Tuesday, January 1, 2013

British & Irish Women Writers of Fiction 1910-1960 (U - We)

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

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

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

[Current total: 2,391 writers] 

UPDATED 2/29/2024


ULLMAN, MONICA [MARY] DISNEY (12 Jul 1911 - ????)
(née Disney, possible later married name Nöhren)
1950s

Prominent stage actress and dancer as a child and author of a single children's title, Film Star Gilly (1950). National Portrait Gallery's website mentions her second husband's name, but I haven't been able to find any trace of her after the publication of her book.

UNSWORTH, MADGE (23 Jun 1888 – 7 Apr 1970)
1920s
Salvation Army member and author of one school story, Wilminster High School and Wilminster Old Girls (1929). Her later writings are all religious-themed non-fiction and biography. Her death year was previously erroneously given as 1960.

UNTHANK, NITA (6 Aug 1901 – 28 Apr 1966)
1940s – 1950s
Author of three children’s titles, two of which—From Rebels to Helpmates (1949) and Robina's Secret (1951) are girls' school stories. The last was Because of Berry (1955).

UPSON, DOROTHY BARBARA (27 Nov 1894 – 30 Sept 1965)
(aka Elizabeth Furness, aka Barbara Fawcett)
1930s – 1960s
Author of more than 80 volumes of romantic fiction. In the 1930s and 1940s, she used her own name for her romances, but in the 1950s and 1960s she began using both of her pseudonyms as well. Titles include Laggard in Love (1935), Tempestuous Sally (1939), Brave Music (1943), The Living Ghost (1947), The Moon and the Nightingale (1948), Soldier? Sailor? Rich Man? (1949), Sally for Short (1949), April Morning (1951), Blind Cupid (1951), The Unexpected Holiday (1953), False Star (1957), Fabulous Aunt (1958), Fancy Free (1962), and Castles in the Air (1963). She also published several children's titles, including They Lived on London Bridge (1946), The Drakes Go West (1946), and I Spy (1948).

URE, JEAN [ANN] (1 Jan 1943 -                  )
(married name Gregory, aka Sarah Mcculloch, aka Ann Colin, aka Jean Gregory)
1960s - present
Prolific children's author and novelist whose first book, Dance for Two (1960), a ballet story, just qualifies her for this list. For adults, she published nearly two dozen romantic novels, including a series of Georgian romances using her Mcculloch pseudonym. Sims & Clare note the tremendous range of Ure's children's fiction, which includes a number of school stories. The Girl in the Blue Tunic (1997), for example, contains "one of the very few real ghosts to be found in school stories." They also single out Has Anyone Seen This Girl? (1997) and her "Peter High" series (1990-1992). Other titles include A Proper Little Nooryeff (1982), See You Thursday (1983), and the Plague trilogy, set in England following a nuclear holocaust and plague, which includes Plague 99 (1990), Come Lucky April (1992), and Watchers at the Shrine (1992).

URQUHART, M[ARYON]. (9 Apr 1870 – 27 May 1944)
(born Agnes Marion Urquhart Unwin, married name Green)
1900s
Author of six novels, most famously The Island of Souls (1910), "about high magic in contemporary England, and the struggle between forces of good and evil for the soul of a young girl." The others are A Tragedy in Commonplace (1905), Our Lady of the Mists (1907), The Wheel: A Book of Beginnings (1907), The Modelling of the Clay (1909), and The Fool of Faery (1910).

URQUHART, MARGARET M. (17 Jun 1877 – 6 Dec 1973)
(née Macaskell)
1930s
Author of one children's book, Amiya: A Bengali Girl (1930), as well as one work of non-fiction, Women of Bengal: A Study of the Hindu Pardanasins of Calcutta (1925).

Urse, Honor
          see MAHON, HONOR

UTTLEY, ALISON (ALICE) [JANE] (17 Dec 1884 – 7 May 1976)
(née Taylor)
1920s – 1980s
Author of around 90 children's books, mostly for younger children, but a few for older readers, as well as two novels for adults. Her most famous work remains A Traveller in Time (1939), about a girl transported to the 16th century, where she becomes involved with a plot to save Mary, Queen of Scots. Her adult novels are High Meadows (1938) and When All Is Done (1945). She also published several books about country life, including The Country Child (1931), Country Things (1946), and A Year in the Country (1957). Her diaries for the years 1932-1971 were published in 2009.

VAIZEY, JESSIE (3 Oct 1856 – 23 Jan 1917)
(née Bell, earlier married name Mansergh, aka Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey)
1890s – 1910s
Author of more than 30 works of fiction, mostly romantic tales aimed both at girls and women, though some do have school settings. Twentieth-Century Romance and Historical Writers refer to her work as "refreshingly vigorous", though even her most liberated heroines tend to find their eventual fulfillment in marriage and child-rearing. Titles include A Girl in Springtime (1897), About Peggy Saville (1900), Pixie O'Shaughnessy (1902), The Fortunes of the Farrells (1907), Etheldreda the Ready (1910), A College Girl (1913), The Independence of Claire (1915), What a Man Wills (1916) and The Lady of the Basement Flat (1917). In 2010, Greyladies published The Ignorance of Sybilla, a new collection of Vaizey's stories.

VALLINGS, GABRIELLE (28 Aug 1886 – 7 Jul 1972)
(pseudonym of Lilian Mary Vallings, seems to have gone by Gabrielle Francesca Lilian Mary Vallings)
1910s – 1930s
Great-niece of Charles Kingsley and cousin of Lucas MALET. A well-known opera singer and author of around a dozen novels. Her debut, Bindweed (1916), is set in the artist community in Paris. A blurb for her final novel, Jury of Four (1938), calls it "a story of love, intrigue, suicide and murder." Others include The Whispering City (1922), Belief (1933), The Silent Monk (1935), and The Labour Leader (1937).

VALLIS, ALICIA (dates unknown)
1940s
Untraced author of a single girls' school story, The Secret of St Mary's (1947).

VAN DER ELST, VIOLET (4 Jan 1882 – 30 Apr 1966)
(née Dodge)
1930s – 1940s
A fascinating rags to riches (and back to rags) story in herself, Van Der Elst was a working class girl, made a fortune creating a new shaving cream, then lost it passionately campaigning against the death penalty. She published two story collections along the way—The Torture Chamber (1937) and Death of the Vampire Baroness and Other Thrilling Stories (1945).

VANE, DEREK (22 Feb 1854 – 15 Nov 1939)
(pseudonym of Blanche Eaton Back)
1890s – 1930s
Author of more than 20 mysteries and romance novels, including The Three Daughters of Night (1897), The Paradise of Fools (1913), Lady Varley (1914), The Trump Card (1925), The Unguarded Hour (1929), and Dancer's End (1934). Steve at Bear Alley wrote about his research on her here.

VAUGHAN, CELIA (dates unknown)
1930s
Unidentified author of a single novel, So Much for Love (1935), about the difficulties of marriage and divorce. The heroine, a product of a broken home, herself marries hastily to get away, is unhappy, has a breakdown and a prescribed retreat to a Lakeland cottage, where she finds a new lease on life. A contemporary review says she was a native of Wilmslow, Cheshire, but the name is too common to fully identify her.

VAUGHAN, HILDA [CAMPBELL] (12 Jun 1892 – 4 Nov 1985)
(married name Morgan)
1920s – 1950s
Playwright and author of ten novels, many set in her native Wales, particularly in and around Radnorshire. Her most famous work is A Thing of Nought (1934), which I reviewed here. The others are The Battle to the Weak (1925), Here Are Lovers (1926), The Invader (1928), Her Father's House (1930), The Soldier and the Gentlewoman (1932), The Curtain Rises (1935), Harvest Home (1936), The Fair Women (1942), Pardon and Peace (1945), Iron and Gold (1948), and The Candle and the Light (1954).

VAUGHAN, JEAN (dates unknown)
1940s - 1950s
Unidentified author of three children's titles—Lone Star (1940), Star and Company (1947), and Elizabeth's Green Way (1950). The last of these is about a dreamy girl whose family members are all great successes and who must find her own way in the world (thanks to Nicola Davies for these details).

VEHEYNE, CHERRY (13 Jan 1886 – 8 Dec 1975)
(pseudonym of Ethel Williamson, aka Jane Cardinal)
1920s – 1930s, 1960s
Actress and author of nine novels in all. Swift Adventure (1925) and The Living Idol (1933) appeared under her Cardinal pseudonym. The others are The Journal of Henry Bulver (1921), which won the Collins Open Novel Competition, Fay and Finance (1922), about the theatre, According to Their Deserts (1924), The Devil Is Sick (1930), The Taming of the Despot (1934), and Evolution of James (1935). After a considerable absence, she returned with Horror (1962), a thriller about Jack the Ripper.

