret Bullard who was the wife of
diplomat Julian Bullard, who published non-fiction works.
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BULLINGHAM, ANN (8 Jul 1905 – 23
Mar 1967)
(pseudonym of Anastasia [Ann] Miles Jones, née Colfer)
1950s
Author of three children's novels about Penelope and friends in the English
countryside, including Penelope
(1953), Penelope and Curlew (1957),
and Summer on the Hills (1960).
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Bumpus, Doris M.
see ALAN, MARJORIE
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BURCHELL, MARY (24 Aug 1904 – 22
Dec 1986)
(pseudonym of Ida Cook)
1930s – 1980s
Author of well over 100 romantic novels for Mills
& Boon under her pseudonym, but it's her own story that deserves a movie
adaptation. In the 1930s, she and her sister used their reputation as
eccentric opera fanatics to travel to and from Nazi Germany for performances.
On their return from each trip, they would smuggle valuables from Jewish
families into England, which provided immigration guarantees to the British
government and allowed the families to be accepted into England. On at least
one occasion, the sisters wore priceless jewels with their frumpy homemade
dresses, and German officials didn't blink an eye, assuming they were paste.
I wrote a bit more about them here, and Cook's
memoir, We Followed Our Stars
(1950, reprinted as Safe Passage),
written under her real name, describes these events in her own words. Her
numerous novels include many which feature musical characters or settings,
reflecting her personal passion.
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BURDEKIN, KATHARINE [PENELOPE]
(23 Jul 1896 – 10 Aug 1963)
(née Cade, aka Murray Constantine, aka Kay Burdekin)
1920s – 1930s
Author of ten novels, marked by her pacifist and feminist beliefs. She is
best known now for Swastika Night
(1937), a dystopian novel set after centuries of Nazi and Japanese rule of
the world, which has been reprinted in recent years. In The Children's Country (1929), she attempted to create a
"non-sexist" children's story. Quiet
Ways (1930) is a pacifist novel, and Venus
in Scorpio (1940) a historical novel. Other titles are Anna Colquhoun (1922), The Reasonable Way (1924), The Burning Ring (1927), The Rebel Passion (1929), Proud Man (1934), and The Devil, Poor Devil! (1934). In
1990, a previously unpublished novel, The
End of This Day's Business, appeared, set in a society in which women
hold the power.
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Burford, Eleanor Alice
see HIBBERT, ELEANOR
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BURGESS, E[STHER]. M[ARGARET].
R[OOKE]. (14 Mar 1895 – 8 Jul 1977)
1930s – 1940s
Guiding aficionado and children's author. Hilary
Follows Up, or, The Peridew Tradition (1939) is a school story, which
Sims and Clare say is reminiscent of Dorita Fairlie BRUCE. Other titles are Dalmira Wins Through (1934), Cherry Becomes International (1946),
and Ready for Anything (1948), as
well as various non-fiction works about games and Guiding.
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BURGESS,
L[UCY]. A[DELINE]. (16 Sept 1876 – 12 Oct 1920)
(married name
Trudgian)
1910s
Nurse and author of a single novel, With
Drums Unmuffled (1913), apparently a love story set in Gibraltar, where
Burgess seems to have lived for some time.
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BURGESS, MARJORIE [AGNES LOVELL]
(22 Aug 1906 – 1 Feb 1996)
(sometimes Lovell-Burgess)
1920s – 1930s
Journalist and author of two novels, Great
Possessions (1927) and Provincial
Interlude (1932), about which information is lacking, plus a book about
“the amateur ciné movement in Great Britain” (1932).
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Burghley, Rose
see POLLOCK, IDA [JULIE]
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BURGOYNE,
ELIZABETH (19 Aug 1902 – 13 Mar 1987)
(pseudonym of
Mabel Elizabeth Pickles)
1930s
Biographer and author of two novels—Travail
(1934) and Road Royal (1935). She
later published Carmen Sylva, Queen and
Woman (1941), a biography of the first queen of Romania, a memoir, Married to Wilfred: The Autobiography of
M. Pickles (1956), and contributed biographical passages to a volume of
Gertrude Bell's personal papers.
