Ethel M. (Ethel May) Dell

Born Ethel May Dell Savage, she wrote under the name Ethel M. Dell and became known for more than 30 romance novels as well as short stories. Her work reached a large audience in Britain and beyond, and she was especially associated with intensely emotional storytelling.

Sources consistently describe her as a notably shy and private figure, which adds an interesting contrast to the strong passions and high drama in her fiction. She was born in Streatham, London, on August 2, 1881, and died in Hertfordshire on September 17, 1939.

Today, she is remembered as one of the best-known popular romance authors of her era, with books that reflect the tastes of a wide commercial readership in the early 1900s.