Tuesday, January 1, 2013

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

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

 

DALE, CELIA [MARJORIE] (15 Jan 1912 – 31 Dec 2011)
(married name Ramsey)
1940s – 1980s
Daughter of stage actor James Dale, and a secretary to Rumer GODDEN early in her career. Author of 13 highly-praised crime novels. Susan Hill reportedly called her "a past mistress of the bizarre truth behind normal facades" and Ruth Rendell called her work "quiet, clever, subtle—and terrifying. I can’t think of anyone whose stories of suspense I appreciate more." The titles are The Least of These (1943), To Hold the Mirror (1946), The Dry Land (1952), The Wooden (1953), Trial of Strength (1955), A Spring of Love (1960), Other People (1964), A Helping Hand (1966), Act of Love (1969), A Dark Corner (1971), The Innocent Party (1973), Helping with Inquiries (1979, aka Deception), and Sheep's Clothing (1988). The last was reprinted by Virago.

Dale, Frances
          see CRADOCK, FANNY

DALE, LUCY [MARGUERITE] (9 Aug 1875 – 22 Dec 1945)
(née Hanson)
1910s
Historian and author of two novels in collaboration with Gertrude FAULDING—Time's Wallet (1913), an epistolary novel, and Merely Players (1917), about a woman writer's troubled marriage. OCEF says the first, "although not original in form or style, is of interest in that the characters are young, intellectual, progressive Liberal women." Researcher John Herrington discovered she was born in Edinburgh and achieved a "women's first" in History at Somerville College, Oxford, in the days before women were granted degrees.

DALE, MARGARET (dates unknown)
1930s
Untraced author of three novels—Limited Variety (1933), Maze (1934), and Serena (1935). Bookman called Maze "just a light-hearted frolic in which a group of leisured young people get themselves into a muddle of relationships and then get themselves out again." Not to be confused with Margaret J. MILLER, whose married name was Dale.

DALTON, MAY (dates unknown)
1920s - 1930s
Untraced author of 14 romantic novels, of which 9 appeared in 1922-23. Titles include Her Husband's Secret (1922), The Enchanting Rebel (1922), A Fascinating Fraud (1922), Her Cave Man (1923), Love's Hide-and-Seek (1923), Her Money Against Her (1929), His Mad Moment (1933), and A Fascinating Firebrand (1934).

DALTON, MORAY (6 May 1881 – 1963)
(pseudonym of Katherine Mary Deville Dalton Renoir, née Dalton)
1900s – 1950s
Author of two early novels—Olive in Italy (1909), about a young woman working as an artist's model in Italy, and The Sword of Love (1920), an adventure set in the late 1400s in Florence—followed by 29 mysteries and thrillers beginning with The Kingsclere Mystery (1924). Fifteen of these feature her series character Inspector Hugh Collier. In her non-series titles, she occasionally made forays into other genres, including the post-apocalyptic The Black Death (1934) and the wartime adventure Death at the Villa (1946). Other titles include The Shadow on the Wall (1926), One by One They Disappeared (1929), The Night of Fear (1931), The Belfry Murder (1933), The Mystery of the Kneeling Woman (1936), The Strange Case of Harriet Hall (1936), Death in the Forest (1939), The Art School Murders (1943), Inquest on Miriam (1949), and The House of Fear (1951). Dean Street Press released several of her mysteries in e-book and paperback in early 2019.

DALY, ANNE (22 May 1896 - ????)
1940s
Sister of novelist Margaret HASSETT and author of one children's book, Green Eyes: A Faraway Tale (1943), and two plays produced at the Abbey Theatre—The Window on the Square (1951), covering 25 years of rural life, and Leave It to the Doctor (1959), about a match-making physician.

DAMON, CELIA (dates unknown)
(aka Marjory Damon, in collaboration with Constance MILES [aka Marjory Royce])
1920s
Untraced author, in collaboration with Constance MILES, of two girls' school stories, Sara Sat-Upon at School (1927) and The Slow Girl at St Jane's (1929), the latter published as by "Marjory Damon." She also published a handful of books for younger children.

Damon, Marjory
          see DAMON, CELIA and MILES, CONSTANCE

DANBURY, IRIS (dates unknown)
(pseudonym of Iris Leigh)
1950s – 1970s
Author of 30+ romantic novels for Mills & Boon, including The Gentle Invader (1957), My Heart a Traitor (1958), The Rose-Walled Castle (1959), The Silent Nightingale (1961), Store de Luxe (1963), Bonfire in the Dusk (1965), Doctor at Drumlochan (1966), Isle of Pomegranates (1969), Jacaranda Island (1972), and The Windmill of Kalakos (1976).

Danby, Frank
          see FRANKAU, JULIA

DANE, CLEMENCE (21 Feb 1888 – 28 Mar 1965)
(pseudonym of Winifred Ashton)
1910s – 1960s
Playwright, screenwriter, mystery author, and novelist, author of around two dozen works of fiction in all. Widely known for A Bill of Divorcement (1921), a successful early play about changing divorce laws (mentioned by Vera BRITTAIN in Testament of Youth), and for Regiment of Woman (1917), a novel about lesbianism in a girls' school, which was reprinted by Virago. Some of her most acclaimed fiction is set in the theatre and grew out of her decades-long success as a playwright, including Broome Stages (1931), about several generations of a theatre family, her three mysteries in collaboration with Australian novelist Helen Simpson—Enter Sir John (1928), Printer's Devil (1930), and Re-enter Sir John (1932)—and The Flower Girls (1954), about the offspring of a successful theatre family. Enter Sir John was the source for Alfred Hitchcock's early film Murder! (1930) and reportedly also inspired Dorothy L. SAYERS' Strong Poison. The Arrogant History of White Ben (1939) is an allegorical novel about the rise of Hitler and the Nazis. At the beginning of the war, Dane published The Shelter Book (1940), subtitled "A Gathering of Tales, Poems, Essays, Notes, and Notions … for Use in Shelters, Tubes, Basements and Cellars in War-Time." Other novels include Legend (1919), Wandering Stars (1924), Julia Newberry's Diary (1933), The Moon Is Feminine (1938), He Brings Great News (1944), and The Godson (1964).

D'ANETHAN, BARONESS ALBERT (1858 – 20 Nov 1935)
(pseudonym of Eleanora Mary d'Anethan, née Haggard)
1890s – 1920s
Sister of H. Rider Haggard and author of eight novels of her own, some of which made use of her time living in Japan with her diplomat husband. Titles are His Chief's Wife (1897), It Happened in Japan (1905), Two Women (1909), The Twin-Soul of O'Take San (1914), Her Mother's Blood (1918), Enter Caroline (1921), Veronica (1923), and John's Penelope (1926). Her diaries, which OCEF calls "rather dull," were published as Fourteen Years of Diplomatic Life in Japan (1912).

DANIELL, OLIVIA (dates unknown)
1930s
Author of a single novel, The Road from Jericho (1938), about which the Guardian (without giving away anything of the actual plot) said "The writing is so crisp and so infected with a joy in beauty, whether in music or in nature, that Miss Daniell's quite delightful literary style alone would bring sunshine into the dark corners."

DARCH, WINIFRED (7 Feb 1884 – 8 Oct 1960)
1920s – 1930s
Author of just under two dozen girls' school stories and a schoolmistress herself for nearly three decades. She retired from teaching to care for aging parents in 1935, which, along with the lack of day-to-day school interaction, may have been factors in her giving up writing. Titles are Chris and Some Others (1920), Jean of the Fifth (1923), Poppies and Prefects (1923), Cecil of the Carnations (1924), Heather at the High School (1924), Katharine Goes to School (1925), Gillian of the Guides (1925), The New School and Hilary (1926), Cicely Bassett, Patrol Leader (1927), Varvara Comes to England (1927), The Upper Fifth in Command (1928), For the Honour of the House (1929), The Fifth Form Rivals (1930), Margaret Plays the Game (1931), The Girls of Queen Elizabeth's (1932), The Lower Fourth and Joan (1932), The School on the Cliff (1933), The Head Girl at Wynford (1935), Susan's Last Term (1936), Elinor in the Fifth (1937), Alison Temple—Prefect (1938, reprinted as Alison in a Fix), The Scholarship and Margery (1938), and The New Girl at Graychurch (1939). I wrote about two of her books here.

DARE, CYNTHIA (dates unknown)
1920s – 1930s
Untraced author of a dozen or so short romances for J. Leng. Titles include Pam the Pretender (1922), The Wrong Girl (1923), Her Glorious Idea (1924), Sally the Upstart (1925), His Pretty Neighbour (1925), A Perfect Torment (1925), Captivating Peggy (1925), Priceless Peg (1926), All a Game (1932), Judy Warrender (1932), The Trickster (1937), and Clipped Wings (1939).

Dare, Evelyn
          see EVERETT-GREEN, EVELYN

Dare, Simon
          see HUXTABLE, MARJORIE

Darnley, Jane
          see LINDSAY, KATHLEEN

DART, EDITH [CHARLOTTE MARIA] (1872 – 5 Jul 1924)
1900s - 1920
Poet and author of five novels. Likeness (1911), about a typist who is the twin of a millionairess and impersonates her at a ball, sounds almost farcical, but Sareel (1920), about a girl from a workhouse who becomes a servant on a farm on the moors, may be darker. The others are Miriam (1908), Rebecca Drew (1910), and The Loom of Life (1916).