VEREKER, BARBARA (16 Jun 1921 – 16 Aug 1993)
1950s
Journalist, playwright, and author of four girls’ stories—Caroline at the Film Studios (1955), Adventure for Caroline (1956), Caroline in Scotland (1957), and Caroline in Wales (1959)—as well as The Story of Films (1961).

VERNHAM, KATHERINE ELIZABETH (7 Apr 1858 – 3 Mar 1938)
1890s - 1910
Author of more than 20 works of fiction, most apparently storybooks for children. However, several, including Perry's Pilgrimage (1895), Miss Haldane's Lodger (1909), and Grantham Gates and Other Stories (1910), appear to be for adults.

VERNON, MARJORIE (dates unknown)
(pseudonym of Marjorie Cottam)
1940s – 1980s
Prolific author of romantic novels. She has remained an enigma for many years, but John Herrington recently discovered her real name and is moving closer to a definite identification. Her titles include Captive of the Sheik (1943), The Lonely Caravan (1946), Wild Heritage (1947), The White Lotus (1953), September Sunday (1956), Tender Tigress (1959), Beloved Enemy (1961), Riviera Romance (1963), Paris Is a Girl (1966), Love Has Jagged Edges (1967), Nurse on the Riviera (1979), and Love, Come to My Castle (1982).

VERSCHOYLE, CATHERINE MILDRED (6 Dec 1873 – 22 Mar 1951)
1920s – 1930s
Poet and author of three novels—Oldam (1927), Willow and Cypress (1929), which traces a young girl through a tragic life and spiritual awakening, and Sleeping Echo (1931), in which a woman adopts her divorced husband's child. Of Willow and Cypress, the Saturday Review said, "What is best in the story is borrowed from convention. The rest is sheer artificiality." And the Spectator said of Sleeping Echo, "Although this story of a woman who adopts her divorced husband's child moves in an improbably rarefied atmosphere, it has about it a certain wistfulness and grace."

VINCENT, KITTY [EDITH BLANCHE] (5 Feb 1887 – 17 Oct 1969)
(née Ogilvy, second married name Ritson)
1920s – 1960s
Author of children's fiction, humor, and thrillers. Her first book was a tongue-in-cheek guide to Good Manners (1924), followed by three volume of humorous sketches, with much of their humor directed at the upper crust of which she was very much a part—Lipstick (1925), Sugar and Spice (1926), and Gin & Ginger (1927). Her spy thrillers, often involving British Intelligence, include No. 3 (1924), The Ruby Cup (1928), An Untold Tale: A Secret Service Story (1934), and Lost World (1937). These Within (1943) features Nazis and fifth columnists against a backdrop of international dog shows, while Dark and Deep (1945) may involve horse shows. The Fiery Cross (1930) is a historical novel dealing with the 1845 Jacobite Rebellion, while Sea-Change (1933) appears to be a romance set among the passengers of a cruise ship. Her children's titles include, Lad: The Story of a Border Collie (1938), Molly, the New Forest Pony (1940), Tessa and Some Ponies (1953), and Tessa and the Rannoch Dude Ranch (1961). She also published a travel book, Two on a Trip (1930), about her adventures in "the snow-covered bush of Canada." Even her birth record, as well as marriage and probate records, show her unusual first name.

VINTER, MARY [MARGARET KELL] (25 May 1902 – 8 Feb 1987)
(née Hardy)
1930s - 1940s

Author of nearly a dozen novels. Her debut, Rain on the Just (1931), sounds like soap opera—young heiress falls for scoundrel who commits bigamy to marry her, later dies, and she is left impoverished. Return to Earth (1933) is about the discovery of a drug to bring the dead back to life—what could go wrong with that? Her other titles are Which Would You Rather? (1931), Where Are the Nine? (1934), Lament for Simon (1935), Son of Simon (1936), Easy to Know (1947), Fun While It Lasts (1948), Agents in Arms (1950), The Unsettled Year (1951), and Akin to Love (1952).

VINTON, ANNE (2 Sept 1913 - 2001)
(née Smith, aka Juliet Shore, aka [?] Jan Haye)
1950s – 1980s
Author of more than 40 romance novels, many set in hospitals. Titles include The Time of Enchantment (1956), Doctor Memsahib (1958), Hospital in the Highlands (1960), Doctor Down Under (1964), Even Doctors Weep (1967), and Tropical Hospital (1978). The association with Jan Haye is often noted, but John Herrington thinks this could be an error.

Vinton, Mark
          see LIVINGSTON, MARJORIE

Vipont, Charles
          see VIPONT, ELFRIDA

VIPONT, ELFRIDA (3 Jul 1902 – 14 Mar 1992)
(married name Foulds, aka Charles Vipont)
1930s – 1970s
Children's author and Quaker historian best known for her series of interrelated novels about various members of the artistic Haverard family—The Lark in the Morn (1948), The Lark on the Wing (1950), The Spring of the Year (1957), Flowering Spring (1960), and The Pavilion (1969). This was followed by the Dowbiggins series, about the Conyers children, comprised of The Family of Dowbiggins (1955), More about Dowbiggins (1958, aka A Win for Henry Conyers), and Changes at Dowbiggins (1960, aka Boggarts and Dreams). She published two children's adventure stories under her pseudonym—Blow the Man Down (1939) and The Heir of Craigs (1955). She also published one adult novel, Bed in Hell (1974), set in the 18th century, as well as biographies of Jane Austen and George Eliot and numerous works about Quakerism.

Vivenot, Baroness
          see HALLAM-HIPWELL, HERMINE

VIVIAN, ALISON [LENNOX] (27 Jan 1888 – Oct 1968)
(née Irwin)
1920s - 1930s

Author of six novels, some possible set in Rhodesia. Titles are Out of Your Tears (1925), Reluctant Shores (1926), Beneath the Moon (1927), Dreams to Sell (1928), The Dark Secret (1930), and High Life (1935). She had herself farmed in Rhodesia before her marriage in 1922. Her sister was poet and gardening writer Muriel Stuart.

VON ARNIM, ELIZABETH (31 Aug 1866 – 9 Feb 1941)
(pseudonym of Mary Annette von Arnim, née Beauchamp, later married name Russell, aka Elizabeth, aka Alice Cholmondeley)
1890s - 1940
A cousin of Katherine Mansfield (also née Beauchamp) and author of 19 novels called by Hugh Walpole "some of the wittiest novels in the English language." After relocating to Germany with her first husband, she published her debut, Elizabeth and Her German Garden (1898), a somewhat autobiographical, humorous story of a woman who cares more for her garden than for society, which became a bestseller. Her most famous novel is The Enchanted April (1922), made into a successful film in 1991, about four variously frustrated or unhappy women who take a villa in Italy for the summer. Her final novel, Mr. Skeffington (1940) was also filmed, in 1944 with Bette Davis. Christine (1917), written under her pseudonym during World War I, and partly a remembrance of her daughter who had died of pneumonia in Berlin at the beginning of the war, had considerably darker tones, and was used as anti-German propaganda. Vera (1921), which Nicola Beauman has called von Arnim's masterpiece, is, in Beauman's words, "a ferocious and at times macabre indictment of" von Arnim's second husband. The British Library Women Writers series has reprinted Introduction to Sally (1926) and Father (1931), and Persephone reprinted Expiation (1929). Her other novels are The Solitary Summer (1899), The Benefactress (1901), The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rugen (1904), Princess Priscilla’s Fortnight (1905), Fraulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther (1907), The Caravaners (1909), The Pastor's Wife (1914), Christopher and Columbus (1919), In the Mountains (1920), Love (1925), and The Jasmine Farm (1934). In 1936, von Arnim published her memoir, All the Dogs of My Life.

Voyle, Mary
          see MANNING, ROSEMARY [JOY]

VOYNICH, ETHEL [LILIAN] (11 May 1864 – 27 Jul 1960)
(née Boole, aka E. L. V. or E. L. Voynich)
1890s – 1910s, 1940s
Translator, musician and author of five novels reflecting her enthusiasm for Russia and its revolutionaries. She was a member of the Society of Friends of Russian Freedom, alongside Sergey Stepnyak-Kravchinsky, who also inspired Olive GARNETT and the sisters Olivia and Helen Rossetti (nieces of Dante Gabriel and Christina Rossetti), who wrote about their youthful activism under the pseudonym Isabel Cameron in A Girl Among the Anarchists (1903). Voynich's work with the Society included translating Russian tales, which led to her non-fiction publications Stories from Garshin (1893) and The Humour of Russia (1895). She is by far best remembered, however, for her first novel The Gadfly (1897), a political melodrama about a socialist revolutionary, which has, according to her ODNB entry, "a delirious, Dostoyevskian intensity," and which had particular success in Russia. There, it was eventually translated into 18 languages, was adapted into an opera, made into an acclaimed film scored by no lesser composer than Shostakovich, and is still considered a classic. Three more novels followed in the subsequent decade—Jack Raymond (1901), Olive Latham (1904), and An Interrupted Friendship (1910)—which were still more melodramatic but less successful. In later years, she devoted herself to writing and teaching music, and it was only after a gap of more than three decades that she published her final novel, Put Off thy Shoes (1945), a sequel to The Gadfly.