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Burke, Barbara
see BALL, OONA H[OWARD].
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Burke, Edward
see BOGGS, WINIFRED
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BURKE, KATHLEEN (24 Oct 1887 –
Nov 1958)
(married names Peabody, McLean, Hale)
1930s – 1940s
World War I memoirist and author of romance novels.
She was given a CBE in her early 30s for her work with relief organizations
in France and in fundraising for the Scottish Hospital Service. She was the
first woman allowed into the besieged fortress of Verdun, which she discussed
in her memoir The White Road to Verdun
(1916). Later, she published five romantic novels—The Living Way (1937), Splendid
Surrender (1937), Love, Dance a Jig
(1938), How Blew the Wind? (1939),
and Love Wore a Cloak (1941).
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BURKE,
NORAH AILEEN (2 Aug 1907 – 1 Mar 1976)
(married name
Walrond, aka André Lamour)
1930s – 1960s
Author of more than twenty novels under her own name and her pseudonym, some
of which made use of her childhood in India. She also published several late
volume of travel writing. Titles include Dark
Road (1933), Merry England
(1934), The Scarlet Vampire (1936),
The Lady Got Burnt (1946), Dusky Bridegroom (1947), and Temptations of Eve (1948). Her memoir
is Jungle Child: On the Author's
Childhood in Northern India (1956).
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BURLEIGH, HILARY (1885 – 10 Apr
1964)
(pseudonym of Edith Mary John, married names Broade and Hunt Lewis, aka
H. H. Lewis)
1930s – 1950s
Successful stage actress for many years and author of four novels, at least
three of which are mysteries. The best known is Murder at Maison Manche (1948), published as Hilary Burleigh,
about the murder of a star mannequin by injection, criticized for an unlikely
solution but praised for its “chatter and behind-the-scenes chez couturier”.
Pearls and Perjury (1950) and By Whose Hand? (1956) were published
as H. H. Lewis (Hilda Hunt Lewis, her second married name). Her first novel, Her
Hour of Temptation (1937), appeared in the “Pearson’s Big Threepennies”
series—paperbound and of poor quality, which may explain why virtually no
copies seem to still exist.
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BURMESTER,
FRANCES G[EORGINA]. (26 May 1848 – 6 Apr 1940)
1900s – 1910s
Author of six novels, which seem to partake a bit of the country melodrama
style later made famous by Mary WEBB. Titles are John Lott's Alice (1902), A
November Cry (1904), Clemency
Shafto (1906), Davina (1909), A Bavarian Village Player (1911), and The Dogs of War (1916).
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BURNETT, FRANCES [ELIZA] HODGSON
(24 Nov 1849 – 29 Oct 1924)
(née Hodgson)
1870s – 1920s
Prolific novelist and children’s author, best known for the classic
children's book The Secret Garden
(1911), and for two novels for adults, The
Making of a Marchioness (1901) and The
Shuttle (1906), both reprinted by Persephone. Another children's work, Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886), was
made into a classic film. Among her numerous other titles are That Lass o' Lawrie's (1877), A Fair Barbarian (1880), Through One Administration (1883), Sara Crewe, or What Happened at Miss
Minchin's (1888), His Grace of
Osmonde (1897), In the Closed Room
(1904), The Land of the Blue Flower
(1909), and My Robin (1912).
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BURNETT, IVORY (c1894 - 22 Mar 1948)
(pseudonym of Anna Augusta Whittall Ramsay)
1930s
Author of one biography, Sir
Robert Peel (1928), and one novel, The Ravens Enter the House
(1931), set in the Scottish Highlands in the time of Charles I and "full
of Scottish lore and romance."