Dashwood, Jane
          see HESELTINE,
OLIVE

DAVIDSON, H[ELEN]. B[EATRICE]. (14 Jul 1898 – 18 Jan 1998)
1920s – 1930s
Author of numerous Guide and Brownie books, including several school stories. Titles include Pat of Whitehouse (1924), Peggy's School Pack (1925), The Ardice Fortune (1926), Peter Lawson, Camper (1931), Brenda in Belgium (1934), and Bunch, A Brownie (1940).

DAVIES, JOYCE (dates unknown)
1930s
Untraced author of a single short romance, The Heiress (1930).

DAVIES, MARGARET CONSTANCE (4 May 1923 – 25 Aug 2013)
(née Brown, later married name Mitchell, went by Davies-Mitchell)
1950s
Expert on French modernist poetry, University of Reading professor, and author of a single novel, Two Gold Rings (1958), described as about a romance between two Left Bank artists in Paris. She also published scholarly books on Colette and Apollinaire.

Daviot, Gordon
          see TEY, JOSEPHINE

DAVIS, JOYCE (dates unknown)
1920s
Untraced author of one romance for J. Leng, Molly Meets Her Match (1924).

DAVISON, MAY (dates unknown)
1930s – 1940s
Untraceable author of four novels—The Ivory Warrior (1938), Day In, Day Out (1939), Young Bill Peach (1946), and Barzie (1947). Young Bill Peach, at least, appears to deal with rural themes.

Davys, Sarah
          see MANNING, ROSEMARY [JOY]

DAWSON, LOUISA ALICE (13 Jan 1856 – 22 Mar 1926)
(married name Baker, seems to have gone by Louie, aka Alien)
1890s - 1910
Author of more than a dozen novels, including A Daughter of the King (1894), In Golden Shackles (1896), Wheat in the Ear (1898), Over the Barriers (1903), A Slum Heroine (1904), The Perfect Union (1908), and A Double Blindness (1910). She spent her late childhood and early adulthood in New Zealand, where she wrote popular newspaper advice columns, before returning to England and success as a novelist. Most of her works seems to have appeared under her rather unusual pseudonym.

DAWSON-SCOTT, C[ATHERINE]. A[MY]. (Aug 1865 – 4 Nov 1934)
1900s – 1930s
Poet, playwright, novelist, and founder of International PEN (and later its historian), Dawson-Scott also wrote rather dark, somewhat feminist novels, the later of which were, according to OCEF, influenced by Dorothy Richardson. Titles include The Story of Anna Beames (1907), The Agony Column (1909), Madcap Jane (1910), Ulalia (1912), Against the Grain (1919), The Haunting (1921), Blown by the Wind (1926), and The House in the Hollow, or, Tender Love (1933).

Day, Mary
          see GRIGS, [ETHEL] MARY

D'Evelyn, Rose
          see BROEMEL, ROSE

DE BARY, ANNA (1869 – 25 Jan 1954)
(née Bunston)
1920s
Though primarily the author of Christian-themed verse (her Collected Poems appeared in 1947), De Bary also wrote at least two novels—By Olive and Fir (1921) and The House in Horton Hollow (1928). Letters of a Schoolma'am (1913) is apparently comprised of the letters of a Miss Marston, edited by De Bary.

DE CRESPIGNY, MRS. PHILIP CHAMPION (c1860 – 10 Feb 1935)
(pseudonym of Rose Champion de Crespigny, née Key)
1910s – 1930s
Painter and novelist. Author of 20 volumes of fiction in all, including 18 novels and 2 story collections. From Behind the Arras (1902), set in 18th century France, features a young girl narrator and "is based on the 'tomboy tamed' pattern then fashionable in fiction for girls" (OCEF). Several novels are historical romance, including The Mischief of a Glove (1903), set during the reign of Bloody Mary, The Rose Brocade (1905), set in Georgian England, The Grey Domino (1906), set in 17th century France, The Spanish Prisoner (1907) set in Spain in Napoleonic times, and The Coming of Aurora (1909), in which love manages to find even an Englishman who has retreated from life at a Swiss monastery. She published several novels with Mills & Boon 1910-1917, including The Valley of Achor (1910), about an explorer the authenticity of whose claimed adventures comes into doubt, The Five of Spades (1912), set on Sark, and Hester and I (1915), set in a French artists’ colony disrupted by the outbreak of World War I. Following her husband’s death in 1912, she became interested in Spiritualism, and elements of the supernatural figure in The Mark (1912), a somewhat humorous tale of a young woman and the scar on her arm which guides her through major life decisions; Mallory’s Tryst (1914), which touches on reincarnation in its tale of an author and his mysterious admirer, and The Dark Sea (1927), featuring a hero studying Spiritualism and an unwitting clergyman who, despite his skepticism, turns out to be a medium himself. In the 1920s, she turned to detective fiction. Tangled Evidence (1924) was praised as “ingenious and thrilling” by Arthur Conan Doyle. The Missing Piece (1927), which seems to have distinctly humorous elements, features a chatty and daring spinster as narrator. Straws in the Wind (1928) also features an intrepid female heroine, The Eye of Nemesis (1931) blends a detective story with romantic comedy, and A Case for the C.I.D. (1933) was praised for its innovative and disorienting structure. Her memoir, This World—and Beyond (1934), also reflects her interest in the supernatural.

DE FOUBERT, EDITH MARY (11 Jul 1873 – 5 Mar 1967)
1920s – 1930s
Author of a dozen girl's school stories with, according to Sims and Clare, standard plots but convincing characters. Titles are That Term at the Towers (1927), Queen of the School (1928), The Girl from Back-of-Beyond (1929), The Fourth Form Mystery (1930), First Term—Worst Term (1932), The Fighting Fourth (1934), Two on Their Own (1935), For the Sake of Shirley (1935), The League of the Links (1936), The Vac at St. Verda's (1938), Sally's Sporting Chance (1938), and Penny in Search of a School (1939).

DE FRAINE, JOAN (1 Feb 1901 – 23 Jul 1988)
(married name Smith)
1930s
Author of three novels—Adventure for Three (1933), No Fuss (1934), and Eighty in the Shade (1935), the last described by a bookseller as "the story of a suburban family over a Bank Holiday weekend." She also wrote a one-act play, Saturday Sensation (1933), and an abridged edition of Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone for children (1971).

de Guise, Elizabeth
          see HUNTER, ELIZABETH [MARY TERESA]

DE KERPELY, THERESA (29 Nov 1898 – 27 Aug 1993)
(aka Teresa Kay)
1950s – 1980s
Novelist and memoirist whose dramatic life provided background for her novels. Her real-life experiences in World War II Budapest, covered in her memoir Of Love and Wars (1984), included not only the usual wartime hardships, bombing raids, food shortages, etc., but also the fact that near the end of the war she and her husband (a well-known Hungarian cellist) provided shelter for two months to a Jewish composer disguised as a Catholic priest. After the war, she relocated to the U.S., but her first two novels, A Crown for Ashes (1952), set in wartime Budapest, and The Burning Jewel (1957), were published pseudonymously to protect family still living behind the Iron Curtain. Her other novels are Kiss from Aphrodite (1968), Arabesque (1976), and Fugue (1977).

de la Pasture, Mrs. Henry
          see BONHAM, ELIZABETH LYDIA ROSABELLE

DEAKIN, [MARY] DOROTHEA (19 Dec 1876 – 15 Apr 1924)
(married name Reynolds)
1900s - 1910
Niece of Edith NESBIT and author of seven novels described by OCEF as "fairly tedious comedies of village or country house life." Contemporary critics referred to her work as "frothy," "thoroughly amusing," and "freshly and brightly written." Titles are The Smile of Melinda (1903), The Poet and the Pierrot (1905), 'Georgie' (1906), The Princess and the Kitchen Maid (1906), The Young Columbine (1908), Tormentilla (1908), and The Goddess Girl (1910). She also published a considerable amount of periodical fiction. She died in a clinic in Lugano, Switzerland, which suggests tuberculosis. She had married in 1910, perhaps not coincidentally the date of her final novel.

DEAL, PAULA (26 Sept 1920 - 2007)
(pseudonym of Doris Lilian Gudgin, née Smith)
1950s – 1960s
Nurse and author of six books on the subject. The first, Nurse! Nurse! Nurse! (1959) was described as a memoir, but it's unclear whether the other five—Forward, Staff Nurse (1960), Nurse at Butlin's (1961), Surgery Nurse (1962), Factory Nurse (1963), and Village Nurse (1964)—might have strayed more into fiction.

Dealtry, Kit
          see GROOM,
KATHLEEN [CLARICE]

Dean, Mrs. Andrew
          see SIDGWICK, MRS. ALFRED

DEAN, ANGELA (dates unknown)
1940s
Untraced author of a single novel, Till the Corn Grows Brown (1942), about which no information is available.

DEAN, LYN (20 Dec 1909 – 15 Sept 1978)
(pseudonym of Winifred Selina Garrett, married name Lindop)
1937
Author of two crime novels, both published in 1937, praised for their effective plotting and unconventional approach. Ask No Questions is an “engrossing and unusual thriller all about an accident which was a murder and a detective who knew it but didn't want to do anything about tracking down the murderer." The Rope Waits is about a killer lying in wait in a haunted house to which a group of young people have come to investigate the supernatural—"you read of his lavish preparations to commit the crime. When you know of his motives you will rejoice that he goes scot free."