VYNNE, NORA (ELEANOR) [SUSANNAH] (31 Oct 1864 – 18 Feb 1914)
1890s – 1910s
Journalist, activist, and novelist. Her story collection The Blind Artist's Pictures (1893) and novel A Man and His Womankind (1895) were praised by the likes of J. M. Barrie and H. G. Wells. Later work includes the novels The Pieces of Silver (1911) and So It Is with the Damsel (1913).

WACE, [ALICE] MURIEL (5 Apr 1881 – 12 Nov 1968)
(aka Golden Gorse)
1920s – 1930s, 1950s
Author of six children's titles, some of them non-fiction for children learning to ride and care for horses. She is best known for her horse stories, particularly Moorland Mousie (1929) and its sequel Older Mousie (1932). Janet and Felicity, the Young Horsebreakers (1937) may also be fiction, as well as the later title Mary in the Country (1955). Wace fiercely guarded her privacy, as a result of which few details about her are known.

WADDELL, HELEN [JANE] (31 May 1889 – 5 Mar 1965)
1930s
Poet, playwright, scholar, translator of medieval poetry, and author of one highly acclaimed, bestselling historical novel, Peter Abelard (1933), which, according to her ODNB entry, is "an authentic evocation of the worlds of twelfth-century Paris and Brittany." According to ODNB, she planned to continue the story in two further novels, but her plans, like those of many other authors, were disrupted by World War II. Among her scholarly work is The Wandering Scholars (1927), about the creators of medieval Latin poetry, and her own translations in Medieval Latin Lyrics (1929).

WADE, ROSALIND [HERSCHEL] (11 Sept 1909 – 25 Jan 1989)
(aka Catharine Carr, married name Seymour)
1930s – 1970s
Author of some 40 novels, including 9 under her pseudonym. Her seventh, Treasure in Heaven (1937), about an unhappily unmarried woman trying and failing to find fulfillment by "do-gooding" among the working classes, was discussed by Nicola Beauman in A Very Great Profession (1983) and critiqued by Virginia Nicholson as "bleak and sadistic". Her debut, Children, Be Happy! (1931), is set in a girls' school and was suppressed due to a libel action. Sims & Clare note that it is "unintentionally hilarious in its attempt to show that girls' schools are a hotbed of unnatural (and admittedly a fair amount of natural) vice." A bookseller description summarizes the later novel Cassandra Calls (1954): "A woman returns to the village to which she was once evacuated to stay with her future mother-in-law, and finds herself caught up in the emotional problems of those she had known, now fully grown." Other titles include Men Ask for Beauty (1936), Bracelet for Julia (1942), The Widows (1948), Come Fill the Cup (1955), The Ramerson Case (1962), The Umbrella (1970), and Red Letter Day: Twelve Stories of Cornwall (1980). She contributed ghost stories to various anthologies, and some of her novels also contain supernatural elements. Muriel SPARK rather cattily notes in her memoirs that Wade's husband once tried to seduce her, and suggests that Wade was offended that she wasn't interested.

WADELTON, MAGGIE-OWEN (24 Jan ?1894 – 4 Feb 1972)
(née Kearns or Coughlin, earlier married names Kenmore and Turner-Holt)
1940s
Memoirist and novelist whose revelations about her own life in Ireland and the U.S. and their conflicts with official records are discussed in fascinating detail here. Her three memoirs are The Book of Maggie Owen (1941), Maggie No Doubt (1943), and Gay, Wild and Free: From Captain's Wife to Colonel's Lady (1949). Her one published novel was Sarah Mandrake (1946), about a British war veteran who inherits a haunted house on the Hudson River. She reportedly also wrote a second novel, Gillian Benedict, about an alcoholic in London, which was rejected by her publisher.

WADSLEY, OLIVE [MARY] (1885 – 4 Mar 1959)
1910s – 1950s
Author of nearly three dozen romantic novels, with additional work serialized in The Star. Titles include The Flame (1913), Sand (1922), Spring Dust (1930), Cabaret (1931), Seventh Wave (1937), And One Was Mine (1951), and So Green the Grass (1952). Kirkus called At Last (1934) "rental library drip."

WADSWORTH, PHYLLIS MARIE (1 Jul 1910 - 2006)
(née Carter, aka P. M. Wadsworth?)
1940s (?) – 1960s
Definitely the author of two novels—Young Miss Isotope (1959), about a young women writing a book on the "chemistry of love," and Overmind (1967), a science-fiction tale of aliens proclaiming a new messiah via telepathy. She may also have written one earlier novel, The Big Fiddle (1946), described as a light-hearted romance, using only her initials.

Wainwright, Lucian
          see ALLATINI, ROSE

Waite, Phyllis
          see WELLER, MARY [ELIZABETH PHYLLIS]

WALES, JOAN (18 May 1905 – 20 Jan 1981)
1920s – 1930s
Author of ten Mills & Boon romances—Never Comes Twilight (1927), Spring Stays Ever (1932), Buses Pass the Door (1933), Fun for Elizabeth (1933), Kind Gentleman (1934), Play for Safety (1934), The Price Varies (1936), There She Walks (1938), Wait-a-Little (1939), and Lindon Manor (1939).

WALFORD, LUCY [BETHIA] (17 Apr 1845 – 11 May 1915)
(née Colquhoun)
1870s – 1910s
Biographer and novelist influenced by Jane Austen and Charlotte Yonge. ODNB describes her debut, Mr. Smith (1874), as a "light-hearted treatment of domestic life," while OCEF notes that Leonore Stubbs (1908) is "a love story featuring a peppery old general and his four daughters." Other titles include Pauline (1877), The Baby's Grandmother (1884), Cousins (1885), Stiff Necked Generation (1889), The Havoc of a Smile (1890), The Matchmaker (1894), The Enlightenment of Olivia (1907), and David and Jonathan on the Riviera (1914). She published two memoirs, Recollections of a Scottish Novelist (1910) and Memories of Victorian London (1912).

WALKER, E. M. (dates unknown)
1920s
Unidentified author of a single novel, God Loves the Franks (1927), set in a French boarding school for soldier’s daughters and focused on three young teachers who have very different destinies ahead. A contemporary review asserts that the author is definitely a woman, but no other details seem to have been publicized at the time. There is an E. M. Walker who translated works from French, and also a composer by the name, but it’s unclear if they’re the same person.

WALKER, [WINIFRED] JOAN (21 Nov 1908 – 27 Jul 1997)
(née Suter, earlier married name Mackenzie-Kerr, aka Joan Suter, aka Leonie Mason)
1950s – 1960s
Journalist, novelist, and memoirist, best known for Pardon My Parka (1954), a humorous memoir of her experiences as a Canadian War Bride in Northern Quebec. She published four novels in all. As Joan Suter (after her first marriage had broken down but before her second), she published East of Temple Bar (1946), set in the world of Fleet Street. Her second novel, a mystery called Murder by Accident (1947), was published as Leonie Mason and is set in an English country house turned boarding house. Following the success of her memoir, she returned to fiction, publishing, as Joan Walker, Repent at Leisure (1957), about a postwar marriage, and Marriage of a Harlequin (1962), about playwright Richard Sheridan.

Wall, Barbara
          see LUCAS, BARBARA

WALL, MARY (dates unknown)
1900s - 1910s
Author of two novels which contemporary reviews suggest were rather sensational, as well as periodical fiction. A Writing-Woman's Romance (1908) deals with the "love-story of the sub-editor of a provincial temperance journal and the manager of a wholesale whisky business," but that's only a fraction of the drama included in her second, Back to the World (1916). The Month notes that the latter "treats with much psychological insight of the sensations of a discharged lunatic, rendered insane in childbirth by the callousness of an unsympathetic husband, and 'put away' for the space of twenty years." She also published one volume of poetry, The Millionaire and Other Poems (1913). One review John Herrington found suggests she may have been Irish.

