Walford, Lucy (1845–1915)

Scottish novelist . Born Lucy Colquhoun on April 17, 1845, in Portobello, near Edinburgh, Scotland; died on May 11, 1915; daughter of John Colquhoun and Frances Sara (Fuller-Maitland) Colquhoun; educated at home by governesses; married Alfred Saunders Wal-ford, in 1869 (died 1907); children: two sons and five daughters.

Selected writings:

Mr. Smith: A Part of his Life (1874); Pauline (1877); Troublesome Daughters (1880); The Baby's Grandmother (1884); Cousins (1885); The History of a Week (1886); A Mere Child (1888); A Stiff-Necked Generation (1889); The Havoc of a Smile (1890); The Mischief of Monica (1892); A Pinch of Bubble (1895); Sir Patrick the Puddock (1899); A Dream's Fulfillment (1902); The Enlightenment of Olivia (1907); (autobiography) Recollections of a Scottish Novelist (1910); David and Jonathan on the Riviera (1914).

Lucy Walford was born in 1845 in Portobello, near Edinburgh, Scotland, and raised in a well-connected family. Her father John Colquhoun was an author, and her aunt was the novelist Catherine Sinclair . By the time she was seven, Walford was already an avid reader, and she later professed that her first exposure to Jane Austen 's work in 1868 influenced her immeasurably. After her marriage to Alfred Saunders Walford, she wrote secretly, contributing stories to Blackwood's Magazine and working on her first book, Mr. Smith: A Part of his Life. Her family voiced disapproval when the book was published in 1874, but it was a great success and earned her an audience with Queen Victoria . Walford went on to write 45 books and was particularly adept at light-hearted domestic comedy, as seen in her books Pauline (1877), The Baby's Grandmother (1884), Cousins (1885), The History of a Week (1886), A Mere Child (1888), AStiff-Necked Generation (1889), The Havoc of a Smile (1890), The Mischief of Monica (1892) and Sir Patrick the Puddock (1899). She also contributed to several London magazines, and worked as London correspondent for the New York Critic from 1889 to 1893. She produced two nonfiction works in 1910 and 1912 before publishing her last novel in 1914 at the age of 70, the year before her death.

sources:

Buck, Claire, ed. The Bloomsbury Guide to Women's Literature. NY: Prentice Hall, 1992.

Shattock, Joanne. The Oxford Guide to British Women Writers. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Jacquie Maurice , freelance writer, Calgary, Alberta, Canada