Dean, Peter
          see HINKSON, PAMELA

DEAN, PRUDENCE (dates unknown)
Untraced author of six romantic novels—Her White Sin (1920), A Foolish Choice (1924), His Luxury Bride (1929), Her Double Part (1929), The Fair Imposter (1933), and Haunted by the Past (1933).

DEANE, LORNA (3 Jan 1909 – 3 Feb 1973)
(pseudonym of Lorna Hilda Kathleen Gibbs, married name Wilkinson)
1940s
Poet and author of three novels—The Solitary Reaper (1944), Strawberry Street (1946), and Portrait of a Man (1947). She also wrote one play, Portrait of Anna (1955).

DEANE, MARY [BATHURST] (3 Aug 1844 – 13 Apr 1940)
1880s - 1920
Aunt of P. G. Wodehouse, and reportedly the inspiration for Bertie Wooster's Aunt Agatha. Novelist and children's author whose final work, The Invisible Chain (1920), qualifies her for this list. Some of her novels were historical, including The Rose-Spinner (1904), set in the Georgian period, and The Other Pawn (1907), set in mid-Victorian Bath. Others include Quatrefoil (1883), Three Little Maids, or, Chronicles of Acacia Garden (1889), Eve's Apple (1894), and The Little Neighbour (1905).

DEANE, SONIA (12 Jan 1904 - 1997)
(pseudonym of Gwendoline Amy Placeham, married name Soutar?)
1930s – 1980s
Author of more than sixty romantic novels. Early works take a particular interest in divorce, with titles such as Decree Absolute (1937), Hotel Register (1938), Co-Respondent Unknown (1942), Divorce Anniversary (1944), and Evidence for Divorce (1953), while later works are often hospital romances. Other titles include The Other Woman (1940), Winter Harvest (1947), Nurse Trent (1958), Private Ward (1965), Free-Lance Nurse (1970), and Red Roses from the Doctor (1979).

Deane, Spencer
          see PETTMAN, GRACE

DEANS, MARJORIE [ELIZABETH] (1 Dec 1901 – 1982)
1930s
Screenwriter, translator, and author of three novels—Not With Me (1937), Take Cover! (1939), and Men Don't Know (1946). Not With Me deals with a doubting clergyman and his family, while Take Cover! deals with the Munich Crisis and the reactions of various London residents. She also published Meeting at the Sphinx (1946), a glitzy book about the filming of Caesar and Cleopatra with Claude Rains and Vivien Leigh. Among her screen credits were several adaptations of George Bernard Shaw plays.

DEARDEN, HILDA DANVERS (4 Sept 1892 – 6 Jul 1981)
(née Glasson)
1930s
Founder of a dance school in London and author of at least nine novels which appear to be adventure and spy stories. Titles are "This Road Is Dangerous!" (1930), The Mystery at the Skating Rink (1931), "In the King's Name—!" (1932), The Blonde Madonna (1933), Strange Rendezvous (1934), Revolt from Bondage (1935), The Trappings Are Gorgeous (1937), Sally Blair (1937), and Dust in Her Eyes (1940). Her profession on the 1939 England & Wales Register is "author & professional ice skater".

DEASE, ALICE [MARY FRANCES] (13 Feb 1874 – 27 Oct 1949)
(married name Chichester)
1900s – 1910s
Author of several volumes of short stories—some about Irish Catholic themes, others (published by the Catholic Truth Society) apparently about missionaries in China—as well as at least two novels, The Lady of Mystery (1913), about a man buying back his ancestor's estate, and The Debt of Guy Arnolle (1919). Other volumes include The Beckoning of the Wand: Sketches of a Lesser Known Ireland (1908), The Marrying of Brian and Other Stories (1910), and Down West and Other Sketches of Irish Life (1914).

DEBENHAM, MARY H[ARRIETTE]. (22 Nov 1864 – 7 Dec 1947)
1880s – 1920
Prolific author of Christian-themed fiction, non-fiction, and plays for children and adults. Among her fiction titles are St Helen's Well (1888), Household Troops, or, Small Service Is True Service (1893), The Captain of Five (1895), Two Maiden Aunts (1896), The Waterloo Lass (1901), Under Forest Boughs (1903), Stars in the Twilight (1910), The Court of the King: A Christmas Mystery (1919), and Setala and the Storm (1920).

DEE, CATHERINE (dates unknown)
1940s – 1950s
Unidentified author of three novels published by Peter Davies—No Complaints in Hell (1949), apparently set in a prison, Nothing Is Chance (1952), and Never Carry the Donkey (1954), about a young woman rebelling against her family. The Birmingham Daily Post called the last "well-written and quietly enjoyable."

DEERING, ANN (1 Feb 1913 – 26 Jan 1957)
(pseudonym of Nancy Mary Collier)
1930s – 1950s
Sister of Susan TAYLOR and author of around 20 MIlls & Boon romances. Titles include Handsome Stranger (1938), Never Goodbye (1940), Music for Magnolia (1947), Petals in the Wind (1948), Dearest of All (1950), Serenade to Columbine (1951), The Sky Changes (1952), and Villa in the Sun (1957).

Dehan, Richard
          see GRAVES, CLOTILDE

DEHN, OLIVE [MARIE] (29 Sept 1914 – 21 Mar 2007)
(married name Markham)
1930s - 1980
Children's author who was also a passionate activist and pacifist and, along with her husband, a trailblazing organic farmer. Her works include The Basement Bogle (1935), The Nixie From Rotterdam (1937), Higgly-piggly Farm (1957), The Pike Dream (1958), the Caretakers series (1960-1967), and Good-bye Day (1980). Dehn has the pleasant distinction of having been deported from Nazi Germany in 1933, where she was visiting, as a result of a German-themed poem she had published in Punch, and then, in 1974, being also deported from Communist Russia for protesting for the release of Soviet dissidents.

DELAFIELD, E. M. (9 Jun 1890 – 2 Dec 1943)
(pseudonym of Edmee Elizabeth Monica Dashwood, née de la Pasture)
1910s – 1940s
Daughter of Elizabeth BONHAM and mother of Rosamund Dashwood. Author of more than 30 volumes of fiction, including the perennially popular Provincial Lady novels—Diary of a Provincial Lady (1930), The Provincial Lady Goes Further (1932, aka The Provincial Lady in London), The Provincial Lady in America (1934), and The Provincial Lady in Wartime (1940)—which deal humorously with marriage, motherhood, and literary life. Straw Without Bricks (1937), a more serious book Delafield wrote about a trip to Russia, was later reprinted as The Provincial Lady in Russia to capitalize on the popularity of the series. Many of Delafield's other novels are more serious, including Consequences (1919), reprinted by Persephone, The Way Things Are (1927), a semi-autobiographical novel about marriage, Thank Heaven Fasting (1932), and Nothing Is Safe (1937), about children scarred by divorce. Her final novel, Late and Soon (1943), deals with a widow taking in evacuees during World War II. Among her non-fiction are The Brontës: Their Lives Recorded by Their Contemporaries (1935) and Ladies and Gentlemen in Victorian Fiction (1937). I wrote about one of her less well-known novels here. I also had the chance to share previously unseen photos and details about her daughter here.

Delamain, Ann
          see TRASK, BETTY

Delgairn, Harriet
          see CAPES, HARRIET M[ARY].

Delius, Peter
          see BLACK, DOROTHY

DELL, ETHEL M[ARY]. (2 Aug 1881 – 17 Sept 1939)
(married name Savage)
1910s – 1930s
Author of more than 30 romantic novels, beginning with the massive bestseller The Way of an Eagle (1912) (in its 30th printing by 1915). Her books often featured Indian settings (though she never actually visited India), torrid drama, and the pairing of girly girls with he-men. Other titles are The Knave of Diamonds (1913), The Bars of Iron (1916), The Lamp in the Desert (1919), The Obstacle Race (1921), A Man under Authority (1925), The Gate Marked 'Private' (1928), The Prison Wall (1932), The Juice of the Pomegranate (1938), and Sown among Thorns (1939).

DELVES, NANCY (ANNIE) [MYFANWY] (3 Sept 1905 - 1959)
(married name Fitzhugh)
1920s – 1930s
Author of six girls' school stories—The Fourth Form (1929), Well Played, Scotts! (1930), Fifth Form Rivals (1931), The Rebel of the Fifth (1933), Trouble in the Fourth (1934), and Thrills for the Lower Fifth (1935). According to Sims and Clare, she was "clearly a disciple" of Angela Brazil.

DELVES-BROUGHTON, JOSEPHINE (6 Sept 1916 – 4 Jun 1975)
(aka John Bryan)
1930s – 1960s
Author of a dozen novels, at least some of them historical. Officer and Gentleman (1944) is set in the 19th century and includes the famous Charge of the Light Brigade, while Crown Imperial (1949, aka The Heart of a Queen) is about Elizabeth I. She published three novels as "John Bryan"—The Difference to Me (1957), The Contessa Came Too (1961), and The Man Who Came Back (1961). Others under her own name are The Siege (1939), The World Is a Bridge (1943), Story of Andria (1946), I Saw No Sun (1952), The Past Returned (1953, aka Find a New Heaven), A Sojourn in England (1956), and The Quality of Love (1963).

