Marianne Farningham

FARNINGHAM, Marianne (Mary Ann Hearn). b. Farningham, Kent, 17 December 1834; d. Barmouth, Merioneth, Wales, 16 March 1909. She took the pseudonym of Farningham from her birthplace, but she also used other pseudonyms, including ‘J.S. Robertson’ (for a life of David Livingstone, the great missionary explorer) and ‘Eva Hope’ (on Grace Darling, the heroine of the Farne Islands, Northumberland, who, with her father, rescued sailors from a wreck). She was a prolific and successful writer, beginning with Lays and Lyrics of Blessed Life, consisting of Light from the Cross and other poems (1860), and Poems (1866; Second Edition, 1869; Third, 1875). She continued to write many books of stories,...