F. E. (Fanny Emily) Penny

Born Fanny Emily Farr in Suffolk in 1847, she later became known to readers as F. E. Penny. She was educated in England and married the Rev. Frank Penny in 1877.

She spent about twenty-four years in India, especially in Madras and the Nilgiri Hills, and that experience shaped much of her writing. Most of her many novels are set in India, where she wrote about Anglo-Indian society, local traditions, and the complicated boundaries of class, religion, and race in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Penny published dozens of novels and was widely read in her day, with titles such as The Outcaste, A Mixed Marriage, and Caste and Creed. She died in 1939, and her work remains of interest for readers who enjoy historical fiction, imperial-era popular writing, and stories that blend romance with a strong sense of place.