DEMAREST, PHYLLIS GORDON (31 Mar 1908 – 22 Dec 1969)
1930s, 1950s – 1970s
Stepdaughter of actor William Demarest (see here for background on her family). Author of at least nine novels, many first published in the U.S. (to which she relocated following her mother's second marriage). Children of Hollywood (1929) and Hollywood Gold (1930) take Hollywood as their subject. These were followed by Lady Gone Wild (1933), The Past Is Ours (1934), This Strange Love (1939), The Naked Risk (1954), The Wilderness Brigade (1957, reprinted in the U.K. as Trumpet of Wrath), The Angelic City (1961), and What Happened on the 'Melisande' (1971). Wilderness Brigade is set during the American Civil War.

DEMUTH, AVERIL [CONSTANCE] (5 Jan 1906 – 2000)
(married name Cockbain)
1930s – 1950s
Author of five children's titles which seem to feature fantasy elements. Trudi and Hansel (1937) is set in the Austrian Tyrol, The House in the Mountains (1940) in Switzerland, and The House of the Wind (1953) in Cornwall. The others are The Enchanted Islands (1941) and The Sea Gypsies (1942). She later published The Minack Open-Air Theatre (1968) about a theatre for which she also wrote at least one play. Sadly, her husband died in World War II after only one year of marriage and she does not appear to have ever remarried.

DENDY, MARY (1855 – 9 May 1933)
1910s
Author of one Sunday school themed collection of children's tales and one apparent novel, Only a Business Man: A Story (1910), which just barely qualifies her for this list.

DENHAM, PHYLLIS H[ELEN]. (3 May 1900 – 10 Feb 1982)
(married name Hadley)
1930s – 1940s
Author of one romantic tale, The Glorious Adventure (1930) and one story collection, Tales of Love and Romance (1944).

DENNISON, DOROTHY [ROSINA] (14 Sept 1899 – 3 Mar 1978)
(married name Wright)
1920s – 1950s
Author of ten "evangelistic" girls' school stories (according to Sims & Clare), as well as several novels for adults. The school stories listed in Sims & Clare are Rumours in the Fourth Form (1925), Paddy the Pride of the School (1928), Chronicles of the Lower Fifth (1929), The Rebellion of the Upper Fifth (1930), The Sixth Form Goes Abroad (1932), The Trio of Grangecourt School (1932), The Historic Third & Other Stories (1933), The Odd House of Grange Court (1934), The Rival Schools of Trentham (1934), and Mystery at St Mawe's (1936). One additional children's title, In Spite of Miss Tweedle (1948), appears to also have school themes, and her adult novel, Full Circle (1954), traces the life of a woman who spends her life working as a servant in a boys' school. Two other adult novels—Steep Ascent: The Story of a Surgeon (1949) and Physician Heal Thyself (1954)—make use of her experiences as a doctor's wife. Among her final published works were two volumes of the "Courtney Chronicles," a series of family stories. Spotlight on Penelope (1958) is apparently the first in the series and to Call Me Jacqueline (1958) is the third. Dennison's daughter, Gillian GOLDEN, published the other two books in the series—Over to Paul (1958) seems to be #2, and Bouquet for Susan (1958) is #4.

DENNYS, [ISOBEL DOROTHY] JOYCE (14 Aug 1883 – 23 Feb 1991)
(married name Evans)
1930s – 1940s
Artist, illustrator, playwright, and humorist, best known now for Henrietta’s War (1985) and Henrietta Sees It Through (1986), her humorous fictional home front diaries first published in Sketch during World War II, presumably based on her own life in Budleigh Salterton in Devon. In the 1930s, Dennys had published several humorous works of fiction stemming from her life as a doctor's wife—Mrs Dose, the Doctor's Wife (1930), Repeated Doses (1931), and The Over-Dose (This Really is the Last One) (1933). Simon at Stuck in a Book mentioned another vanishingly rare title, Economy Must Be Our Watchword (1932), here. In the 1950s and early 1960s, Dennys wrote numerous short plays for her local amateur dramatic society, as well as several full-length plays. She also published a memoir, And Then There Was One (1983). I’ve written about her here.

DERING, JOAN [ROSALIND CORDELIA] (29 Apr 1917 – 22 May 1994)
1950s – 1960s
Author of seven novels, several of which seem to fall into the realm of mystery. Anthony Boucher called her debut, Louise (1956), "A romantic suspense-novel in the du Maurier tradition … contains some nice observations of a convalescent home and a second-rate public school. The ending is ill-contrived and resoundingly anti-climactic; but the going's a pleasure up to that point…" The Silent Witness (1962) is "about a little family in which the husband is suspected of being a hit-and-run killer, the little daughter suspects her father of killing her mother and the second wife attempts to disarm everyone's suspicion by identifying a murderer." Number Two, North Steps (1965) deals with a vicar's daughter helping to clear her cousin of a murder charge. Barzun and Taylor, in their Catalogue of Crime, are enthusiastic about her final novel, Not Proven (1966): "The women in it are intelligent, courageous, and consecutive in their actions and feelings; the writing is first-rate and the plot (in the Jane Eyre category) is admirably put together, as is the solution of the antecedent murder." Her other titles, non-mystery in theme, are Mrs Winterton's Rebellion (1958), about a widow who, tired of her sheltered life, buys a sports car and “plunge[s] into a strangely terrifying world,” The Caravanners (1959), about two couples each unable to marry for different reasons, and Marianne (1960), described as “a moving story of parents and children, skillfully told.”

DERRY, VIDA [WINIFRED] (2 Dec 1912 – 23 Apr 1986)
(married name Usher)
1950s – 1970s
Author of more than a dozen romantic novels. Titles include Love in Blue (1958), Two Loves Have I (1959), Love in Shadow (1961), A Kind of Magic (1962), My Wife Virginia (1963), Escape to Summer (1964), Tell Me, Nurse (1965), The Luck of Dereham House (1968), and Roses for the Nurse (1971). She apparently also published serial fiction with supernatural themes.

DERWENT, LAVINIA (23 Feb 1909 – 26 Nov 1989)
(pseudonym of Elizabeth Dodd)
1930s – 1980s
Popular and prolific children's author and memoirist, best known now for her successful series of memoirs of Scottish life, including A Breath of Border Air (1975), Another Breath of Border Air (1977), A Border Bairn (1979), God Bless the Borders (1981), Lady of the Manse (1983), A Mouse in the Manse (1985), and Beyond the Borders (1988). According to ODNB, her big break came with the reading of her early Tammy Troot stories on the BBC Children's Hour. She published one romantic novel for adults, Dinner of Herbs (1950), but then focused on children's books, including two popular series, the Macpherson series and the Sula series, "set on a fictional Hebridean island and featuring a crofter's son who could talk to seals."

Desmond, Barbara
          see WILSON, DESEMEA

Desmond, Hugh
          see LINDSAY, KATHLEEN

DEVAS, NICOLETTE (1 Feb 1911 – 10 May 1987)
(née Macnamara, later married name Shephard)
1930s
Sister-in-law of Dylan Thomas (Caitlin Thomas was her sister). Artist and author of four novels—Bonfire (1958), about "the destructive impact of the intrusion of an outsider into an established and happy family," Nightwatch (1961), about "skullduggery in the London art world," Black Eggs (1970), which deals with birdwatching, and Pegeen Crybaby (1986), "a rip roaring tale of love, promiscuity, academic jealousy and vengeance." (Quotes taken from here.) She is best known, however, for the memoir Two Flamboyant Fathers (1966), which tells of her childhood moving freely between two households—her own, led by an eccentric Irish poet father, and that of the family's neighbor, artist Augustus John, who was leading a bohemian lifestyle with numerous friends and family members. A subsequent memoir, Susanna's Nightingales (1978), traces the maternal line of her family. Dylan, Caitlin, and Nicolette are all portrayed in the 2008 film The Edge of Love.

DEVEREUX, [MARGARET ROSE] ROY [PEMBER-] (22 Feb 1867 – 8 Oct 1947)
(née McAdam)
1900s, 1930s – 1940s
Travel writer and novelist who began her career with The Ascent of Woman (1896), a fashion guide for the New Woman. Her five novels—Rebrobate Silver (1903), The Incredible Truth (1930), Blue Magic (1937), When They Came Back (1938), and A Brown Eye or So (1945)—sound a bit melodramatic. The Incredible Truth, for example, is about a man who commits suicide and leaves money to his unrequited love so she can marry another man, with unhappy results. She also published travel books about South Africa and Algeria.

DEW ROBERTS, BARBARA (1885 - 1961)
(pseudonym of Elizabeth Mary Dew Roberts, originally Dew, aka Elizabeth Dew Roberts)
1940s – 1950s
Historian and author of at least four novels, some or all of them historical in subject, including Still Glides the Stream (1940), Some Trees Stand (1945), The Island Feud (1947), and The Charlie Trees: A Jacobite Novel (1951). Some Trees Stand is set in modern Wales where a contemporary romance seems to echo that of their ancestors. She appears to have been born Elizabeth Mary Dew, but may have been adopted by two of her aunts, named Roberts, and appended their name to hers. Rather strangely, she seems to have used "Elizabeth" for two of her novels and "Barbara" for the other two.

Dexter, Lynne
          see DONISTHORPE, SHEILA G[LADYS].

