author
C. (Charlotte) Despard
1844–1939
A fearless campaigner whose novels sat alongside a life of activism, she brought the same moral urgency to fiction that she brought to the fights for women’s suffrage, peace, and Irish self-determination.
2 Audiobooks
The Rajah's Heir A Novel in 3 volumes
by C. (Charlotte) Despard
Chaste as Ice, Pure as Snow: A Novel
by C. (Charlotte) Despard
About the author
Born Charlotte French in 1844, she became known as Charlotte Despard, an Anglo-Irish novelist and political activist. Reliable reference sources describe her as a suffragist, socialist, pacifist, Sinn Féin activist, and writer whose public life stretched across many reform movements.
She was a founding member of the Women’s Freedom League, and is also associated with the Women’s Peace Crusade and the Irish Women’s Franchise League. Her work joined literature with social commitment: alongside writing novels, she became one of the best-known voices in campaigns for women’s rights and against war.
Despard died in 1939. What makes her stand out today is the breadth of her convictions — she was not only a novelist, but a writer who lived her politics with unusual consistency and energy.