E. A. (Elizabeth Amy) Dillwyn

Born in Swansea in 1845, Elizabeth Amy Dillwyn was a Welsh novelist, businesswoman, and campaigner. She was the daughter of Lewis Llewelyn Dillwyn, and after serious financial difficulties hit the family’s zinc works, she stepped in to help run the business—an unusual role for a woman of her time.

She wrote several novels, including The Rebecca Rioter, Jill and Jack, and A Burglary. Her fiction is often noted for its independent-minded heroines, dry wit, and close attention to Welsh life and social convention.

Dillwyn died in 1935. Interest in her work has grown again in recent years, not only because of her novels but also because of her remarkable life as a writer who was also active in industry and public life.