DICK, KAY (29 Jul 1915 – 19 Oct 2001)
1940s – 1980s
Companion of Kathleen FARRELL. Author of seven somewhat autobiographical novels—By the Lake (1949), Young Man (1951), An Affair of Love (1953), Solitaire (1958), Sunday (1962), They (1977), and The Shelf (1984). She also published two volumes of interviews with literary friends, including Ivy & Stevie (1971), featuring interviews with Ivy COMPTON-BURNETT and Stevie SMITH, and Friends and Friendship (1974), including interviews with Olivia MANNING and Isobel ENGLISH, among others. Dick is also notable for having been the first woman director of an English publishing house, P.S. King & Son.

DICK, MARGARET (dates unknown)
1950s
Scottish author of two novels—Point of Return (1958), "set mainly in the offices of a large works in a provincial town," and Rhyme or Reason (1959), set in a northern university town. From contemporary articles, we know she was unmarried and was born and raised in Fife, and she could be the Margaret D. Dick 7 Mar 1920 – 21 Jul 2003, but information about her is scarce. She is not to be confused with Australian microbiologist Margaret Dick, though as the latter's family hailed from Scotland as well, and an article describes the novelist visiting Australia with her Australian cousin, author Elizabeth Harrower, it's not impossible there could be a relationship. A book about Australian novelist Kylie Tennant, by a Margaret Dick, appeared in 1966 and seems likely to be by the same author.

DICK, R. A. (8 Jun 1898 – 28 Apr 1979)
(pseudonym of Josephine Aimee Leslie, née Campbell)
1940s – 1970s
Author of nine novels, most famously The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1945), which was immortalized by its classic film adaptation. Among her other works are Light and Shade (1956), about an elderly woman travelling to Africa with her granddaughter, and Duet for Two Hands (1960), about a pianist with a split personality. Unpainted Portrait (1954) and The Devil and Mrs. Devine (1974) appear to also have gothic themes. The others are Adventures of Jama (1949), She Walked to the Wedding (1953), The Second Blessing (1958), and Wanted (1962).

DICKBERRY, F. (?c1856 - ?1931)
(pseudonym of Fernande Blaze de Bury? [several sources note this, but no definite identification found])
1900s – 1910s
Edwardian author of four novels—The Storm of London: A Social Rhapsody (1905), The Nymph (1906), Phantom Figures (1907), and Stephen Ormond: A Man's Life (1913).

Dickens, Irene
          see COOPER, GWLADYS DOROTHY

DICKENS, MARY ANGELA (31 Oct 1862 – 7 Feb 1948)
(aka His Grand-Daughter)
1890s – 1910s
Granddaughter of Charles Dickens and cousin of Monica DICKENS. Author of a dozen novels and story collections, including Cross Currents (1891), A Mere Cypher (1893), A Valiant Ignorance (1894), Against the Tide (1898), Unveiled and Other Stories (1906), The Debtor (1912), and Sanctuary (1916).

DICKENS, MONICA [ENID] (10 May 1915 – 25 Dec 1992)
(married name Stratton)
1930s – 1990s
Great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens and author of more than 40 volumes of fiction and memoir. Her two humorous memoirs—One Pair of Hands (1939), about her attempts to be a cook, and One Pair of Feet (1942), about her wartime nursing experience—have been reprinted in recent years. Her novels Mariana (1940) and The Winds of Heaven (1955) have been reprinted by Persephone. Other novels include The Fancy (1943), which makes use of her subsequent experience working in a wartime factory, The Happy Prisoner (1946), about a wounded soldier adapting to life after the war, My Turn to Make the Tea (1951), which utilized her experiences as a reporter, and The Nightingales Are Singing (1953), about a woman who (like Dickens) marries an American Naval officer. In the 1970s, she published two series of well-received children's books, the Follyfoot series and the World's End series, as well as a memoir, An Open Book (1978).

DICK, ALEXANDRA (6 May 1906 – 29 Sept 1989)
(pseudonym of Cicely Sibyl Alexandra Abercrombie Dick-Erikson, née Dick or Abercrombie-Dick, aka Frances Hay)
1930s – 1960s
Author of more than two dozen novels, many either crime-themed or historical. For mystery fans, she is best known for a series of six novels featuring ex-minister and criminologist Alastair MacAlastair—No Sentiment (1939), about murder in a country club, An Old-Fashioned Christmas (1944), which takes place at a smart-set holiday gathering, And Only Man (1944), set on a Portuguese island, The Curate's Crime (1945), about the poisoning of a clergyman, MacAlastair Looks On (1947), set in a Scottish borders village, and Cross Purposes (1950), set in a Swedish holiday resort. Other crime-related novels not featuring MacAlastair include The Innocence of Rosamond Prior (1953), in which a young woman sets out to prove the innocence of her mother, convicted of murder 16 years earlier, Crime in the Close (1955), about murder in and around a Bishop’s Palace, Death at the Golden Crown (1956), about modern day witches involved in the murder of two girls, and One Is One (1958), about a dying woman's determination to commit the perfect murder—of her son's fiancée—at a Championship Dog Show. Late in her career, she published four novels as Frances Hay—I’ve found no details about Traitor's Island (1956), and Barbary Kate (1964) appears to be historical in subject, but the other two—There Was No Moon (1957), in which a woman on honeymoon in Crete discovers her husband is planning to kill her, and Lady With a Rose (1960), in which a young woman becomes the companion of the daughter of a Florentine nobleman, and gets mixed up in romance and murder—belong on this list. Of non-crime fiction, Dick’s debut, The First Man (1937), is a Ruritanian romance—"an amusing affair about an English debutante, who becomes involved in a plot to overthrow Thalia's 'man of destiny,' but who succeeds only in falling in love with him." Comet’s Tail (1938) seems to deal cheerfully with the perils of the young secretary, and later wife, of a famous opera singer—including abduction by American gangsters. In Yellowing Hay (1939), a woman recovering in hospital from an accident which may leave her blind recounts the dramatic story of her younger life in England, Paris, New York, and Sweden. A Pack of Cards (1940) deals with the reception of a half Burmese descendent of an old English family who returns to the old estate. How Can We Sing (1942) and Never to Me (1943) make use of wartime themes—the former set in neutral Sweden among Polish and English refugees, the latter about two newly-impoverished sisters in Austria who get swept up in the Nazi maelstrom. Thereafter, Dick often took up historical subjects—the French Revolution in Many a Flower (1944) and The Sleeping Beauty’s Daughter (1947), 19th century Hamburg and France in Dear Angel (1946), a story of Louis XIV in love in The Irresistible (1953), and a grand actress in the Comédie-Française in Imperial Venus (1954). I’ve not found details about The Witch’s Doing (1951), but the cover, featuring a cute cottage seen from dark works, suggests domesticity rather than murder. Steve at Bear Alley discovered interesting details of her life here.

DILLON, EILÍS (7 Mar 1920 – 19 Jul 1994)
(married names O Cuilleanain and Mercier)
1940s – 1990s
Irish author of nearly three dozen volumes of fiction, including children's adventure stories, historical novels, and three well-received mysteries. Among her many children's titles are The Lost Island (1952), The House on the Shore (1955), The Island of Horses (1956), The Singing Cave (1959), The Coriander (1963), The Road to Dunmore (1966), Under the Orange Grove (1968), A Herd of Deer (1969), The King's Room (1970), The Shadow of Vesuvius (1978), The Island of Ghosts (1989), and Children of Bach (1992). Her first adult fiction consisted of three mysteries—Death at Crane's Court (1953), set in a "hotel-sanitorium" near Galway, Sent to His Account (1954), set in an Irish village, which I reviewed here, and Death in the Quadrangle (1956), set at King's College Dublin. Dillon proceeded to write eight non-mystery novels, many of them historical and the most successful of which was Across the Bitter Sea (1973), which spans seven decades of the struggle for Irish independence. Others are The Bitter Glass (1958), The Head of the Family (1960), Bold John Henebry (1965), Blood Relations (1977), Wild Geese (1980), Citizen Burke (1984), and The Interloper (1987).

Dimont, Penelope
          see MORTIMER, PENELOPE [RUTH]

DINES, AUDREY (?16 Jun 1900 - ?1987)
(née Colenutt [tentative but probable identification])
1950s, 1970s
Author of five children's titles, including both girls' and boys' school stories, all with strong Christian themes. Titles are Holiday Adventure (1950), Pine Tree House (1951), The Secret of Lockerby Hall (1955), It Couldn't Have Been Willett! (1955), and Four at Fourways (1956). She appears to have also been the author of the later title The Strange Story of Simon (1978).

DITMAS, EDITH MARGARET ROBERTSON (26 Jan 1896 – 28 Feb 1986)
1950s
Historian, archivist, and author of a single novel, Gareth of Orkney (1956), an Arthurian romance featuring the younger brother of Sir Gawain on a quest. She also published retellings of other legends and romances and a history of Glastonbury Tor, and was General Secretary of the Association for Information Management (ASLIB) 1946–1950.

DIVER, [KATHERINE HELEN] MAUD (9 Sept 1867 – 14 Oct 1945)
(née Marshall, possibly aka Jane Langslow [see separate entry below])
1900s - 1940
Half sister of Margaret Rivers LARMINIE. Author of about two dozen volumes of fiction, much of it romantic in nature, characterized by her first-hand knowledge of India and Ceylon and by "marvelously voluptuous overwriting" (according to Twentieth-Century Romance and Historical Writers). She also published historical and non-fiction works about India. Novels include Capt. Desmond, V.C. (1907), Lilamani (1911, aka Awakening), The Hero of Herat (1912), Desmond's Daughter (1916), Unconquered (1917), Lonely Furrow (1923), But Yesterday— (1927), Ships of Youth (1931), The Dream Prevails (1938), and Sylvia Lyndon (1940). Martin Edwards has suggested she may have been the Jane LANGSLOW who co-wrote Gory Knight (1937) with Larminie.

