Anne Topham

Anne Topham was an English writer born in Derbyshire in 1864. Sources about her life agree that she spent most of her years in Spondon, apart from the period from 1902 to 1909 when she served in Germany as the English governess to Princess Viktoria Luise, the daughter of Kaiser Wilhelm II.

That experience shaped the books she is remembered for. Memories of the Kaiser's Court appeared in 1914, and bibliographic records also list later works including Daphne in the Fatherland and Chronicles of the Prussian Court. Her writing is especially appealing to readers interested in royalty, memoir, and the human details behind major historical events.

Topham died in 1927. Though not a widely known literary figure today, her books have lasted because they preserve a rare personal view of court life in imperial Germany from someone who watched it from inside the household.