Mary Anne Barker

-
Standard Name: Barker, Mary Anne
Birth Name: Mary Anne Stewart
Nickname: Annie
Titled: Lady Barker
Married Name: Mary Anne Broome
Married Name: Mrs Broome
Titled: Lady Broome
Mary Anne Barker (later Broome: she published both as Lady Barker and Lady Broome) put her considerable talent to work during the 1870s in London journalism (reviewing, reporting, editing) and in miscellaneous writing: stories for children and adults, and books on domestic management and cookery. She had already written letters home from her earliest sojourns abroad. Turning her letters from in New Zealand into a highly successful travel book laid the foundation for the writing for which she is best remembered, vividly describing one far-flung corner after another of the British Empire.
Black and white photograph of Mary Anne Barker. She is seated, eyes cast down, apparently in mourning since her dress and shawl are black. Her dark, gleaming hair is centre-parted and pinned back.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
death Anna Brassey
These were given to a close friend, Mary Anne, Lady Broome (formerly Barker), who edited the book but decided that AB 's brief jottings about her health were too private and sacred for publication.
Barker, Mary Anne, and Anna Brassey. “Preface”. The Last Voyage, Longmans, Green, 1889, p. iii - vi.
v
Friends, Associates Anna Brassey
She became a close friend of at least one fellow travel-writer, Mary Anne Barker , who was known first as Lady Barker and then as Lady Broome.
Reception Mary Louisa Molesworth
Mary Anne Barker , sailing from England to join her husband in Mauritius in early 1878, took a copy of The Cuckoo Clock which she had specially requested from her publisher, Macmillan .
Gilderdale, Betty. The Seven Lives of Lady Barker. Canterbury University Press, 2009.
248
Roger Lancelyn Green
Textual Production Anna Brassey
Two years after AB 's death, her final and uncompleted work, The Last Voyage, was published, with a brief memoir by her husband , and extensive editing and an introduction by her friend Mary Anne, Lady Broome (formerly Barker)

Timeline

14 April-31 October 1873
An International Exhibition was held in London on the model of the Great Exhibition of 1851.
“The Times Digital Archive 1785-2007”. Thompson Gale: The Times Digital Archive.
27641 (19 March 1873): 5; 27834 (30 October 1873): 6

Texts

Barker, Mary Anne. A Christmas Cake: in Four Quarters. Macmillan, 1871.
Barker, Mary Anne. A Year’s Housekeeping in South Africa. Macmillan, 1877.
Barker, Mary Anne. Colonial Memories. Smith, Elder, 1904.
Barker, Mary Anne, and Edward Bickersteth, editors. Evening Hours. A Family Magazine.
Barker, Mary Anne. First Principles of Cookery. Macmillan, 1874.
Barker, Mary Anne. Houses and Housekeeping. William Hunt, 1876.
Barker, Mary Anne. Letters to Guy. Macmillan, 1885.
Barker, Mary Anne, and Anna Brassey. “Preface”. The Last Voyage, Longmans, Green, 1889, p. iii - vi.
Barker, Mary Anne. Spring Comedies. Macmillan Co., 1871.
Barker, Mary Anne. Station Amusements in New Zealand. W. Hunt, 1873.
Barker, Mary Anne. Station Life in New Zealand. Whitcombe and Tombs, 1950.
Barker, Mary Anne. Station Life in New Zealand. Macmillan, 1970.
Barker, Mary Anne. Stories About. Macmillan, 1871.
Barker, Mary Anne. Sybil’s Book. Macmillan and Co., 1874.
Brassey, Anna, and Thomas, first Earl Brassey. The Last Voyage. Editor Barker, Mary Anne, Longmans, Green, 1889.
Barker, Mary Anne. The White Rat, and Some Other Stories. Macmillan and Co., 1880.
Barker, Mary Anne. This Troublesome World; or, ’Bet of Stow’. Hatchards, 1875.
Broome, Sir Frederick Napier. “Tracts bearing on the War between France and Germany”. Times, translated by. Mary Anne Barker, No. 27177, p. 4.
Barker, Mary Anne. Travelling About over New and Old Ground. Routledge, 1872.