DIXON, JOYCE CECILIA (18 May 1904 – 11 May 1981)
(née Barton)
1940s
Sister of children’s author Phyllis MATTHEWMAN. Author of two children’s books—The Rustication of Randy (1945) and Titania Had a Daughter (1948). It's unclear if she is also the Joyce Dixon who published Christian stories for children.

DIXON, MARJORIE [NELLIE] (17 Apr 1887 – 11 Jul 1981)
(née Mack, aka Marjorie Mack)
1930s - 1960
Children's author, novelist, and memoirist. Her debut, The Red Centaur (1939), about the affairs of an aristocratic French family seen through the eyes of an English child, was enthusiastically reviewed by Graham Greene. According to a bookseller, Velveteen Jacket (1941) is a novel about a gamekeeper. Those two titles were released as adult novels, though both deal substantially with children and their perceptions of the world around them. She then made the switch to writing directly for children. According to Kirkus, The Forbidden Island (1960) is about the "wonderful and sometimes sinister world of fairies." Other titles are The King of the Fiddles (1941), Runaway Boy (1942), and The Green-Coated Boy (1957). She published two memoirs—Hannaboys Farm (1942), presumably about her farming life with her husband in Surrey, and The Educated Pin (1944). I wrote enthusiastically about The Red Centaur here, and rather less enthusiastically about Velveteen Jacket here.

DOBRÉE, VALENTINE (2 Nov 1894 – 14 May 1974)
(pseudonym of Gladys May Mabel Dobrée, née Brooke-Pechell)
1920s – 1930s
Artist and writer, a fringe member of the Bloomsbury group via her friendship with Dora Carrington (and, apparently, love affairs with both Carrington's husband and her lover). Dobrée's two novels—Your Cuckoo Sings by Kind (1927) and The Emperor's Tigers (1929)—were praised by the likes of T. S. Eliot and Graham Greene. Cuckoo centers around the development of a young girl, while Tigers is described as an allegory about an emperor who sets up a lush garden to contain the pet tigers only he is allowed to see. She also published a story collection, To Blush Unseen (1935), and a late volume of poetry, This Green Tide (1965). I reviewed Cuckoo here.

DODD, CATHERINE I[SABEL]. (1860 – 13 Nov 1932)
1900s – 1930s
Originally a writer on education and domestic economy, Dodd later published around a dozen novels, including A Vagrant Englishwoman (1905), Queen Anne Farthings (1928), Scarlet Gables (1929), Bells of Thyme (1930), and Paul and Perdita (1932), as well as a biography of Mary Shelley (1933).

Dodge, Mary Thurston
          see LE FEUVRE, AMY

DOE, JANE (6 Apr 1891 - 1979)
(pseudonym of Nettie Ada Lewis, née Brockley)
1930s
Journalist and columnist for the Daily Chronicle and Sunday News, and author of a single novel, The Enchanted Duchess (1931), described by one source as a "bodice-ripper." She also published three collections of her columns—Through the Glad Eyes of a Woman (1923), Glad Eye Views (1924), and Jane Doe Calling! (1927).

DONALD, WINIFRED [WILSON] (1917 – 1 Sept 1999)
1940s – 1950s
Author of five girls' mystery tales with some school content, including Linda—the Schoolgirl Detective (1949), Linda in Lucerne (1950), Linda and the Silver Greyhounds (1952), Linda in Cambridge (1955), and Linda in New York; a letter in the Hutchinson archive suggests she had also written adult fiction, but this has not been identified and might have been under an as-yet-unidentified pseudonym or might have appeared only in periodicals.

DONISTHORPE, G[LADYS]. SHEILA (17 Dec 1885 – 1 Sept 1946)
(née Leon, aka Lynne Dexter, Sheila appears to be an adopted name replacing her real middle name, Milly)
1920s – 1930s
Playwright, novelist, and memoirist who appears to have had connections to the theatre, since her memoir is called Show Business (1943). Her novels are You (1927), Loveliest of Friends! (1931), described in a Neglected Books review of another book as an "early classic of lesbiana" and marketed as lesbian pulp fiction but apparently culminating in a preachy warning against such things, and Sets Your Star (1933, published in the US as The Blind Journey). She also wrote several plays, including one under her "Lynne Dexter" pseudonym.

DONNELLY, [MARJORIE] MORWENNA (29 Mar 1917 - 1991)
(married name Collins)
1940s
Poet and author of several books on spiritual concerns, including Art and the Life of the Spirit (1947) and Founding the Life Divine: An Introduction to the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo (1955). She also wrote one novel, The Dark Descent (1946). She won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for her volume of poetry, Beauty for Ashes (1942).

DORIEN, RAY (30 Apr 1897 – 4 Jun 1979)
(pseudonym of Eudora Rachel Dingle)
1930s – 1960s
Author of nearly forty romantic novels, including Fools in Paradise (1934), Anchor at Hazard (1935), Flaw in the Emerald (1937), Bridal Wreath (1941), Gallant to Be Gay (1947), Not Saints, Sweet Lady (1948), Love Is a Masquerade (1950), Ladder of Desires (1953), Heart's Content (1956), Lyn Darling, M.D. (1958), Call Dr. Margaret (1961), and Dr. Drusilla's Folly (1963). Starting in 1950, she published several travel books, including Venturing Abroad (1950), Venturing to Australia (1951), and Venturing Abroad: Majorca and Ibiza (1961).

Dormer, Daniel
          see CORDEUX, KATE MARION

DORSET, JANE (dates unknown)
1940s – 1950s
Unidentified author of more than a dozen romance novels, including To-Morrow I'll Tell (1944), Beauty Married (1945), No Afternoon Bed (1947), Enter a Lady—Laughing (1950), The Deeper Dream (1952), and Two Kinds of Love (1957). Pam, a reader of this blog, pointed out that a character in one of her novels is named Caroline COMSTOCK, also the name of the unidentified author of a single mystery—could this be a clue? Also, an article by “Jane Dorset, British Fashion Writer” appears in a 1947 issue of the Ottawa Journal, but no further identification has so far been made.

DORSET, F. H. (7 Sept 1890 – 22 Sept 1970)
(pseudonym of Frances Beatrice Caroline Llewellyn-Thomas, née Carré)
1930s
Author of five novels, which seem to have been well-reviewed. The most famous may be her last, The Marching Cloud (1937), which reflects the women's suffrage movement and women's changing social roles through the life of one woman. The Observer reviewer compared it to Trollope, no less. According to BBC Talk, Surging Tide (1931) "ends with a long and dramatic trial scene which will key you up deliciously." Beggarman's Fortune (1934) is about a wealthy man whose legacy to his nephews and nieces takes the form of a treasure hunt, complicated by jewel thieves. The others are Silent Meadows (1932) and The Window of the World (1932).

DOUBTFIRE, DIANA [JOAN] (18 Jan 1918 – 1 May 2000)
(née Abrams)
1960s – 1980s
Author of psychological novels and thrillers, including Lust for Innocence (1960), Reason for Violence (1961), Kick a Tin Can (1964), Behind the Screen (1969), and This Jim (1974). A contemporary review of Reason for Violence sounds thoroughly mad, involving a woman with a phobia about beetles who murders the cousin who used to torment her with them. That novel, at least, also seems to have some lesbian themes. Doubtfire also published books about stamp collecting, creative writing, and self help.

DOUGAN, OLIVE [CONSTANT] (16 Sept 1904 – 4 Jan 1963)
(née McMicken)
Author of seven children's titles, including several girls' school stories. Sims & Clare describe The Bendon Bequest (1934) as her most conventional and formulaic book, but compare some of her later titles to the works of Josephine Elder. The Schoolgirl Refugee (1940) and Schoolgirls in Peril (1944) deal with the war. Her other titles are Tubby of Maryland Manor (1945), Princess Gwyn (1946), Nancy Finds Herself (1947), and The Forbidden Holiday (1948).

DOUGLAS, MARGARET (dates unknown)
1920s – 1940s
Untraced author of more than 20 romantic novels for J. Leng, including what looks like a mystery, Murder at the "Mike" (1936). Other titles include Diana Dean (1922), Love's Sunlit Way (1924), The Loom of Love (1925), Denholm's Daughter (1929), Nancy Pretty (1931), Riding for a Fall (1935), Though Seas Divide (1937), and For Love of Linda (1941).

Douglas, O.
          see BUCHAN, ANNA

DOUGLAS IRVINE, HELEN [FLORENCE] (29 Feb 1880 – 22 May 1946)
1930s – 1940s
Scottish historian and author of seven novels. 77 Willow Road (1945) appears to be Gothic in themes, based on its jacket description: "Told against the background of a sinister gaslit Victorian house, this is the story of a lovely girl driven to ruin by the vicious jealousy of her older sister." Others seem more romantic in theme. Titles are Magdalena (1936), Mirror of a Dead Lady (1940), Angelic Romance (1941), Sweet is the Rose (1944), Torchlight Procession (1946), and Fray Mario (1949). Her three earliest published works were histories—Royal Palaces of Scotland (1911), History of London (1912), and The Making of Rural Europe (1923). She seems to have died of pneumonia while researching a book in Chile.