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BURNFORD,
SHEILA [PHILIP COCHRANE] (11 May 1918 – 20 Apr 1984)
(née Every)
1960s – 1970s
Best known for her debut children's novel, The Incredible Journey (1960), which won numerous awards and has
been filmed twice, and which just
qualifies her for this list, Burnford later wrote two more children's titles,
Mr. Noah and the Second Flood
(1973) and Bel Ria (1977), as well
as two memoirs, The Fields of Noon
(1964) and One Woman's Arctic
(1972).
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BURNS, A. E. (dates unknown)
1910s – 1920s
Untraced author of only two books, the first a school story set in a Catholic
convent school, called The Grand
Duchess Benedicta (1915). Later, Burns published Peggy in Demand (1924), about which information is sparse.
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Burns, Sheila
see BLOOM, URSULA
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BURR, SYBIL [EDITH] (13 Oct 1909
– 18 May 2002)
(née Parren)
1950s
Author of seven children’s titles, including Lantern of the North (1954, aka Night Train to Scotland), a mystery
with a 15-year-old heroine, My Candle
the Moon (1955), The Saint Bride
Blue (1956, aka Highland Fling),
Full Fathom Forty (1957), Life With Lisa (1958), Operation Blindbell (1960), and Leave It to Lisa (1960). Life With Lisa, her best known work, a
fictional diary of a 12-year-old girl, was reprinted by Puffin in 1979 and
dramatized for Radio 4 in 2003.
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BURROUGHES, DOROTHY [MARY] (25
Dec 1883 – 18 Jul 1963)
1930s – 1950s
Children’s author and illustrator. Although most of her books, such as The House the Moles Built (1939) and Teddy, the Little Refugee Mouse
(1942), are for small children, others like The Odd Little Girl (1932) and Captain Seal's Treasure Hunt (1933) seem to be longer works.
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BURT, JESSIE
MAY (30 Nov 1897 – 12 Mar 1988)
1940s - 1950s
Scottish author of 14 novels, beginning with the wartime Seavacuee (1942), about a Scottish boy sent to Canada to escape
the Blitz. Other novels sound like light romances with some melodrama—titles
include Ursula Takes Over (1944), The Gay Gordons (1945), The Swing of the Pendulem (1946), set
in the late 18th century, The
Glendenning Fortunes (1947), Treason
in Fitzroy Place (1948), The
Stepbrothers (1949), A Wife for
Giles (1950), Mr Duffy Calls the
Tune (1951), Chance Inheritance
(1952), The Price of Distinction
(1952), For Love of Annie (1953), Daughter of Paradise (1955), and Tragedy of Love (1956).
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BURTON, HESTER (6 Dec 1913 – 17
Sept 2000)
(née Wood-Hill)
1960s – 1980s
Teacher, assistant editor of the Oxford
Junior Encyclopedia, and historical children’s novelist. Titles include The Great Gale (1960), set during the
East Anglia floods of 1953, In Spite of
All Terror (1968), set during WWII, and Thomas (1969), set during the Great Plague of London. Others are Castors Away! (1962), Time of Trial (1963), No Beat of Drum (1966), Otmoor for Ever! (1968), Through the Fire (1969), The Henchmans at Home (1970), The Rebel (1971), Riders of the Storm (1972), Kate
Rider (1974), To Ravensrigg
(1976), A Grenville Goes to Sea
(1977), Tim at the Fur Fort (1977),
When the Beacons Blazed (1978), and
Five August Days (1981). She
adapted The Great Gale for radio
and Castors Away! for television.
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BUSSELL, DOROTHEA (14 Oct 1884 –
1 Apr 1962)
(née Bickerton)
1910s – 1930s
Sister of explorer Frank Bickerton. Poet and author of four novels—The New Wood Nymph (1912), Dunbarrow (1926), The Third Angel (1929), and Translate
No Further (1933)—about which information is sparse.
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BUSSELL, EMILY
(dates unknown)
1930s
Unidentified author of one (or perhaps two) novels. Epitaph for Harriet (1936) is about a young woman who, jilted by
one lover, spontaneously marries a poor scientist and must learn to live in a
style to which she is unaccustomed. The publisher, Stanley Paul & Co.,
advertised a second novel, Duet for Two
Ladies, about a struggling, widowed mother of four who takes in a lovely
but insidious woman as a paying guest, but there is no evidence the book ever
actually appeared, and it is not listed in any major card catalogue.
