author
Dolf Wyllarde
1871–1950
A British journalist and novelist who wrote under a boldly memorable pen name, she published dozens of books from the late Victorian period into the 20th century. Her fiction ranges across adventure, romance, travel, and stories that drew on the changing lives of women at work and abroad.
1 Audiobook
The rat-trap
by Dolf Wyllarde
About the author
Born Dorothy Margarette Selby Lowndes in Croydon on April 3, 1871, she became known to readers as Dolf Wyllarde. She was educated at King's College London, trained as a journalist, and built a long writing career that joined reportage, fiction, and verse.
From the 1890s into the 1930s, she produced a large body of work including novels, short fiction, children's books, and poetry. She was especially associated with popular fiction and with stories shaped by travel, empire, and modern women making their way in the world; some contemporary reviewers even assumed from her pen name that the author was a man.
She was also elected a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a fitting detail for a writer whose work often looked outward to distant settings and energetic lives. She died on May 10, 1950, in Weston-super-Mare, leaving behind the record of a notably prolific literary career.