Mary Rackham was born in Norwich on 14th August 1848 to a merchant family. Little is known of her early life and her biography only re-appears in September 1871 with marriage to Fairman Joseph Mann, a farmer with 800 acres. Mary moved to Shropham, Norfolk and became involved with the workhouse, visiting the sick and other unfortunates of the parish, her observations and experiences a valuable source for her later stories. She took up writing, partly to offset the dreary village life of her surroundings, in the 1880s and published her first novel, ‘The Parish of Hilby’ (1883) at her own expense. It was well received by the critics. Thus began a career that spanning three decades provided thirty-three novels, hundreds of short stories, and fourteen plays. Her work was largely focused on rural life in Norfolk and centered on the fictional town of Dulditch, with grim but authentic accounts of poverty and deprivation. Her marriage produced one boy and three girls. With her husband's death in 1913, she moved to Sheringham. She is regarded as a major contributor to East Anglian literature with particular praise given to her short stories.Mary E Mann died on 19th May 1929. She was 80. Her grave-marker is a carved open book with the epitaph ‘We bring our years to an end, as if it were a tale that is told’.
Mary Rackham was born in Norwich on 14th August 1848 to a merchant family. Little is known of her early life and her biography only re-appears in September 1871 with marriage to Fairman Joseph Mann, a farmer with 800 acres. Mary moved to Shropham, Norfolk and became involved with the workhouse, visiting the sick and other unfortunates of the parish, her observations and experiences a valuable source for her later stories. She took up writing, partly to offset the dreary village life of her surroundings, in the 1880s and published her first novel, ‘The Parish of Hilby’ (1883) at her own expense. It was well received by the critics. Thus began a career that spanning three decades provided thirty-three novels, hundreds of short stories, and fourteen plays. Her work was largely focused on rural life in Norfolk and centered on the fictional town of Dulditch, with grim but authentic accounts of poverty and deprivation. Her marriage produced one boy and three girls. With her husband's death in 1913, she moved to Sheringham. She is regarded as a major contributor to East Anglian literature with particular praise given to her short stories.Mary E Mann died on 19th May 1929. She was 80. Her grave-marker is a carved open book with the epitaph ‘We bring our years to an end, as if it were a tale that is told’.
Mary Rackham was born in Norwich on 14th August 1848 to a merchant family. Little is known of her early life and her biography only re-appears in September 1871 with marriage to Fairman Joseph Mann, a farmer with 800 acres. Mary moved to Shropham, Norfolk and became involved with the workhouse, visiting the sick and other unfortunates of the parish, her observations and experiences a valuable source for her later stories. She took up writing, partly to offset the dreary village life of her surroundings, in the 1880s and published her first novel, ‘The Parish of Hilby’ (1883) at her own expense. It was well received by the critics. Thus began a career that spanning three decades provided thirty-three novels, hundreds of short stories, and fourteen plays. Her work was largely focused on rural life in Norfolk and centered on the fictional town of Dulditch, with grim but authentic accounts of poverty and deprivation. Her marriage produced one boy and three girls. With her husband's death in 1913, she moved to Sheringham. She is regarded as a major contributor to East Anglian literature with particular praise given to her short stories.Mary E Mann died on 19th May 1929. She was 80. Her grave-marker is a carved open book with the epitaph ‘We bring our years to an end, as if it were a tale that is told’.
Mary Rackham was born in Norwich on 14th August 1848 to a merchant family. Little is known of her early life and her biography only re-appears in September 1871 with marriage to Fairman Joseph Mann, a farmer with 800 acres. Mary moved to Shropham, Norfolk and became involved with the workhouse, visiting the sick and other unfortunates of the parish, her observations and experiences a valuable source for her later stories. She took up writing, partly to offset the dreary village life of her surroundings, in the 1880s and published her first novel, ‘The Parish of Hilby’ (1883) at her own expense. It was well received by the critics. Thus began a career that spanning three decades provided thirty-three novels, hundreds of short stories, and fourteen plays. Her work was largely focused on rural life in Norfolk and centered on the fictional town of Dulditch, with grim but authentic accounts of poverty and deprivation. Her marriage produced one boy and three girls. With her husband's death in 1913, she moved to Sheringham. She is regarded as a major contributor to East Anglian literature with particular praise given to her short stories.Mary E Mann died on 19th May 1929. She was 80. Her grave-marker is a carved open book with the epitaph ‘We bring our years to an end, as if it were a tale that is told’.