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BUTCHER, MARGARET [CATHERINE]
(29 Oct 1887 – 14 Jan 1983)
(née Cuzner)
1930s – 1950
Journalist, artist, and author of four novels. Destiny on Demand (1938), with a fantasy element, shows the havoc
created when a villages fervent prayers are granted, but—due to a backlog on
Olympus—seven years after they were offered up. Comet's Hair (1939) is set in the quintessential English village,
which a reporter speculates only a miracle could change—and then the miracle
happens. Vacant Possession (1940) is
set at the outbreak of World War II, with two varied households thrown into
disarray by their need to evacuate London. Her final novel, Hogdown Farm Mystery (1950), set in a
village on the edge of the Mendip Hills near Bath, is her one foray into
mysteries. She was also an artist and illustrator, and during the war a
number of her paintings of old houses were raffled in support of the Red
Cross.
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BUTLER, ELIZA MARIAN (29 Dec 1885 – 13
Nov 1959)
(aka E. M. Butler)
1950s
Professor of German at
Cambridge University for a time, and best known for her scholarly studies of
German literature and culture and biographies of Sheridan (1931) and Rilke
(1941). After her retirement from academia, however, Butler published two
short novels, Daylight in a Dream
(1951) and Silver Wings (1952). Her
memoir, Paper Boats, appeared in
1959.
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BUTLER, GWENDOLINE (19 Aug 1922
– 5 Jan 2013)
(née Williams, aka Jennie Melville)
1950s – 2000s
Author of more than 70 books in all, including both contemporary and
historical mysteries and, under her pseudonym, of gothic romances and more
mysteries. She published police procedurals in two series, one featuring
Detective Inspector John Coffin, the other featuring a policewoman, Chief
Superintendent Charmian Daniels. She also published historical mysteries set
in Victorian or Edwardian England. Some of her many titles include Receipt for Murder (1956), Dead in a Row (1957), The Dull Dead (1958), Death Lives Next Door (1960), Come Home and Be Killed (1962), A Nameless Coffin (1966), A Coffin for Pandora (1973), The Red Staircase (1980), Windsor Red (1988), The Morbid Kitchen (1995), Coffin's Game (1997), Dead Again (2000), and Dread Murder (2007).
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BUTLER, MARGUERITE L[UCY]. (1879
- 1951)
1930s
Cambridge-trained teacher and later missionary in Bangalore, India, where she
ran a girls' high school. She published one girls' school story, Tulsi (1934), set in an Indian
boarding school, which Sims and Clare praise for its cultural accuracy and
realism, as well as the non-fiction Hindu
Women at Home (1921).
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BUTLER-JOYCE, JOAN [MARGUERITE]
(23 Sept 1904 – 21 Apr 2001)
(née Butler)
1930s
Author of three children's books, including two school stories, Hot Water (1935) and No Responsibility (1940), praised by
Sims and Clare for subverting the clichès of school stories, as well as She Went to London (1938). She also
published one adult novel, Catherine-Wheel
(1939), which according to reviews is a cheerful tale of a young woman's
early adulthood.
