Mary E Braddon (1835-1915) began writing at the age of eight but it was not until she won an admirer as an actress that she could settle down to write serial fiction. She became a bestselling 'sensation' author and was read avidly by Tennyson, Dickens and Thackery. She wrote over eighty novels. Jenny Bourne Taylor studied at York and Warwick universities and is currently a Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Sussex. She has published widely.
