Occupation Writer (novelist) Role Novelist Name Evelyn Everett-Green | Period 19th century Nationality English | |
Born Evelyn Ward Everett-Green
17 November 1856
London, England ( 1856-11-17 ) Pen name H. F. E., Cecil Adair, E. Ward, Evelyn Dare Genre Children's Literature, Historical fiction, Adult romance fiction Died April 23, 1932, Funchal, Portugal Parents George Pycock Everett Green, Mary Anne Everett Green Books French and English A Story of th, Tom Tufton's Travels, French and English, A Heroine of France, The Secret Chamber at Chad | ||
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.
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Early life and work
Her mother was the historian Mary Anne Everett Green 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.
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 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. She became an active member of the Anglican community there and was buried in the British Cemetery. There is a memorial plaque on the interior south wall of Holy Trinity Church (the English Church), Funchal.
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.