WALLACE, DOREEN (DORA EILEEN) [AGNEW] (18 Jun 1897 – 22 Oct 1989)
(married name Rash)
1930s – 1970s
Grammar school teacher, activist, and author of more than 40 volumes of fiction. She was a member of the same Somerville group as Dorothy L. SAYERS and Vera BRITTAIN. She was married to a farmer and much of her fiction dealt with rural and agrarian concerns, though one exception is Forty Years On (1958), a post-nuclear war dystopia set on the Isle of Ely. Other titles include A Little Learning (1931), The Gentle Heart (1932), Barnham Rectory (1934), The Time of Wild Roses (1938), The Spring Returns (1940), Green Acres (1941), Willow Farm (1948), Sons of Gentlemen (1953), Richard and Lucy (1959), Woman with a Mirror (1963), An Earthly Paradise (1971), and Landscape with Figures (1976).

WALLACE, HELEN [GRACE] (24 Oct 1852 – 8 Oct 1929)
(aka Gordon Roy)
1880s – 1910s
Daughter of a Scottish clergyman and author of 12 novels which seem to be melodramatic in theme. The first three—For Her Sake: A Tale of Life in Ireland (1888), Her Cousin Adair (1892), and For Better, For Worse (1892)—appeared under her pseudonym. The others are Lotus or Laurel? (1900), The Greatest of These (1901), Hasty Fruit (1906), To Pleasure Madame (1907), The Coming of Isobel (1907), Life's Chequer-Board (1908), Blind Hopes (1909), The Yoke of Circumstance (1910) and Morning Glory (1913).

WALLACE, KATHLEEN [MONTGOMERY] (1890 – 29 Mar 1958)
(née Coates)
1930s – 1950s
Author of more than 30 volumes of fiction for children and adults. She apparently lived in China for some time in the 1920s, which experience informed some of her fiction, including Without a Stair (1933) and Cross the Bridge and See (1949). Immortal Wheat (1951) is her retelling of the story of the Brontës, while The Prize Essay (1953) is a children's title about a girl writing a report on the Brontës who slips back in time and observes them firsthand. Some of her later novels appear to be romances. Other titles include I Walk Alone (1930), The House with a Key (1937), Ancestral Tablet (1938), Without Signposts (1941), Grace on Their Doorposts (1944), Time Changes the Tune (1948), Scroll with Figures (1954), Pathway for Celia (1955), and Faileth the Dream (1959). At Girton, she was friends with mystery writer Margaret COLE and author Monica Mary CURTIS.

WALLACE, PHYLLIS (dates unknown)
1920s
Untraced author of a single girls' school story, Well Played, Midhurst (1926).

Wallis, Irene
          see CORNWALLIS, KAY

WALMSLEY, ELIZABETH (dates unknown)
1920s
Author of five widely-varied girls' school stories—Jonquil (1926), A Misfit at School (1926), Mary Court's Company (1925), The Wishing Chair (1926), and The Princess Imelda (1928)—and two additional children's titles, Pom and Pearly (1926) and The Prodigal Son (1927). She may be the Elizabeth Walmsley, née Young, 1872 – 21 Aug 1958, who co-wrote typing manuals with husband William Walmsley, but there is too little supporting detail to confirm.

WALTER, ELIZABETH [MARGARET] (25 May 1927 – 8 May 2006)
1960s - 1990
Novelist, translator, and editor for many years of the Collins Crime Club. Best known for her short stories of ghosts and the supernatural, compiled into six collections in the 1960s and 1970s, and more recently published in one volume, The Spirit of the Place and Other Strange Tales: The Complete Short Stories of Elizabeth Walter (2017). Her four novels bookend her story collections—the first two, The More Deceived (1960) and The Nearest and Dearest (1963), appearing before her stories, and two final, apparently non-supernatural novels, A Season of Goodwill (1986) and Homeward Bound (1990), appearing after her final collection.

WALTON, AMY CATHERINE (1849 – 5 Jul 1939)
(née Deck, aka Mrs. O. F. Walton)
1870s – 1910s
Author of at least two dozen Christian-themed children's books for the Religious Tract Society, with one final work, Strange Diana, appearing in 1919 to qualify her for this list. Her most famous titles are A Peep Behind The Scenes (1877) and Christie's Old Organ (1874).

WALTON, RUTH (dates unknown)
1920s
Untraced author of two romantic novels—Little Meg, or, Homeless in London (1920) and Nancy Number One (1921).

WARBY, MARJORIE [ALICE] (3 Jul 1897 – 10 May 1997)
(married name Lang)
1920s – 1970s
Author of nearly 50 romantic novels, including Lady Disdain (1929), Too Many Girls (1931), Love in Little Melchester (1931), The Blue Sky Above (1946), The Mad Merediths (1949), When the Chestnuts Bloom (1952), The Laird Across the Loch (1960), Beloved Barbarian (1964), Summer at Hope House (1970), and Desmond's Daughters (1977).

Ward, E.
          see EVERETT-GREEN, EVELYN

WARD, E[DITH]. M[ARJORIE]. (dates unknown)
1920s - 1950
Author of around a dozen novels, many with Lake District settings. Appledore Bay (1941) is about two women fighting for the same man, one of whom nurses her wounds while running a hotel. The Guardian review of it concluded: "What matters more is the delicacy shown in the handling of life's politer derelicts, old ladies driven by the insolubulity of the servant problem and the like. There are pages when Jane Austen might have been prompting Miss Ward as she wrote." Other novels include The Luck of Dolorous Tower (1928), Far Easedale (1931), Deborah in Langdale (1933), Alpine Rose (1934), Mountain Waters (1935), Dancing Ghyll (1937), Sea Wind (1938), Forest Silver (1941), Isle of Saints (1943), Voices in the Wind (1944), Green Hedges (1946), and Kilmeny (1950). She also published a travel book, Days in Lakeland (1929), and a non-fiction work, English Coastal Evolution (1922). It's possible that she's the Edith Marjorie Ward 1898-1968, daughter of John and Beatrix Ward, but so far it hasn't been possible to be sure.

WARD, GERTRUDE (dates unknown)
1920s – 1930s
Untraced author of eight romantic novels—Rose of a Day (1921), Nance of the Footlights (1923), The Penny Plain Girl (1923), The Conquest of Kitty (1924), His Spangle Girl (1924), The Unexpected Girl (1927), Wheels of Chance (1929), and Fetters of War (1933).

WARD, JOSEPHINE MARY (18 May 1864 – 20 Nov 1932)
(née Hope, sometimes Hope-Scott, aka Mrs. Wilfred Ward)
1890s – 1930s
Author of ten novels about which little is known. Titles are One Poor Scruple: A Seven Weeks' Story (1899), The Light Behind (1903), Out of Due Time (1906), Great Possessions (1909), The Job Secretary (1911), Horace Blake (1913), Not Known Here (1921), The Plague of His Own Heart (1925), The Shadow of Mussolini (1927), and Tudor Sunset (1932).

WARD, MARY AUGUSTA (11 Jun 1851 – 24 Mar 1920)
(née Arnold, aka Mrs. Humphry Ward)
1880s – 1910s
A niece of poet Matthew Arnold, and author of 15 novels. Her most successful works, including Robert Elsmere (1888), a bestseller focused on religious doubt and faith, David Grieve (1892), for which she was paid an unheard-of £7000 for the American rights, and Marcella (1894), were published in the late Victorian years. However, she later produced two particularly well-received novels during World War I—Lady Connie (1916), about 19th century Oxford, and the war novel Missing (1917). She was distinctly not a feminist, and two novels in particular, Daphne (1909) and Delia Blanchflower (1915), reflect her aversion to the suffrage movement. Her other novels are Miss Bretherton (1884), Helbeck of Bannisdale (1898), Eleanor (1900), set in Italy where Ward frequently visited, Lady Rose's Daughter (1903), Fenwick's Career (1905), The Marriage of William Ashe (1905), The Testing of Diana Mallory (1908), and The Case of Richard Meynell (1911),

WARD, RUTH CAMERON (19 Apr 1903 - 1996)
1930s – 1970s
Author of at least a dozen volumes of romantic fiction, including Swallows Eaves (1939), Snow on the High Ground (1942), Green Fields Beyond (1945), Filly Cliff (1949), The Bystander (1959), The Sweetest Thing (1961), and The Second Time Around (1973). Her sparse output over such a long period makes one wonder if she also wrote under as-yet-unidentified pseudonyms.

Ward, Mrs. Wilfred
          see WARD, JOSEPHINE MARY

WARDE, E[LAINE]. J[OAN MURRAY]. (21 Feb 1909 – 10 Dec 1980)
1960 – 1970s
Author of nearly a dozen volumes of adventure and mystery fiction for children. Titles are Dangerous Diamonds (1960), The Delmore Feud (1961), Stoneacres (1962), Crisis in Cedar Close (1963), The Riddle of Anchor Farm (1965), Clues for Sixpence (1966), Follow My Leader (1967), Adventures in Anderton (1968), Power Point (1969), Stowaway Farmer (1973), and The Jigsaw Puzzle (1978).

