Flora Macdonald Mayor (F. M. Mayor) was born in 1872 and read History at Cambridge. Five of her novels have been published, one posthumously, and a collection of stories for children. But it is this novel, published in 1913 and The Rector's Daughter, published in 1924 which best express her artistic genius. After life long ill-health she died in 1932.

Mayor's achievement is to take the 'superfluous female' of the Victorian census return, and transform her into a figure of luminous importance

Flora Macdonald Mayor (F. M. Mayor) was born in 1872 and read History at Cambridge. Five of her novels have been published, one posthumously, and a collection of stories for children. But it is this novel, published in 1913 and The Rector's Daughter, published in 1924 which best express her artistic genius. After life long ill-health she died in 1932.

Mayor's achievement is to take the 'superfluous female' of the Victorian census return, and transform her into a figure of luminous importance

Flora Macdonald Mayor (F. M. Mayor) was born in 1872 and read History at Cambridge. Five of her novels have been published, one posthumously, and a collection of stories for children. But it is this novel, published in 1913 and The Rector's Daughter, published in 1924 which best express her artistic genius. After life long ill-health she died in 1932.

Mayor's achievement is to take the 'superfluous female' of the Victorian census return, and transform her into a figure of luminous importance