Author profiles

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y

Sara Maitland

Publishing from the later twentieth century, SM has produced poetry, short stories, novels, feminist theology, biography, hagiography, social and literary criticism, and gardening books. She has written for radio, television, and periodicals.
Sara Maitland Portrait of Sara Maitland. She is sitting on a chair with her arms crossed to rest on its back. She wears a grey turtleneck and what looks like a vest in burnt orange and yellow colours.

Elizabeth Major

-
EM 's one published collection, 1656, contains religious prose and verse. Of these the verse is much the more interesting.

Bathsua Makin

-
The seventeenth-century BM , long famous as a writer on pedagogy and defender of learning for women, is now known to have been one of the earliest middle-class Englishwomen to publish poems. She relied heavily...
Bathsua Makin Photograph of an etching of Bathsua Makin by William Marshall after an unidentified artist, 1640s. She is shown from the waist up, seated, and holding a small book, with draped curtains and a window behind her. She is wearing a simple dark dress with large white collar, white cuffs, and pleats down the front. Her hair is curly and shoulder length, with a small cap or hair-band. A Latin inscription round the oval frame mentions her position as tutor to the Princess Elizabeth and her skill in Latin, Greek, an

Lucas Malet

-
LM , author of eighteen novels in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, was a great admirer of French fiction. Her books are hard to classify generically, having elements of the sensation novel (adultery...
Lucas Malet Head-and-shoulders photograph of Lucas Malet, albumen print, c. 1894. She is seen in profile. with strong features and dark wavy hair in a bun on the nape of her neck. She has a dark choker round her neck and a deep frill edging her dress. The oval portrait has a leaf-pattern background with Malet's non-literary name in capitals: "Mary Kingsley Harrison".

Sir Thomas Malory

-

Judith Man

-
JM became a translator at eighteen, and published her work soon afterwards, in 1640.

Delarivier Manley

-
DM was a pioneer in many fields: poetry, drama, journalism, and fiction, and the genres with which the fiction of her period interlocked: letters, soft pornography, satire, secret history, romance autobiography, and political polemic...
Delarivier Manley Mythological frontispiece to the "New Atlantis", showing three female figures. Astrea, goddess of justice, sits on a cloud holding her scales and sword, bare-breasted Truth deploys her trumpet in mid air, and Virtue reclines on earth in the guise of the Duchess of Ormonde. An inscription invokes "Sacred Truth" and the reforming power of satire.

Ethel Mannin

-
EM began publishing stories at the age of ten but was twenty-three, with a grounding in journalism and editing, before she began to publish longer works. She then continued to do so with gusto: by...
Ethel Mannin Black and white photograph of Ethel Mannin, shown from the shoulders up. She is wearing a dark suit over a light collared shirt, and her smooth hair is pulled back into a bun at the nape of her neck.

Anne Manning

-
AM published, from mid-nineteenth century onwards, over fifty titles. She is most famous for her historical novels, some of them issued as a pastiche of documents centuries old. She also wrote a series of novels...

Olivia Manning

-
OM began publishing shortly before the Second World War. She produced thirteen novels, as well as short stories and non-fiction including historical and topographical writing. Her best known works are her two highly praised trilogies...

Katherine Mansfield

-
KM 's life was short and much of her writing experimental or oriented towards earning. Though contemporary reviewers sometimes condescended to her youth, gender, and magazine publication, she is now seen as one of our...
Katherine Mansfield Black-and-white portrait photo of Katherine Mansfield. She is pictures in profile.

Hilary Mantel

The author of twelve novels (ranging from political thrillers through social satire, comedy of manners, and near-gothic), still at the height of her career, HM has been likened to Muriel Spark or Edna O'Brien for...

Jane Marcet

-
JM was a prolific early-nineteenth-century scientific populariser and later a children's writer. Her textbooks on specialised fields of science and on political economy (designed for school-age girls, but much used by professional men) take the...
Jane Marcet Photograph of a drawing of Jane Marcet, seated, wearing a dress with a broad skirt and wide sleeves. She has a scarf wrapped around her head and tied at her neck, and her hair is middle-parted and tightly curled in ringlets.

Marguerite de Navarre

-
Marguerite de Navarre , a French Renaissance writer of the sixteenth century, is best known for her cycle of tales, L'heptameron. She also wrote important devotional work, poetry and plays based on the bible.
Marguerite de Navarre Painting of Marguerite de Navarre by Jean Clouet, probably done for her marriage in 1527. She sits at a green-covered table with a green parrot on her hand and flame-coloured hangings behind. She has a patterned head-dress (perhaps evoking the daisies signified by her name) and a slanted flat hat with Cupid brooch. Her shoulders are bare, her bodice dark, and her huge dark sleeves have slashes showing white below. She is wearing a jewelled pendant, and displays a ring on each little finger.

Marie de France

-
It is making an assumption to argue that a single individual composed the body of work traditionally attributed to someone whom modern readers have called Marie de France . But one or possibly more women...
Marie de France Marie de France, from an illuminated manuscript by Richard of Verdun. She sits writing (apparently with both hands at once) in an architectural setting, wearing a white hood and mantle over blue sleeves. Bibliothèque Nationale.

Jessie White Mario

-
JWM made her literary debut in Eliza Cook's Journal, but it was her involvement in the Italian Risorgimento (sometimes as a spy) that fostered her career as a journalist, translator, propagandist, lecturer, and biographer...
Jessie White Mario Black and white photograph of Jessie White Mario, standing with one hand on her hip and the other on the back of a carved chair. She is wearing a long skirt with a bold pattern and a simple, solid-coloured jacket with broad sleeves. Her hair is chin-length and her expression challenging.

Jean Marishall

-
JM , a later-eighteenth-century Scotswoman, made persistent efforts to earn her living as an author. She worked on a periodical and published in succession two novels, a comedy, and a collection of letters. This last...

Constance Countess Markievicz

-
CCM , a leader in Ireland's nationalist struggle for independence (and latterly for the unification of independent Ireland), is, and has always been, better known for her appearances in creative works by others than...
Constance, Countess Markievicz Black and white photograph of Constance, Countess Markievicz, shown from the waist up. She is wearing a military-style double-breasted jacket with a high collar and epaulettes. Her hair is done in a roll in front and a bun behind.