WARDEN, FLORENCE [ALICE] (16 May 1857 – 11 Mar 1929)
(pseudonym of Florence Alice James, née Price)
1880s – 1920s
Sister of Gertrude WARDEN. Playwright, actress, and author of more 150 novels which, according to OCEF, "specialized in courtship and marital dilemmas." She once bragged that she wrote more than a million words a year, and she routinely published 2-4 books per year throughout her career. Judging by titles, some of her books could be mysteries. Among her many titles are The White Witch (1884), A Vagrant Wife (1885), St Cuthbert's Tower (1889), A Wild Wooing (1893), Our Widow (1896), A Sensational Case (1898), The Bohemian Girls (1899), Beatrice Froyle's Crime (1903), Blindman's Marriage (1907), Miss Ferriby's Clients (1910), The Beauty Doctor (1911), A Mystery of the Thames (1913), Lord Quare's Visitor (1915), The Girl with the Haunting Eyes (1920), and The Girls at the Cottage (1924). From Stage to Peerage (1911) appears to be a memoir.

WARDEN, GERTRUDE (1859 – 3 May 1925)
(pseudonym of Gertrude Isabel Price, married names Jones and Devot, aka G. De Vauriard)
1890s – 1910s
Sister of Florence WARDEN. Author of more than 30 works of fiction, including As a Bird to the Snare (1888), The Wooing of a Fairy (1897), Merely Man (1909), The World, the Flesh and the Casino (1909), and Two Girls and a Saint (1915). She published four novels as G. De Vauriard—The Sibyl of Bond Street (1909), The House of the Majority (1909), Mated in Soul (1912), and The Lily and the Rose (1914).

WARING, D. GAINSBOROUGH (8 Jun 1891 – 25 Apr 1977)
(pseudonym of Dorothy Grace Waring, married name Hartnett)
1930s – 1940s
Author of ten novels, at least some of which are spy thrillers and which often feature Irish characters or themes. Titles are Nothing Irredeemable (1936), Wilful-Missing (1936), Fortune Must Follow (1937), The Oldest Road (1938), This Day's Madness (1939), This New Corn (1940), And If I Laugh (1940), Against My Fire (1941), Hatred Therewith (1942), and Not Quite So Black (1948). According to ODNB, she was a member of the British Fascists for several years, and her early novels "made clear her continued admiration for Hitler." She had earlier been a controversial figure in Northern Ireland, where she and her father were strong Unionists. In later years, she became a regular on the Northern Ireland Home Service's radio quiz Up Against It.

Waring, Molly
          see LINDSAY, KATHLEEN

WARNER, PRISCILLA MARY (2 Mar 1905 – 27 Jan 1994)
(née Ellingford)
1940s – 1960s
Author of eight children's titles, including Embroidery Mary (1948), Biddy Christmas (1948), Picture Come True (1951), Tessie Growing Up (1952), Mr. and Mrs. Cherry (1953), A Friend for Frances (1956), If It Hadn't Been for Frances (1957), and The Paradise Summer (1963).

WARNER, SYLVIA TOWNSEND (6 Dec 1893 – 1 May 1978)
1920s – 1970s
Poet, expert on English church music, and author of seven novels and numerous story collections. Lolly Willowes (1926), the quirky tale of a "superfluous woman" who moves to a small village and becomes a witch, was the first selection of the American Book-of-the-Month Club, as well as an international bestseller. Mr Fortune's Maggot (1927) is about a missionary having a crisis of faith on a South Seas island, while The True Heart (1929) is a romantic novel inspired by the myth of Cupid and Psyche. Summer Will Show (1936) is the tale of an abandoned high-society wife finding liberation with her husband's French mistress in the middle of the 1848 revolution in Paris. After the Death of Don Juan (1938) is set in the 18th century but forms an odd allegory of the rise of fascism in Spain. The Corner that Held Them (1948) is a strange, plotless, but completely compelling saga of life in a medieval convent, and The Flint Anchor (1954) is another experimental historical saga set in a Norfolk fishing town in the 1840s. Warner was a prolific contributor of short stories to The New Yorker for 40 years, and her stories, collected in ten volumes in her lifetime and several more following her death, are among her most acclaimed works. Her Selected Stories appeared in 1988. She was effectively married to poet Valentine Ackland for 40 years, and the couple's letters appeared as I'll Stand by You (1999). A selection of her diaries were published by Virago in 1994. She was also an acclaimed poet, and her Collected Poems appeared in 1983. I've written about Warner several times, including my very first review on this blog—see here.

WARREN, KATHLEEN [JANE] (22 Jul 1916 - 1996)
(married names Glauser and Donald)
1950s
Journalist and author of three novels. The Locked Gates (1950) is a mystery with a touch of gothic, about a young woman “determined to unravel the mystery underlying the alleged madness of her old friend.” Intruder in the House (1951) and The Long Fidelity (1952) are more serious, semi-autobiographical novels. She married in 1954 and lived in Wimbledon next to the tennis club for many years. My thanks to Annabel Glauser, the author's step-granddaughter, for generously sharing details about Warren and her books.

WARREN, LILLIAN [DAISY] (17 Oct 1909 – 24 Nov 1961)
(née Potter, aka Rosalind Brett, aka Celine Conway, aka Kathryn Blair)
1940s – 1960s
Author of more than 60 romance novels, including several appearing posthumously, mostly for Mills & Boon. Titles include Secret Marriage (1947), Pagan Interlude (1947), Brittle Bondage (1951), Whispering Palms (1954), Tangle in Sunshine (1957), Love This Enemy (1958), Ship's Surgeon (1962), and For My Sins (1966). She lived in South Africa following her 1933 marriage.

WARREN, REBECCA (15 Jun 1894 – 12 Feb 1984)
(pseudonym of Bertha [Bee] Dulcie Baker, née Callander, possible earlier married name Hayman)
1950s – 1960s

Author of three humorous memoirs/novels about life in a country cottage—Where No Mains Flow (1959), A Lamb in the Lounge (1959), and Vino Tinto (1961). Both Callander and Hayman are linked to her as possible earlier names, but it seems her father's name was the former.

Warrener
          see PEARCE, [ANN] PHILIPPA

WARWICK, PAULINE (12 Feb 1883 - 1960)
(pseudonym of Betty [or Bessie?] Eveline/Evelyn Davies)
1930s – 1950s
Author of more than a dozen volumes of fiction, including 10 romantic novels for Mills & Boon. A later title, Death of a Sinner (1944), was published in a collection of detective fiction, but it's unclear if any others fit that genre. Other titles include The Secret Year (1930), The Girdle of Venus (1931), Fairweather Ladies (1936), The Princess of Marmalade (1937), Madonna of the Thimble (1940), and The Preacher's Daughter (1953).

WASSERMANN, LILLIAS (1846 – 10 Nov 1932)
(née Robson, aka Adam Lilburn)
1880s – 1920s
Journalist and author of nearly a dozen works of fiction. Her earliest novels—David Armstrong, or, Before the Dawn (1880), A Man of the Day (1881), and The Counter of This World (1884)—were co-written with Isabella Weddle. Others include The Daffodils (1891), The Goddess of the Dandelions (1895), A Tragedy in Marble (1898), Rose Campion's Platonic (1908), and The Rest Cottage (1923). Fiddler Matt (1908) appears to be a children's title.

WATKINS, OLGA [FLORENCE] (1889 – 6 Dec 1947)
(née Baillie-Grohman, earlier married name Thompson)
1930s
Author of a single volume of stories, Tales from Tyrol (1935). She was the daughter of one William Baillie-Grohman, known as a big game hunter, Canadian pioneer, and author of numerous books about the Tyrol and hunting.

