Dorothea Conyers

Born in Fedamore, County Limerick, in 1869, Dorothea Conyers was an Irish novelist whose fiction was rooted in the sporting and social life of Ireland. She wrote under her married name and became known for romantic, often humorous stories set among the Irish sporting gentry.

Her first novel, The Thorn Bit, appeared in 1900, and she went on to publish more than forty novels and collections. Among her best-known titles are Peter's Pedigree, The Boy, Some Horses and a Girl, and The Conversion of Con Cregan. Her last book, Kicking Foxes, was published in 1948.

Conyers was also remembered as a keen sportswoman, and that firsthand knowledge gave her books much of their energy and authenticity. She died in 1949, and her papers are held at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library at UCLA, a sign of the lasting interest in her work and life.