DOUGLAS-PULLEYNE, HELEN ELIZABETH (25 Jul 1893 - ????)
(née Douglas, aka Mrs. Douglas-Pulleyne)
1920s
Author of three novels—Spring Sorrel (1926), about a dancer following her love around the world, This, My Son (1927), and The Frantic Master (1927). She was an English lecturer in India in the 1930s, before relocating to Rhodesia, where she was apparently still living in 1969.

DOUIE, MARJORIE [ELIZABETH GILFILLAN] (c1888 – 28 Feb 1946)
1910s
Author of three mystery/thrillers set in exotic locales. The Pointing Man (1917), praised for its vivd portrayal of Burma, features a half-Burmese detective solving a web of false accusations. The Man from Trinidad (1918) takes place in “opium dens in the Far East and haunts of the Underworld in London and abroad.” And The Man Who Tried Everything (1919) features a ne’er-do-well falsely accused in a seditious plot in India. Oddly, the first of these appeared under her name, but the latter two appeared only as “by the author of The Pointing Man.”

DOWDALL, MARY FRANCES HARRIET (11 Feb 1876 – 18 May 1939)
(née Borthwick, aka Hon. Mrs. Dowdall)
1910s – 1920s
Author of seven novels about which information is sparse—The Book of Martha (1913), Joking Apart (1914), The Kaleidoscope (1915), Susie, Yesterday, To-Day, and Forever (1919), Three Loving Ladies (1921), The Tactless Man (1922), and The Second Book of Martha (1923).

DOWLING, NORA O'BEIRNE (c1880 - ????)
(née O'Beirne, earlier married name Callanan)
1920s – 1930s
Author of two novels—The Grinding of the Mills (1926) and Noon-Day Devil (1933). We've not been able to trace her beyond a marriage record.

D’OYLEY, ELIZABETH (27 Jan 1880 – 16 Jun 1959)
1930s – 1950s
Author of at least 10 historical novels, often praised for their vivid atmosphere. Titles are Goslings in the Ashes (1934), Cavalier (1936), Young Jemmy (1947), Even as the Sun (1948), Lord Robert's Wife (1949), The Mired Horse (1951), The English March (1953), Prince Rupert's Daughter (1954), Play Me Fair (1956), and Why, Soldiers, Why? (1957). She also edited numerous anthologies of poetry, essays and diaries, and produced an adaptation of Ben-Hur for use in schools.

DRAKE, MARGARET EVELYN (30 Dec 1904 - 1977)
1940s
Author of a single novel, Chrysantha (1948), described as being about a 19-year-old girl’s search for “a suitable man.” She had earlier published a book about gardens, Challenge to Gardeners (1943).

DREW, ANNE STANTON (c1890 - ????)
(pseudonym of ????)
Author of five romantic novels—Overture (1931), Starlight (1933), The Gay Road (1934), Haven (1935), and The Capable Girl (1937). According to researcher John Herrington, this seems to have been the pseudonym of a well-known actress, but her true identity remains veiled.

DREW, ELIZABETH (17 Dec 1887 - 1965)
(married name Downs)
Critic, biographer, and novelist. She was best known for her critical works, including The Modern Novel (1926) and Jane Welsh and Jane Carlyle (1928). She published one novel, Six Hearts (1930).

Drower, E. S.
          see STEVENS, E[THEL]. S[TEPHANA].

Drury, C. M.
          see ABRAHALL, CLARE HOSKYNS

DU GRIVEL, CLAUDE (29 Apr 1895 – 11 Nov 1964)
(pseudonym of Florence Marie DuGrivel Oxenford, née Jandot)
1940s – 1950s
Mother of actress Daphne Oxenford, known for BBC radio's Life With Mother and a small role on To the Manor Born. Author of three historical novels—King, Queen, Knave (1946), set in "the stirring days of King John and Magna Carta," The Tide Is High (1950), and Shadow King (1952).

DU MAURIER, ANGELA (1 Mar 1904 – 5 Feb 2002)
1930s – 1960s
Sister of Daphne DU MAURIER, daughter of actor Gerald du Maurier, and granddaughter of George du Maurier, author of the bestselling Trilby. Author of 10 novels—The Perplexed Heart (1939), The Spinning Wheel (1940), The Little Less (1941), Treveryan (1942), Lawrence Vane (1946), Reveille (1950), Shallow Waters (1952), The Road to Leenane (1963), Pilgrims by the Way (1967), and The Frailty of Nature (1969). She also published two memoirs—It's Only the Sister (1951), the title of which makes light of the fact that she was perpetually overshadowed by her more famous sister, and Old Maids Remember (1965).

DU MAURIER, DAPHNE (13 May 1907 – 19 Apr 1989)
(married name Browning)
1930s - 1980
Sister of Angela DU MAURIER, daughter of actor Gerald du Maurier, and granddaughter of George du Maurier, author of the bestselling Trilby. Author of sixteen novels and several volumes of stories, as well as acclaimed histories and biographies. Her most famous works remain the classic Gothic novel Rebecca (1938) and the story "The Birds," from her collection The Apple Tree (1952, later reprinted under the titles Kiss Me Again, Stranger and The Birds and Other Stories), both made into classic films by Alfred Hitchcock. It's less well-known that her novella "Not After Midnight," from the collection of the same name (1971, published in the U.S. as Don't Look Now), was the source of Nicolas Roeg's classic thriller Don't Look Now. Her novels Jamaica Inn (1939), Frenchman's Creek (1944), and Hungry Hill (1946) were also made into successful films. Other novels are The Loving Spirit (1931), I'll Never Be Young Again (1932), The Progress of Julius (1933), The King's General (1946), The Parasites (1948), My Cousin Rachel (1951), Mary Anne (1954), The Scapegoat (1957), Castle d'Or (1961), The Flight of the Falcon (1965), The House on the Strand (1969), and Rule Britannia (1972). Her memoir was Myself When Young (1977, aka Growing Pains).

DUCAT, EVA (23 Sept 1875 – 1 Feb 1975)
1930s – 1940s
Friend, mentor, and "musical agent" of William Butler Yeats and author of a memoir, Another Way of Music (1928), which includes mention of many of her famous friends. She later co-wrote three pony stories—The Ponies of Bunts (1933), Sea Ponies: The Story of a Children's Riding Holiday (1935), and Ponies and Caravans: Being Further Adventures from Bunts (1941)—with Marjorie Mary OLIVER.

DUDENEY, MRS. HENRY (21 Oct 1866 – 21 Nov 1945)
(pseudonym of Alice Louisa Dudeney, née Whiffin)
1890s – 1930s
Author of more than 50 volumes of fiction, many of them focused on working class life, which earned her comparisons to Thomas Hardy and American writer Mary Wilkins Freeman. According to OCEF, "Her view of the predicament of women and the relationship of the sexes is extremely pessimistic; and she paints a dark picture of the life of rural agricultural labourers." Titles include Hagar of Homerton (1898), Folly Corner (1899), Spindle and Plough (1901), The Wise Woods (1905), A Country Bunch (1905), Trespass (1909), A Large Room (1910), Set to Partners (1914), The Head of the Family (1917), The Next Move (1924), Seed Pods (1927), The Peep Show (1929), The House in the High Street (1931), Put Up the Shutters (1935), and Petty Cash (1937). Her diaries appeared as A Lewes Diary, 1916-1944 in 1998.

Dudley, Helen
          see HOPE-SIMPSON, JACYNTH

DUFF, JANET (4 Jun 1872 – ?1946)
(death year uncertain but probable)
1930s
Author of two novels, The Gay Cockerel (1936) and Black Ritter (1937). A publisher blurb for the latter calls it "A swift-moving drama of love, passion and thwarted ambition played against a background of great wealth in London and Austria." She was presumably also the author of an acting guide published in 1934.

DUFF, MILDRED [BLANCHE] (26 Jan 1860 – 8 Dec 1932)
1900s - 1910
Salvation Army officer and author of various biographies for children, focused on major historical and religious figures. She also published at least two works of children's fiction, Rude Rosa (1904) and Rosa's Resolve (1910). Among her non-fiction was also a biography of Salvation Army co-founder Catherine Booth (1901).

Duffy, Hans
          see CLIVE, MARY

DUKE, WINIFRED [AMY] (22 Mar 1890 – 4 Apr 1962)
1920s – 1950s
Author of nearly 50 volumes of fiction, specializing in historical works and tales focused on the psychology of crime. She seems to have had a particular interest in Scotland's criminal court verdict of "Not Proven," the effects of which she explored in Bastard Verdict (1934) Skin for Skin (1935), and The Dancing of the Fox (1956). Other fiction includes The House of Ogilvie (1922), The Laird (1925), set in the mid-1700s, Heir to Kings (1927), about Bonnie Prince Charlie, The Drove Road (1930), Magpie's Hoard (1934), Room for a Ghost (1937), Death and His Sweetheart (1938), The Spider's Web (1945), Funeral March of a Marionette (1945), Dirge for a Dead Witch (1949), The Needful Journey (1950), Lost Cause (1953), and My Grim Chamberlain (1955). I've written about several of Duke's novels—see here.