WATNEY, MARIGOLD (14 Mar 1886 – 8 Jul 1965)
1930s - 1960
Author of more than a dozen novels, often praised for quiet humor and effective descriptions of nature. Ducks on a Pond (1932) is about the aftereffects of an elopement in a quiet English village, and Mulberry Green (1934) is likewise focused on village life. Uncertain Glory (1932) tells the story of one man’s life by focusing in turn on six fellow members of his London church congregation, while Unexpected Interlude (1937), set among holidaymakers in the Austrian Tyrol, "brings the people of to-day face to face with the question of what they would do should Christ appear on earth in their midst." What Shall We Do with Anne? (1937) is about an “ugly duckling” who publishes a novel and finds love. Dangerous Secret (1939) and Laugh When You Can (1945) seem to be Watney’s only ventures into crime themes; the first deals with a penniless young woman’s unfortunate marriage, and the suspicions aroused by her husband’s convenient murder, while the latter is a mystery set in a village. At a House Called Hassocks (1940) is about the impoverished heirs of an artist, who open a boarding-house in a tumble-down house, and Do You Remember? (1944) is an elderly woman’s look back, “recalling memories of a romantic youth in the England and Russia of yesterday and the day before." Her Name Was Cornelia (1947), set at the end of the 19th century and up to WWI, is about a village girl who becomes a successful dancer, then returns to the village when theatres close due to the war. The Other Side of the Wall (1949) is about aristocrats letting part of their estate to a nouveau-riche family, and includes a character recovering from being a POW in the war. Amberley Close (1950) deals with the residents of a London close that forms the remains of a much larger estate; I reviewed it here. And James's Room (1960) seems a bit of a departure, seen through the eyes of a child, Victoria, and charting her life with her parents and the times she is allowed to visit her grandfather in a castle. Of all her books, "All I Ask" (1933) is the only one I could find no details at all about.

Watson, Florence Jacoba
          see FORREST, NOEL

WATSON, HELEN H[ARRIET]. (1856 – 9 Apr 1934)
(née Rogers)
1890s – 1920s
Author of a dozen works of fiction, some of them historical. Sims & Clare single out three of her children’s titles, two—Peggy, D.O. (1910) and Peggy, S.G. (1911)—featuring the same protagonist, while the third, The Making of a Heroine (1926), is something of a satire of traditional school stories. A few of her other titles seem to be for adults, such as Andrew Goodfellow: A Tale of 1805 (1906) and When the King Came South: A Romance of Borwick Hall (1912).

Watson, Lizzie
          see HARKER, L. ALLEN

WATSON, WINIFRED [EILEEN] (20 Oct 1906 – 5 Aug 2002)
(married name Pickering)
1930s – 1940s
Author of six novels, most famously Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (1938), a romantic comedy about a frumpy governess sent by mistake to be personal assistant to a glamorous nightclub singer. It was reprinted by Persephone in 2001, bringing her renewed fame in her 90s, and it was made into a film starring Frances McDormand in 2008. An earlier planned film to have starred Billie Burke was scrapped because of World War II. Watson's earlier novels—Fell Top (1935), Odd Shoes (1936), and Upyonder (1938), were quite different in tone, serious country dramas along the lines of Mary WEBB. I wrote about Odd Shoes here. She published two more novels after Miss PettigrewHop Step and Jump (1939), about a working class woman who leaves her husband to become a kept woman, and Leave and Bequeath (1943), described as part murder mystery and part psychological study. Anne Sebba wrote an informative article about Watson here.

WATT, ELIZABETH ORD (dates unknown)
(aka Elizabeth Watt)
1930s
Author of six novels, most of them apparently cheerful romances. The first four seem to have appeared under the name Elizabeth Watt. Blue Salon (1931) is the tale of a young woman from a Scottish manse who heads to London to sell dogs in the titular shop. In Beyond Idolatry (1931), two bright young things set out for the glamourous Italian Riviera to be artists, falling in love, facing tragedy, and sometimes shocking the locals. Pyjamas for Drusilla (1932) features a young woman raised by aunts in Somerset, who starts a shop in Mayfair, enjoys the London nightlife too much, neglects her business, and then must outwit a crooked investor with designs on her honor. Doubting Moon (1933) is narrated by a mother who has done her best to prevent her son's happy marriage, and telling how and why she was such a "damned fool." Watt’s final two works appeared as by Elizabeth Ord Watt, though it’s unclear where the Ord comes from. This Is the Way We Go to School (1935) is about a woman who raises a Canadian niece—"how the upbringing of the disturbing, if charming, Marily is achieved by her aunt, and how these two react upon families of neighbouring children and grown-ups, provides refreshment not easily forgotten." And in Leave Us the Years (1939), a newspaper advice columnist, who has long advised her readers against going on cruises, tries one herself, with perhaps predictable results. One wonders if it might have been based on reality, since a review of it mentions that she “has recently left England to marry a naval chaplain stationed in Hong Kong.” Alas, I can’t locate any records for an Ord Watt at the time and there are far too many Elizabeth Watts to narrow down.

WATT, MARGARET [HEWEIT] (11 May 1877 – 4 Apr 1947)
1930s – 1940s
Literary historian, playwright, and author of three novels. The House in the Square (1931) is the story of a charming Edinburgh family in the mid 19th century. Although a contemporary review calls Early Portrait (1935) “'eminently,' softly Victorian,” it’s unclear if it’s actually set during that time or if the family of ten children on which it focuses simply harks back to earlier times. It focuses on one daughter, Kate, who becomes the headmistress of a large girls’ school and is inspired by a miniature portrait of her grandmother. Family Matters (1938) seems to have a modern setting, and traces a mother’s care for her children, even after they’re busy with their own lives. Watt turned to non-fiction with The History of the Parson's Wife (1943), which "takes us down the centuries and delightfully reviews the wives and daughters of the parson as fact and fiction have presented them to us." She also wrote a one act play, Visitors at Birkenbrae (1934). Watt grew up in Liverpool, attended Somerville College, and later lived in Edinburgh. She appears on one census as an assistant to a school headmistress.

WATTS, WYN (WINIFRED) M[ORGAN]. (10 Apr 1890 – 4 Dec 1965)
(née Phillips)
1920s
Author of two novels—Cul-de-sac (1928) and Miasma (1928)—about which details are lacking.

Wayne, Heather
          see BRADLEY,
NORAH MARY

Wayne, Hilary
          see BROWN, JOAN MARY WAYNE

WAYNE, [ANNE] JENIFER (1 Aug 1917 – 10 Dec 1982)
(married name Hewitt)
1960s – 1970s
Children’s author and producer of the BBC series “This Is the Law”, for which she also published a companion volume, This Is the Law: Stories of Wrongdoers by Fault or Folly (1948). She published more than a dozen children's titles, most successfully humorous family tales such as Clemence and Ginger (1960), The Day the Ceiling Fell Down (1961), and The Ghost Next Door (1965), as well as a series for younger children about a character named Sprout. She also published two memoirs, Brown Bread and Butter in the Basement: A Twenties Childhood (1973) and The Purple Dress: Growing Up in the Thirties (1979).

WEALE, ANNE (c1929 - 2007)
(pseudonym of Jay Blakeney, aka Andrea Blake)
1950s – 2000s
Journalist and author of more than 80 romance novels spanning nearly five decades. Titles include Winter is Past (1955), Castle in Corsica (1959), The House on Flamingo Cay (1962), The Sea Waif (1967), Stowaway (1978), A Touch of the Devil (1980), Yesterday's Island (1983), Sea Fever (1990), The Fabergé Cat (1993), and Sea Change (2002).

WEAVER, MARJORIE [LAURA] (1899 – 4 Sept 1964)
(née Pryor)
1940s – 1960s
Editor for Women's Pictorial and author of 10 romantic novels, including Trusting Journey (1949), Time to Forget (1950), Nevermore Alone (1952), Romantic Journey (1954), Time Off for Love (1956), Wanted on the Voyage (1957), Hope Against Hope (1957), No Blameless Life (1958), The Recovered Past (1959), and Mixed Motive (1961).

WEBB, DOROTHY ANNA MARIA (1875 – 22 Apr 1957)
(née Stephens, aka Jermyn March, aka Christopher Reeve)
1920s – 1940s
Author of mysteries and thrillers under two pseudonyms. She was also on the staff of Cassells during the 1920s, and worked as a reader for other publishers after that. She published four novels as Jermyn March, including Rust of Murder (1924), Dear Traitor (1925), The Man Behind the Face (1927), and a fourth which contains an offensive racial term. As Christopher Reeve (not to be confused with Superman), she published The Ginger Cat (1929), The Toasted Blonde (1930), The Emerald Kiss (1932), Hunter's Way (1934), Murder Steps Out (1942), The House that Waited (1944), and Lady, Be Careful (1948).

WEBB, E. KANE (2 May 1891 – 15 Jun 1948)
(pseudonym of Eileen Mary Webb, née Kane)
1920s – 1930s
Author of four novels about which little information is available. Quinton's Rock (1927) and The Golden Chance (1931) are listed in Hubin as having a crime element, but the former's dustjacket would lead one to suspect romantic melodrama. The others are The Shining Path (1924) and Temple, K.C. (1928).

WEBB, JOYCE BEVINS (dates unknown)
19??s
Untraced author of apparently only one school-themed story, The Clue in the Castle. The book has become so obscure that I couldn't find it or the author in either the British Library catalogue or Worldcat, but Call Me Madam tracked down a copy and discussed it here. She described it as "a mad web of intrigue and coincidences," which apparently include a 29-year-old woman masquerading as a schoolgirl. She could be the Joyce Bevins Webb who in 1938 was working as a clerk typist for the courts in London and who was likely born 1920, but this remains unconfirmed.

