Maude Robinson was a Quaker writer of short stories

Short Stories

Short Stories may refer to:*A plural for Short story*Short Stories , an American pulp magazine published from 1890-1959*Short Stories, a 1954 collection by O. E...

 and a memoir

Memoir

A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...

 about growing up on a South Downs

South Downs

The South Downs is a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen Valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, near Eastbourne, East Sussex, in the east. It is bounded on its northern side by a steep escarpment, from whose...

 farm at Saddlescombe

Saddlescombe

Saddlescombe is a hamlet in the Newtimber Parish of Mid Sussex district of West Sussex, England. It lies on the road from Poynings to Brighton, 5.4 miles northwest of Brighton....

 in the 1860s. She was the younger sister of the paediatrician Louis Robinson

Louis Robinson

Louis Robinson was a 19th Century English physician, paediatrician and author. An ardent evolutionist, he helped pioneer modern child medicine during the later Victorian era, writing prolifically in journals on the emerging science of paediatrics...

.

Life and works

Maude Robinson described her stories as "simple narratives founded on fact... sketches from real life of men and women who lived and laboured for the spreading of the Truth as it had been revealed to them, and for the help and healing of their fellowmen."

The Time of Her Life is a collection of 12 such stories woven together from letters of Quakers in England from 1682 to 1875. In Wedded in Prison she draws on first-hand written accounts of Quaker experiences, records and traditions of her own ancestors, and oral history. She writes of Quaker courage in the face of religious persecution

Religious persecution

Religious persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group of individuals as a response to their religious beliefs or affiliations or lack thereof....

 and the efforts of Quakers to alleviate human suffering in the Irish Famine and the Franco-Prussian War

Franco-Prussian War

The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...

. Contemporary reviewers commented on the wholesomeness, homely fragrance and charm of her stories.