E. M. Almedingen (1898–1971) was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 novelist, biographer and children's author of Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n origin.

On her mother's side, she was descended from the aristocratic Poltoratsky family; her maternal grandfather was Serge Poltoratzky

Serge Poltoratzky

Serge Poltoratzky , 1803-1884, was a Russian literary scholar, bibliophile and humanitarian. His major literary work was the Dictionary of Russian Authors, which he worked on for decades. He travelled extensively in Europe to find books and manuscripts needed for this work...

, the literary scholar and bibliophile who ended his days in exile, shuttling between France and England. His daughter Olga, the novelist's mother, grew up in Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

 but was fascinated by her father's native Russia and in the early 1880s moved there, marrying Alexander Almedingen (of a family that had moved "from Spain... to Saxony, from Saxony to Austria, from Austria to Russia"), who had turned his back on his family's military traditions to become a scientist. After her father abandoned his family in 1900, they lived in increasingly impoverished circumstances, well described in her memoir Tomorrow Will Come, but the author was able to attend the Xenia Institute

Nicholas Palace

Nicholas Palace was one of several St Petersburg palaces designed by Andreas Stackensneider for the children of Nicholas I of Russia...

 and eke out a living in the increasingly desperate times of revolution and civil war

Russian Civil War

The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...

. In September 1922 she managed to get permission to leave the country and went to England, where she became a well-known children's author. In 1941 she won the $5,000 Atlantic Monthly nonfiction prize for Tomorrow Will Come. Five years later she moved to Frogmore, a house near Upton Magna

Upton Magna

Upton Magna is a village in Shropshire, England.Magna is latin meaning "great". Therefore the translation of Upton Magna is "Great Upton".Nearby are the villages of Uffington, Rodington, Withington and the wooded Haughmond Hill....

 in Shropshire

Shropshire

Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...

, where she remained until her death.

Writings

• The Lion of the North (1938)
• Tomorrow Will Come (1941)
• Frossia (1943)
• Fair Haven (1956)
• Little Stairway (1960)
• Catherine the Great: a portrait (1963)
• The Unnamed Stream and Other Poems (1965)
• Little Katia (1966)
• Young Mark (1967)
• Charlemagne: a study (1968)