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BUTTENSHAW, DIANA [MARGUERITE]
(24 Apr 1918 – 2 Mar 2013)
(married name Byrde)
1930s – 1950s
Author of three children's titles and nine novels
for adults. Of the former: Patrick
(1939) is about an Irish boy shipwrecked on an island and cared for by
animals, and what happens when he returns to society, Dominic: Days in the Life of a Boy Who Lived in a Forest (1943)
seems to feature horses, and Pepito of
Guadiaro (1948) is about a boy abandoned in Andalusia and raised by
animals. Of the latter: The Sleeping Princess
(1941), praised for its portrayal of the miltary community on Gibraltar, is
about a woman tempted to leave her husband who must take in her sister’s
orphaned children. Say Not Good-Night
(1943) is described as “a romance of Spain and a Spanish dancer.” The Villach Road (1947) is set in
Austria and involves the troubled marriage of an Englishman and Austrian
woman met on holiday and the resulting twins. In Journey to Venice (1949), a young Englishwoman, having made a
disastrous marriage to an Italian prisoner of war and then leaving him,
explores the beauty and the scars of war as she travels across Italy. An Oak for Posterity (1952) is a
romantic adventure set in postwar Germany, involving a kidnapped boy and the
governess who pursues him. Incident in
Ismalia (1953) is set among the families of those stationed around the
Suez Canal. The One Black Swan
(1955) seems to be romantic in theme, with an odd girl out finding happiness at
last. Chain of Command (1956) is
about Army wives, one of whom is mismanaging the Regimental Wives’ Club. Violence in Paradise (1957), set on a
fictional Mediterranean island, is about an 18-year-old brigadier’s daughter
who helps troops who are fighting terrorists. She also published short
fiction of suspense and horror.
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BUTTS, MARY [FRANEIS] (13 Dec
1890 – 7 Mar 1937)
(married names Rodker and Aitken)
1920s – 1930s
Modernist author whose work was out-of-print for
decades until something of a revival occurred in the 1990s. She published
five novels—Ashe of Rings (1925), Armed with Madness (1928), The Death of Felicity Taverner (1932),
The Macedonian (1933), and Scenes from the Life of Cleopatra
(1935)—and three volumes of stories—Speed
the Plough and Other Stories (1923), Several
Occasions (1932), and Last Stories
(1938). Her memoir, The Crystal
Cabinet: My Childhood at Salterns (1937), was left unfinished at her
death. Butts died suddenly, at the age of 46, of peritonitis. Most of her
work is currently in print from McPherson & Company.
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BYERS, [AMY] IRENE (30 Dec 1906
– 11 Feb 1992)
(née Cookson)
1950s – 1980s
Author of more than three dozen children's books, many of them adventure and
holiday stories and some including recurring characters. Titles include Mystery at Barber's Reach (1950), The Adventure of the Floating Flat
(1952), Tim of Tamberly Forest
(1954), Adventure at Fairborough's Farm
(1955), The Sign of the Dolphin
(1956), The Missing Masterpiece
(1957), Adventure at the Blue Cockatoo
(1958), Kennel Maid Sally (1960), Tim Returns to Tamberly (1962), The Merediths of Mappins (1964), Joanna Joins the Zoo (1964), The Stage Under the Cedars (1969), Cameras on Carolyn (1971), and Fox on the Pavement (1984).
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BYNG, ELEANOR, VISCOUNTESS
TORRINGTON (1880 – 7 Dec 1931)
(née Ellen Mary Sowray)
1920s
Actress and "Gaiety Girl" who had a turbulent marriage with Lord
Torrington, owned racehorses, and eventually opened a nightclub, before
apparently committing suicide due to financial woes. She published one novel,
Over the Garden Wall: A Story of Racing
and Romance (1924). Bear Alley posted his research about her here.
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BYNG,
MARIE EVELYN (11 Jan 1870 – 20 Jun 1949)
(née Moreton)
1910s
Viscountess of Vimy and wife of Lord Byng, 12th Governor General of Canada.
Author of two novels, Barriers
(1912) and Anne of the Marshland
(1914), as well as a memoir, Up the
Stream of Time (1945).
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Byrne, E. Fairfax
see BROOKE, EMMA FRANCES
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BYRON, MARY (28 Aug 1868 - 1935)
(née Anderson)
1930s
Author of two poetry collections, A
Voice from the Veld (1913) and The
Owls (1920), and a single collection of stories, Dawn and Dusk in the High Veld (1931), described as "[v]ivid
short stories and true sketches of life among the scattered farms of South
Africa." The birth date above comes from an Ancestry family tree—her
actual birth records have so far eluded me.
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