Allen Raine

Born Anne Adalisa Beynon Puddicombe on 6 October 1836 in Newcastle Emlyn, she wrote as Allen Raine and became one of the most widely read Welsh novelists of her time. Her fiction is closely linked with Wales, especially its rural communities, and she is remembered for stories that blended romance with a strong sense of place.

Allen Raine began publishing novels in the 1890s, and books such as A Welsh Singer and A Welsh Witch helped build her large readership. Her work introduced many readers outside Wales to Welsh settings and traditions, and by 1912 her novels had reportedly sold more than two million copies.

She died on 21 June 1908. Although tastes changed after her lifetime, her books remain part of the story of popular Welsh writing in the late Victorian and Edwardian years.