Evelyn Everett-Green
Encyclopedia
Evelyn Ward Everett-Green (17 November 1856, London - 23 April 1932, Funchal) was an English novelist who started her writing career with improving and pious stories for children, and later wrote historical fiction for older girls, and then adult romantic fiction.
She wrote about 350 books: more than 200 under her own name, and others using the pen-names H. F. E., Cecil Adair, E. Ward, or Evelyn Dare.
and her father George Pycock Green was an artist.
The family were Methodists.
During a year at Bedford College, London (1872–1873), Everett-Green wrote her first novel, and she continued to write while studying at the London Academy of Music.
Her brother's death in 1876 ended her plans to go to India
with him, and she occupied herself with good works, including Sunday School
teaching and nursing.
Though it was soon followed by more, she found writing at home difficult, and town winters did not suit her health.
In 1883 she went to live outside London
with Catherine Mainwaring Sladen, and in the 1890s and early 1900s they had homes in Albury, Surrey
.
In 1911 they moved abroad and eventually settled in Madeira
.
During her time in Albury she wrote numerous historical novels, and fewer moral tales for the Religious Tract Society
.
Her novel about Joan of Arc
, Called of Her Country (1903), later re-published as A Heroine of France, presents Joan as a feminine "Angelic Maid" in white armour whose inspiring adventures were undertaken in a dutiful spirit.
Much of Everett-Green's fiction was aimed at girls, but she also wrote boys' adventure stories, like A Gordon Highlander (1901).
After moving abroad she wrote romantic novels for adults, often using the pseudonym Cecil Adair.
She wrote about 350 books: more than 200 under her own name, and others using the pen-names H. F. E., Cecil Adair, E. Ward, or Evelyn Dare.
Early life and work
Her mother was the historian Mary Anne Everett GreenMary Anne Everett Green
Mary Anne Everett Green, née Wood, was an English historian. After establishing a reputation for scholarship with two multi-volume books on royal ladies and noblewomen, she was invited to assist in preparing guides, or "calendars", to a collection of hitherto disorganised historical state papers...
and her father George Pycock Green was an artist.
The family were Methodists.
During a year at Bedford College, London (1872–1873), Everett-Green wrote her first novel, and she continued to write while studying at the London Academy of Music.
Her brother's death in 1876 ended her plans to go to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
with him, and she occupied herself with good works, including Sunday School
Sunday school
Sunday school is the generic name for many different types of religious education pursued on Sundays by various denominations.-England:The first Sunday school may have been opened in 1751 in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham. Another early start was made by Hannah Ball, a native of High Wycombe in...
teaching and nursing.
Later life and work
In 1880 her first published work, Tom Tempest's Victory, appeared.Though it was soon followed by more, she found writing at home difficult, and town winters did not suit her health.
In 1883 she went to live outside London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
with Catherine Mainwaring Sladen, and in the 1890s and early 1900s they had homes in Albury, Surrey
Albury, Surrey
Albury is a village and civil parish in the borough of Guildford in Surrey, England, about south-east of Guildford town centre. The village is within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Site of Special Scientific Interest....
.
In 1911 they moved abroad and eventually settled in Madeira
Madeira
Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...
.
During her time in Albury she wrote numerous historical novels, and fewer moral tales for the Religious Tract Society
Religious Tract Society
The Religious Tract Society, founded 1799, 56 Paternoster Row and 65 St. Paul's Chuchyard, was the original name of a major British publisher of Christian literature intended initially for evangelism, and including literature aimed at children, women, and the poor.The RTS is also notable for being...
.
Her novel about Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc
Saint Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" , is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the...
, Called of Her Country (1903), later re-published as A Heroine of France, presents Joan as a feminine "Angelic Maid" in white armour whose inspiring adventures were undertaken in a dutiful spirit.
Much of Everett-Green's fiction was aimed at girls, but she also wrote boys' adventure stories, like A Gordon Highlander (1901).
After moving abroad she wrote romantic novels for adults, often using the pseudonym Cecil Adair.
Writing online
-
- Books available include:
- A Heroine of France
- In the Wars of the Roses
- The Secret Chamber at Chad
Sources
- Oxford Companion to Edwardian Fiction 1900-14: New Voices in the Age of Uncertainty, ed.Kemp, Mitchell, Trotter (OUP 1997)
- Hilary Clare, in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- Penny Brown, Reinventing the Maid: images of Joan of Arc in French and English children's literature, in The Presence of the Past in Children's Literature ed. Ann Lawson Lucas (Praeger 2003)
Further reading
- Kimberley Reynolds, Girls Only?: gender and popular children's fiction in Britain, 1880-1910 (Harvester Wheatsheaf 1990)
- Pictures from French and Italian translations of Drifted ashore or A Child without a Name