Mary Rackham was born in Norwich on 14th August 1848 to a merchant family. Little is known of her early life and her biography only re-appears in September 1871 with marriage to Fairman Joseph Mann, a farmer with 800 acres. Mary moved to Shropham, Norfolk and became involved with the workhouse, visiting the sick and other unfortunates of the parish, her observations and experiences a valuable source for her later stories. She took up writing, partly to offset the dreary village life of her surroundings, in the 1880s and published her first novel, ‘The Parish of Hilby’ (1883) at her own expense. It was well received by the critics. Thus began a career that spanning three decades provided thirty-three novels, hundreds of short stories, and fourteen plays. Her work was largely focused on rural life in Norfolk and centered on the fictional town of Dulditch, with grim but authentic accounts of poverty and deprivation. Her marriage produced one boy and three girls. With her husband's death in 1913, she moved to Sheringham. She is regarded as a major contributor to East Anglian literature with particular praise given to her short stories.Mary E Mann died on 19th May 1929. She was 80. Her grave-marker is a carved open book with the epitaph ‘We bring our years to an end, as if it were a tale that is told’.
Mary Rackham was born in Norwich on 14th August 1848 to a merchant family. Little is known of her early life and her biography only re-appears in September 1871 with marriage to Fairman Joseph Mann, a farmer with 800 acres. Mary moved to Shropham, Norfolk and became involved with the workhouse, visiting the sick and other unfortunates of the parish, her observations and experiences a valuable source for her later stories. She took up writing, partly to offset the dreary village life of her surroundings, in the 1880s and published her first novel, ‘The Parish of Hilby’ (1883) at her own expense. It was well received by the critics. Thus began a career that spanning three decades provided thirty-three novels, hundreds of short stories, and fourteen plays. Her work was largely focused on rural life in Norfolk and centered on the fictional town of Dulditch, with grim but authentic accounts of poverty and deprivation. Her marriage produced one boy and three girls. With her husband's death in 1913, she moved to Sheringham. She is regarded as a major contributor to East Anglian literature with particular praise given to her short stories.Mary E Mann died on 19th May 1929. She was 80. Her grave-marker is a carved open book with the epitaph ‘We bring our years to an end, as if it were a tale that is told’.
Mary Rackham was born in Norwich on 14th August 1848 to a merchant family. Little is known of her early life and her biography only re-appears in September 1871 with marriage to Fairman Joseph Mann, a farmer with 800 acres. Mary moved to Shropham, Norfolk and became involved with the workhouse, visiting the sick and other unfortunates of the parish, her observations and experiences a valuable source for her later stories. She took up writing, partly to offset the dreary village life of her surroundings, in the 1880s and published her first novel, ‘The Parish of Hilby’ (1883) at her own expense. It was well received by the critics. Thus began a career that spanning three decades provided thirty-three novels, hundreds of short stories, and fourteen plays. Her work was largely focused on rural life in Norfolk and centered on the fictional town of Dulditch, with grim but authentic accounts of poverty and deprivation. Her marriage produced one boy and three girls. With her husband's death in 1913, she moved to Sheringham. She is regarded as a major contributor to East Anglian literature with particular praise given to her short stories.Mary E Mann died on 19th May 1929. She was 80. Her grave-marker is a carved open book with the epitaph ‘We bring our years to an end, as if it were a tale that is told’.
Let’s be clear. We are all equal under the law. However, even in these more modern times that is not an absolute and still remains a distant ambition for many. In the days when Britain ruled the waves and bestrode the world as its policeman and plunderer in chief it also subjugated half of its own people to second class status. Women were chattel and property. There were some exceptions based on wealth and birthright but for the overwhelming majority your lot was to fall in with the rules and do as you were told. Many did.But whilst male society sought to place obstacles in the path to equality, it could not deny their literary talents, which many times they circumvented by using male pseudonyms. However, the soaring sales of magazines and periodicals during the Victorian Age meant they had voracious appetites for literature, whatever the sex of its gender.Dozens of authors appeared to fill the need. Narratives had new ideas. Characters were emboldened by societal changes and the female voice taking responsibility.The women included here are talents that dazzle. Put them up against anyone and they rise to the top. Whether they remain with an avid readership today or faded to obscurity with the passing of the times their quality remains undimmed. 1 - Women of Wonder - Murder - An Introduction2 - The Murder In Saltashe Woods by Baroness Orczy3 - A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell4 - In The Dark by Edith Nesbit5 - Was It An Illusion. A Parson's Story by Amelia Edwards6 - Mrs Raeburn's Waxwork by Lady Eleanor Smith7 - Talma Gordon by Pauline E Hopkins8 - A Twin Identity by Edith Stewart Drewery9 - Why Herbert Killed His Mother by Winifred Holtby10 - The Octoroon's Revenge by Ruth D Todd11 - An Expiation by Arabella Kenealy12 - Water Running Out by Ethel Lina White13 - Ben Pitcher's Elly by Mary E Mann14 - No 5 Branch Line. The Engineer by Amelia Edwards15 - The Mysterious Death on the Underground Railroad by Baroness Emmuska Orczy16 - The 4.15 Express by Amelia Edwards
