author
Daisy Ashford
1881–1972
Best known for a brilliantly observant novella written at age nine, this English writer became a literary curiosity when the manuscript was finally published decades later. Her work still charms readers with its confident child’s-eye view of adult society.
2 Audiobooks
The Young Visiters or, Mr. Salteena's Plan
by Daisy Ashford
Daisy Ashford: Her Book
by Daisy Ashford, Angela Ashford
About the author
Born in Petersham, Surrey, in 1881, Daisy Ashford was an English writer whose real name was Margaret Mary Julia Ashford, later Margaret Devlin. She was largely educated at home and began writing stories as a child.
Her lasting fame rests on The Young Visiters, a comic novella she wrote when she was nine. The manuscript was rediscovered many years later and published in 1919, with its original youthful spelling and punctuation preserved, which became part of its appeal.
Ashford lived until 1972. Although she wrote other pieces in childhood, The Young Visiters remains the work most closely associated with her, and it has endured as a small classic of accidental wit and sharp social observation.