DUNCAN, JANE (10 Mar 1910 – 20 Oct 1976)
(pseudonym of Elizabeth Jane Cameron, aka Janet Sandison)
1950s – 1970s
Author of nearly 30 novels, as well as several works for children. She is noted for the fact that, having written for years without attempting to be published (and having apparently discarded many manuscripts), she had her first seven novels accepted by Macmillan all at once, an unprecedented beginning to her career. Those seven, as well as twelve additional titles, are in her “my friend” or Reachfar series, which traces the life and friendships of Janet Sandison from her childhood in the Scottish highlands through numerous life changes. According to ODNB, the novels "explore the mysteries of friendship and change, with the remembered croft, Reachfar, as symbol of value. A vanished highland life is evoked idyllically in The Miss Boyds (1959), and darkly in Flora (1962), but Duncan's range and complexity are remarkable, as seen in the witty Muriel (1959), the tragic Macleans (1967), the meditative Hungry Generation (1968), and the intimate Sashie (1972)." Duncan later published four novels as "Janet Sandison," purported to be written by the narrator of her other books—Jean in the Morning (1964), Jean at Noon, or, Summer's Treasure (1971), Jean in the Twilight, or, the Mists of Autumn (1973), and Jean Towards Another Day, or, Can Spring Be Far Away? (1975).

DUNKERLEY, ERICA [ISOBEL] (16 Feb 1890 – 28 Dec 1959)
(aka Pamela Hamilton, aka Erica Oxenham)
1920s – 1930s
Sister of Elsie OXENHAM. Author of four novels—Out of the Strong (1925), Whin Fell (1927), Southernwood (1929), and Then Came Nicholas (1936). She later wrote a biography of the girls’ father, J. O.: A Life of John Oxenham, pseudonym of W. A. Dunkerley (1942). Of Whin Fell, the New York Times said, "This novel of the English countryside is concerned with the age-old themes of love and labor and human service. Margery Eager, the central figure, is a girl who at first is vaguely discontented with life, not because she finds her environment particularly onerous, but because she has no proper vent for her abundant energies."

Dunlop, Mona
          see HOCKING, [NAOMI] ANNE

DUNN, GERTRUDE [WILLOUGHBY CECILIA] (1884 – 12 Jan 1949)
(née Meade)
1920s
Not to be confused with Gertrude COLMORE, whose real name was also Dunn. Author of three novels—Unholy Depths (1926), The Mark of the Bat (1928), and So Forever (1929)—dealing, respectively, with ghosts, vampires, and the elixir of life.

DUNN, GWEN[DOLEN MARGARET] (1917 – 26 Oct 2015)
(née Geary, prior married name Gibson)
1950s
Teacher and author of a single novel, Simon’s Last Year (1959), about a village school, apparently adapted from a series of broadcasts Dunn did on the topic, based on her own experiences. She later published a book about the effects of televisions on young children.

DUNN, MARY (6 Apr 1900 – 2 Feb 1958)
1930s – 1950s
Children’s author, travel writer, and humorist. Best known for her creation of Lady Addle, a pretentious Edwardian precursor to Hyacinth Bucket, in Lady Addle Remembers (1936) and its sequels, Lady Addle at Home (1945), The Memoirs of Mipsie (1947), and Round the Year with Lady Addle (1948). She also published what appears to be an unrelated novel, Beware of the Dog: A Study in Social Disease in Ten Lampposts and Seven Diversions (1938). Her children's titles include The Adventures of Johnny Balloon (1941), Mossy Green Theatre (1949), Mountain Mystery (1951), Border Mystery (1952), and a career novel, Cookery Kate (1955). In later years, she published a series of travel books, beginning with We Go to Paris in 1951.

DUNNING, [RHONA] KATHERINE (28 Jun 1900 – 21 Apr 1975)
(née Rowe)
1930s, 1950s
Author of four novels—Stephen Sherrin (1932), The Spring Begins (1934), Whatever the Heart Appoints (1950) and The Bright Blue Eye (1952). Bookman called the first "sensitive and charming," and Saturday Review described the theme of The Spring Begins as "[e]motional turmoil among the domestics of a large English country estate." I wrote about her here.

DUNSTAN, MARY (2 Mar 1901 – 13 Dec 1956)
(pseudonym of Patience Mary Agar-Robartes, née Basset)
1930s – 1950s
Author of eleven novels. Her debut, Jagged Skyline (1935, aka Snow Against the Skyline) is about mountain climbing. Live On (1936), set in Scotland and Austria, contains an occult element, as a young man comes under the spell of a stone circle in the Highlands. Banners in Bavaria (1939) was praised by Time & Tide for its "extraordinarily impressive picture of Munich on the night of the Anschluss celebrations." The Driving Fear (1946) has a wartime spy/murder element in the unlikely person of an English governess resident in Germany since before WWI who takes up spying in WWII. In Winter Rhapsody (1947), a woman becomes the companion of the widow of a man who jilted her, with complications. He Climbed Alone (1948) is set in the Austrian Tyrol and involves a peasant who saves his village, perhaps for the wrong reasons. What Comes After (1950) deals with a young woman back home in Scotland after serving in the ATS during the war, and her difficulties adjusting to postwar life. She Was Always There (1951) is a portrait of a children's nurse, while Tom Tiddler's Ground (1952) deals with a young man’s first love while living with his great-grandmother in an isolated Scots glen. Walled City (1955), set in Malta, is about the encounter between an adventurer and a woman who has shut herself off from the world. Her final novel, Trusty and Well-Beloved (1956), is historical, about St. Ives and the defense of the North Cornish shores during the Civil War.

DURANT. M[ABEL ELIZA AGNES]. (10 Feb 1857 – 11 Jun 1924)
1900s – 1910s
Author of five novels—A Raised Siege (1909), First-Fruits (1915), Repentance (1917), Rainbow Ranch: A Canadian Romance (1918), and White Harvest (1919).

DURHAM, MARY (dates unknown)
1940s – 1950s
Author of eleven mystery novels, most featuring series character Inspector York, but her identity remains veiled in obscurity. Why Pick on Pickles? (1945) features the bewildering murder of an apparently utterly blameless man. Hate Is My Livery (1945) is about the stabbing death of an M.P. Keeps Death His Court (1946) deals with murder committed at a Christmas party. In Cornish Mystery (1946), even the inspector investigating the case gets abducted, among other intriguing events. In Crime Insoluble (1947), two school friends decide to commit the perfect murder. Murder by Multiplication (1948) features “an exceedingly ingenious, yet simple, murder.” Corpse Errant (1949) deals with a landowner’s new secretary, who upon arrival discovers a corpse in her bedroom. Castle Mandragora (1950), the Depression causes a well-to-do man to go as footman to the title castle, where he finds both murder and romance. Forked Lightning (1951) has a heroine in love with a man even after witnessing him committing murder. The other two, about which I could locate no details, are Murder Has Charms (1948) and The Devil Was Sick (1952).

DÜRING, STELLA M[ARIA]. (14 Jul 1858 – 1 May 1933)
(née Robinson, possibly later changed to Jocelyn or Josling)
1890s – 1930s
Author of about 13 novels and romantic tales—Between the Devil and the Deep Sea (1898), Malicious Fortune (1901), Disinherited (1908), The End of the Rainbow (1909), Love's Privilege (1911), In the Springtime of Life (1912), The Temptation of Carlton Earle (1920), Her Second Best (1923), The Girl Who Came Home (1926), A Lover from the Clouds (1928), Kitty's Masquerade (1928), The Girl and the Gold (1929), and The One Who Knew (1932). She also wrote periodical fiction. She appears to have actually been born Maria Stella Robinson, but apparently switched her names for writing purposes.

DYKE, WATSON (11 Mar 1875 – 12 Jun 1949)
(pseudonym of May Bradley)
1890s – 1920s
Author of four novels spread across three decades. The Monthly Packet said that her first, Craiktrees (1897), was "monstrously overweighted with dialect." According to the Outlook, her second, As Others See Us (1899), is about "a silly but open-hearted, a deceitful but ingenuous governess in a seaside boarding school." The Hunter (1918), published in the U.S. where Bradley lived for a time, appears to be set in the rural U.S. The fourth and last title was Cousin Matthew (1929).

DYMOKE, JULIET (28 Jun 1919 – 7 Dec 1997)
(married name de Schanschieff)
1950s – 1990s
Screenwriter and author of more than 30 works of fiction, including numerous historical novels. Titles include The Sons of the Tribune: An Adventure on the Roman Wall (1956), The Orange Sash (1958), Born for Victory (1960), Treason in November (1961), Bend Sinister (1962), Henry of the High Rock (1971), Serpent in Eden (1973), Prisoner of Rome (1975), six volumes of her Plantagenets series (1978-1980), A Kind of Warfare (1981), The Queen's Diamond (1985), Hollanders House (1991), and A Fragile Marriage (1995).

DYSON, ELIZABETH [MARY] (27 Feb 1915 – 14 Oct 1991)
(married name Sacker)
1950s – 1960s
Author of seven historical novels, most with Scottish settings. With Swords in Their Lips (1956) and King's Cavalier (1960) have 17th century settings, while Sassenach Wife (1960), about a young English woman who marries and moves to a Scots castle only to find her life may be in danger, seems to have thriller elements. The exception to her Scottish settings is presumably Virginian Heritage (1961). Her other titles are The Dancing Highwayman (1954), Proud Suitor (1959), and The Frivolous Puritan (1961).


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