WEBB, MARION ST. JOHN (1888 – 2 May 1930)
(née Adcock)
1910s – 1930s
Sister of Almey St. John ADCOCK. Author of fiction and poetry for children, including Knock Three Times! (1917), The Girls of Chequertrees (1918), and a series featuring Mr Papingay, including Mr Papingay and the Little Round House (1924), Mr Papingay's Ship (1925), Mr Papingay's Caravan (1929), and Mr Papingay's Flying Shop (1931).

WEBB, MARY [GLADYS] (25 Mar 1881 – 8 Oct 1927)
(née Meredith)
1910s – 1920s
Poet and author of six novels with a dark, symbolic, mystical vision of rural life. Webb was probably one of the authors Stella GIBBONS was satirizing in Cold Comfort Farm. She was something of a tragic figure herself, suffering disfigurement early in life due to Graves' disease, which eventually, along with anemia, took her life at age 46. Her most famous and most personal novel was Precious Bane (1924), in which the main character's personal deformity forces her into more independent roles than were typical for women at the time. The others are The Golden Arrow (1916), Gone to Earth (1917), The House in Dormer Forest (1920), Seven for a Secret (1922), and Armour Wherein He Trusted (1927), the last of which was incomplete at her death but was published posthumously. Her works were bestsellers in the 1930s and 1940s, but later fell out of fashion until Virago retrieved them in the 1980s.

WEBBE, [ANNE] PENELOPE (16 Nov 1908 – 10 Jun 2004)
(married name Massingham)
1950s
Wife of author H. J. Massingham, who wrote about the countryside. Author of a single girls' school story, The Autumn Term at St Gabriel's (1950).

WEBLING, PEGGY (MARGARET) (1 Jan 1871 – 27 Jun 1949)
(aka Arthur Weston)
1900s – 1930s
Sister of Lucy Betty MACRAYE. Actress, biographer, playwright, and author of nearly 20 novels, including Blue Jay (1906), A Spirit of Mirth (1910), The Pearl Stringer (1913), Boundary House (1916), Comedy Corner (1920), The Amber Merchant (1925), Strange Enchantment (1929), and Opal Screens (1937). She also wrote the 1927 play adaptation of Frankenstein, which was used for the famous film from Universal Studios. Her great-grandniece noted in a comment on this blog that there is extensive surviving correspondence between the sisters, which gives fascinating glimpses of their involvement with suffrage and women's rights, as well as day-to-day life in London between the wars.

WEBSTER, ELIZABETH CHARLOTTE (c1900 – ????)
1920s – 1940s
Scottish author whose work included one novel, High Altitude: A Frolic (1949), written with her sister Mary Morison WEBSTER. Expiring Frog (1946) appears to be set in South Africa. Her other fiction is Pot Holes: A Adventure in the Diamond Fields (1928), Bullion: A Tale of Buried Treasure and the Bush (1933), and Ceremony of Innocence (1949). She relocated to South Africa with her family in the 1920s. There is some considerable uncertainty about her life dates. Her birth has previously been given as 1905, but she clearly appears, age 1, with family including her sister, on the 1901 census. In addition, one online family tree has her supposedly dying of pneumonia on 12 Aug 1934, but this would leave an open question as to how she wrote three more novels in the 1940s.

WEBSTER, EVELYN (1904 - 1988)
(married name Harbord)
1940s
Author of a single novel, Mountain of the Star (1947), apparently a love story set in Portugal, where she had lived for a time.

WEBSTER, MARY MORISON (26 Jan 1894 – 6 Jan 1980)
1920s – 1960s
Sister of Elizabeth Charlotte WEBSTER. Scottish poet and novelist who relocated to South Africa with her family in the 1920s. Her novels were Evergreen (1929), The Schoolhouse (1933), High Altitude (1949), written with her sister, The Slave of the Lamp (1950), and A Village Scandal (1965).

WEBSTER, NESTA HELEN (24 Aug 1876 – 16 May 1960)
(née Bevan, aka Julian Sterne)
1910s, 1930s
Novelist and author obsesssed with conspiracies, including the anti-Semitic Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the Illuminati, and the Masons. She published three novels—The Sheep Track (1914), about high society, The Chevalier de Bouffleurs (1916), set during the French Revolution, and, pseudonymously, The Secret of the Zodiac (1933), about (of course) a global conspiracy to bring down civilization.

WEDGWOOD, IRIS [VERONICA] (8 Dec 1887 – 17 Feb 1982)
(née Pawson)
1920s
Mother of historian C. V. (Cicely Veronica) Wedgwood, and author of four novels. The Livelong Day (1925) is a tale of the murder of a drunken Earl and the difficulties his widow has until her new romantic interest can be cleared of the crime; not a mystery per se, as the identity of the murderer seems to be widely known, but a look at the trouble caused by suspicion. The Iron Age (1927) seems to have to do with a woman trying to save her son from a career as an ironmonger. Perilous Seas (1928) has Ruritanian elements, stemming from a young wife's adventures making nice with the king of a Balkan State in order to further her husband's career, only to have said king fall in love with her—just on the eve of a revolution. And The Fairway (1929) deals with the fortunes of several men and woman in the industrial North of England. Later, Wedgwood published two non-fiction works, Northumberland & Durham (1932) and Fenland Rivers (1936). Joseph Conrad’s story collection Within the Tides (1915) was dedicated to Wedgwood and her husband Ralph, who was knighted for his work as a railway administrator.

WEEDON, ELIZABETH (dates unknown)
1920s
Author of a single girls' school story, Geraldine's Rival (1927).

Weekes, A. Boyson
          see WEEKES, A[GNES]. R[USSELL].

WEEKES, A[GNES]. R[USSELL]. (1880 – 26 Sept 1940)
(aka Anthony Pryde [with Rose Kirkpatrick Weekes], aka A. Boyson Weekes)
1900s – 1940s
Sister of Rose WEEKES. The sisters wrote 19 novels together, and Agnes wrote 14 novels on her own. Titles include Yarborough the Premier (1904), Faith Unfaithful (1910), The Tragic Prince (1912), Spanish Sunlight (1925), The Rowforest Plot (1927), The Secret Room (1929), Esmé's Sons (1930), The Story of Leland Gay (1932), and Revel's Wife (1940). One early novel, Prisoners of War (1899), was published under her A. Boyson Weekes pseudonym, perhaps with an unknown collaborator. I wrote a bit about Clairefontaine (1941) here.

WEEKES, R[OSE]. K[IRKPATRICK]. (4 Jul 1874 – 10 Feb 1956)
(aka Anthony Pryde [with Agnes Russell Weekes)
1900s – 1940s
Sister of Agnes WEEKES. The sisters wrote 19 novels together, and Rose wrote 10 novels on her own. Rose's novels include Love in Chief (1904), The Fall of the Cards (1905), The Laurensons (1913), Fellow Prisoners (1911), Seaborne of the Bonnet Shop (1914), B 14 (1920), Sea Nymph (1927), and Mignonette (1930). I wrote a bit about Clairefontaine (1941) here.

Weigall, C.E.C.
          see HORN, KATE

WELLER, MARY [ELIZABETH PHYLLIS] (8 Oct 1912 – 23 Apr 2000)
(aka Ramsay Bell [with Agnes Rosemary COOPER], aka Phyllis Waite)
1930s – 1940s
Author or co-author of nine novels under her two pseudonyms. As Phyllis Waite, she published Challenge to Candia (1937), Dear Lady Disdain (1938), Interlude for Rapture (1939), Journey Into Love (1940), and My Heart in Him (1942). As Ramsay Bell, she co-wrote, with Agnes Rosemary COOPER, Dragon Under Ground (1937), described as "a pleasantly told yet thrilling tale of Christmas adventure," To Joanna (1938), Dangerous Promise (1939), and The Lake of Ghosts (1940), set in the Apennines with an archaeologist heroine.

WELLESLEY-SMITH, FRANCES [AMY] (6 Oct 1874 – 2 Jan 1962)
(née Granger, aka Frances Braybrooke, aka Cicely Colpitts)
1930s – 1950s
Author of nearly 100 novels for Mills & Boon under her two pseudonyms in less than 20 years, including No Path of Flowers (1938), Glamorous Folly (1939), Anne Finds Reality (1940), Any Girl's Man (1942), You're So Entrancing (1943), Barter Her Heart (1944), Riding a Bubble (1947), The Price of Make-Believe (1952), and Shackled with Cobwebs (1955).

