author
Ella M. Scrymsour
b. 1888
An English writer and actress, she moved easily between ghost stories, detective fiction, romance, and early science fiction. She is best remembered today for her psychic sleuth Shiela Crerar and for the unusual 1922 novel The Perfect World.
1 Audiobook
The Perfect World: A romance of strange people and strange places
by Ella M. Scrymsour
About the author
Born Ella Mary Scrymsour-Nichol on December 25, 1888, in Battersea, Surrey, she built a career as both an actress and a writer. Reference sources consistently connect her with popular magazine fiction and with work that crossed genre lines rather than staying in just one lane.
Her best-known character is Shiela Crerar, a psychic detective featured in stories from the early 1920s. She also wrote The Perfect World: A Romance of Strange People and Strange Places (1922), a novel remembered for its blend of speculative ideas and adventure.
Although not a widely famous name now, her work has lasted because it feels distinctive: part mystery, part supernatural tale, and part early imaginative fiction. That mix gives her books a lively, curious charm for readers interested in overlooked voices from the pulp and interwar eras.