Edna Lyall

Writing under the pen name Edna Lyall, Ada Ellen Bayly was born in Brighton on March 25, 1857, and died in Eastbourne on February 8, 1903. She became a widely read English novelist in the late 19th century, admired for fiction that combined lively storytelling with a humane, tolerant moral outlook.

Her best-known success was We Two (1884), and she went on to publish a long run of popular novels. Contemporary and later reference works describe her appeal as resting not just on plot, but on the warmth and ethical seriousness of her writing.

Bayly also supported women's suffrage, a commitment noted in modern reference sources as well as in accounts of her life. Remembered today both by her pseudonym and her original name, she stands out as a writer whose popularity was closely tied to sympathy, conscience, and an independent cast of mind.