WELLS, AMY CATHERINE (8 Jul 1872 – 6 Oct 1927)
(née Robbins)
1920s
Artist and short story author, wife of H. G. Wells, who, following her death, collected her stories and poetry into the volume The Book of Catherine Wells (1928), which included some tales of the supernatural.

WELLS, NANNIE (ANNIE) KATHARIN (KATHARINE) (29 Oct 1875 – 18 Mar 1963)
(née Smith)
Scottish author known mainly for her poetry and for her biography George Gordon, Lord Byron: A Scottish Genius (1962). She also published a single novel, Diverse Roads (1932).

WEMYSS, MRS. GEORGE (14 Jan 1868 – 15 Mar 1954)
(pseudonym of Mary Constance Elphinstone Wemyss, née Lutyens)
1900s – 1920s
Sister of architect Edwin Lutyens and aunt of Mary LUTYENS. Author of a dozen works of fiction, mostly for adults though often focused on children and childhood. Things We Thought Of (1902) and All About All of Us (1911) are, according to OCEF, memoirs of her own childhood written, as the books' subtitles say, "from a child's point of view." Her novels include The Professional Aunt (1910), People of Popham (1911), A Lost Interest (1912), Priscilla (1912), Grannie for Granted (1914), Jaunty in Charge (1915), Impossible People (1918), and Oranges and Lemons (1919). Her last two publications—How We Stole an Uncle and How We Kept Shop (1926) and Tubby and the Others (1926)—were children's fiction, each volume containing two stories.

WENDON, EDITH A. (dates unknown)
1930s
Untraced author of three girls' school stories, including The Girl from the Backwoods (1932), The Golden Girl (1935), and The Schoolgirl Pilot (1936). Sims & Clare report that her work shows the influence of Angela Brazil. John Herrrington found two possibilities for her in legal records—an Edith Anna Wendon (née Siefried), 5 Dec 1901 – 1980, and an Edith Alice Wendon (married name Blay), 14 May 1912 – 2004—but we've been unable to confirm which is the author.

WENTWORTH, PATRICIA (10 Nov 1878 – 28 Jan 1961)
(pseudonym of Dora Amy Elles, married names Dillon and Turnbull)
1910s – 1960s
Author of nearly 70 novels, most of them mysteries. She began by publishing several historical romances, including A Marriage Under the Terror (1910) and The Devil's Wind (1912), before becoming a prolific and popular mystery writer. Her most successful works were the 32 mysteries featuring her spinster detective Miss Maud Silver, a dowdy, middle-aged, perenially-knitting, former governess with a mind like a steel trap. The character would seem to owe much to Agatha Christie's Miss Marple except for the fact that the first Miss Silver novel, The Red Lacquer Case (1924), predated the first appearance of Miss Marple by more than three years. Several of the mysteries, including The Chinese Shawl (1943), The Clock Strikes Twelve (1944), Miss Silver Deals With Death (1944, aka Miss Silver Intervenes), The Key (1944), and The Traveller Returns (1945, aka She Came Back), feature World War II in the background, and The Case of William Smith (1948) includes a returning soldier with amnesia. Early in her career and for some time after beginning the Miss Silver series, Wentworth also wrote numerous stand-alone mysteries, such as The Annam Jewel (1923), The Dower House Mystery (1925), Will-o'-the-Wisp (1928), Nothing Venture (1932), Hole and Corner (1936), and Mr. Zero (1938). Unlike many Golden Age mystery writers, Wentworth's often feature prominent romantic subplots—young girls in peril who fall in love with their rescuers. Many of her lesser-known mysteries have been reprinted by Dean Street Press.

WENTWORTH-JAMES, GERTIE (GERTRUDE) DE S[OILLEUX]. (1874 – 22 Apr 1933)
(née Webster)
1900s – 1920s
Author of more than 50 "smartly witty novels, self-consciously progressive especially about sex" (OCEF). Titles include Red Love (1908), Pink Purity (1909), Scarlet Kiss: The Story of a Degenerate Woman Who Drifted (1910), Green Grapes (1918), and A Bargain Bride (1929). Her late novel The Television Girl (1928) (published some 20 years before television as we know it became widely-known) may be of interest as an early futuristic novel. Sadly, the year following her death her husband of nearly 30 years committed suicide.

WEST, REBECCA (21 Dec 1892 – 15 Mar 1983)
(pseudonym of Cicily Isabel Andrews, née Fairfield)
1910s – 1980s
Journalist, travel writer, critic, and author of nine novels (plus three more left incomplete at her death and published posthumously). Nearly as famous in her lifetime for her journalism (Harry Truman reportedly called her “the world’s best reporter”) and her affairs with prominent men (H. G. Wells, Lord Beaverbrook, Charlie Chaplin) as for her literary pursuits, West’s work has achieved greater prominence in recent years. Her first novel, The Return of the Soldier (1918), about a man with shellshock struggling to remember both his wife and his former lover, is an important novel of World War I. Her later autobiographical bestseller, The Fountain Overflows (1957), about her early family life, has also received attention after being reprinted by New York Review Books Classics. Two sequels to Fountain, intended to form a trilogy, appeared posthumously—This Real Night (1984) and the incomplete Cousin Rosamund (1985). Her other novels are The Judge (1922), Harriet Hume (1929), The Thinking Reed (1936), The Vassall Affair (1963), and The Birds Fall Down (1966), as well as Sunflower (1986), another unfinished novel written in the 1920s and dealing autobiographically with her affairs with Wells and Beaverbrook. West's classic nonfiction work, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941), is a massive exploration of the history and culture of the Balkans. Her other non-fiction includes The Meaning of Treason (1949), focused on Brits who worked for Germany during World War II, including William Joyce (aka Lord Haw-Haw), and A Train of Powder (1955), which features her accounts of the Nuremberg trials.

WESTLAKE, VERONICA (dates unknown)
1950s
Unidentified author (possibly a pseudonym) of four children's titles, all with some pony content, including The Ten-Pound Pony (1953), The Intruders (1954), The Unwilling Adventurers (1955), and The Mug's Game (1956). Jane Badger Books wrote about them here, and Pony Mad Book Lovers discussed them here.

Westmacott, Mary
          see CHRISTIE, AGATHA

WESTMARLAND, ETHEL LOUISA (20 Nov 1903 – 12 Mar 1995)
(aka Christine Courtney, aka Ellen Elliott)
1950s – 1970s
Author of about 20 volumes of children's fiction under her two pseudonyms. Titles include Quartette at Barnham Corners (1951), Gordons at Gullcliff (1953), Judy Began It (1954), Miracle for Marigold (1957), The Dresden Shepherdess (1960), The Seventh Thistle (1963), Jane and the Pink Flamingo (1963), The Riddle of the Crooked Sailor (1964), The Secret Tenant (1968), and three books about a heroine named Susan. She was not, however, the Ellen Elliott who published several romance novels in the late 1960s and early 1970s; that author was actually an American, Neil Elliott, whose brilliant obituary can be read here. [Thank you to his daughter, Victoria Stagg Elliott, for sharing this information.]

WESTRUP, MARGARET (1 Aug 1875 – 27 Apr 1922)
(married name Stacey)
1900s – 1920s
Author of more than a dozen works of fiction for adults and children, including The Greater Mischief (1907), Phyllis in Middlewych (1911), Tide Marks (1913), The Moulding Loft (1917), The Fog and the Fan (1920), and The Blue Hat (1921).

WESTWOOD, A[NNIE]. M[CDOUGALL]. (1887 – 9 Mar 1972)
(née Paulin)
1930s, 1950s
Author four novels in the 1930s—The Flying Firs (1930), Elfinstorm (1931), Quinlan (1933), and To What Purpose? (1936)—at least some of which appear to be adventure stories with Indian settings. In the 1950s she returned with five children's titles: Ali Baba and the Lonely Leopard (1951, with Jack Westwood), The Riddle of Kittiwake Rock (1956), Dundi Shah, Beloved Prince (1959), Trouble at Kittiwake Rock (1960), and Jungle Picnic (1960).

WESTWOOD, DORIS [GERTRUDE] (16 Oct 1893 – 6 Feb 1987)
1930s
Author of four novels—Starr Bladon (1930), The Hair Shirt (1932), An April Day (1934), and Humble Servant (1936)—the latter two, at least, making use of a Siegfried Sassoon-like character. Oddly, one Sassoon biographer says she had an affair with Sassoon, another that they never met, but Humble Servant features its Sassoon character falling in love with the heroine and then being assassinated…

WEVILL, LILIAN FRANCEYS (28 Apr 1870 – 7 Jul 1959)
1900s – 1910s
Author of two early school stories—Betty's First Term (1908) and Betty's Next Term (1912)—praised by Sims & Clare for their low-key realism and convincing characters.


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