Ella M. Scrymsour

Born in 1888, Ella M. Scrymsour was the working name of Ella Mary Scrymsour-Nichol, an English actress, playwright, and author. Reference sources on speculative fiction consistently identify her as a British writer whose career crossed stage work and popular fiction, and later bibliographic records list her lifespan as 1888–1962.

She wrote across several neighboring genres rather than staying in just one lane. Her fiction includes supernatural and crime elements as well as science fiction, and she is especially associated with Shiela Crerar, a psychic detective heroine who appeared in magazine fiction, along with The Perfect World (1922), a strange-world adventure that helped keep her name alive among readers of early fantastic fiction.

Although she is not a widely documented literary celebrity today, Scrymsour has earned lasting interest from genre historians because her stories show how fluid and inventive popular fiction could be in the early twentieth century. For listeners who enjoy rediscovered writers, she offers a mix of eerie atmosphere, fast-moving storytelling, and a glimpse of the imaginative magazines and novels of her time.