Margaret Irwin


Margaret Emma Faith Irwin was an English historical novelist. She also wrote a factual biography of Sir Walter Raleigh.

Biography

Irwin was born in Highgate Hill, London, to Andrew Clarke Irwin and Anna Julia Irwin. She was brought up by her uncle S. T. Irwin, a schoolmaster at Clifton High School in Bristol, after her parents died. She was educated at Clifton and at Oxford University. She began writing books and short stories in the early 1920s. In 1929 she married children's author and illustrator John Robert Monsell, who created the covers for some of her books.
Her novels were esteemed for the accuracy of their historical research, and she became a noted authority on the Elizabethan and early Stuart era. One of her novels, Young Bess about the early years of Queen Elizabeth I, was made into a film starring Jean Simmons.
Irwin wrote several ghost stories. Irwin also wrote two fantasy novels: Still She Wished For Company is about a magical timeslip, while These Mortals is an adult fairy-tale about a wizard's daughter.

Single novels