author
Florence Wilford
b. 1836
A Victorian novelist who wrote for both adults and younger readers, she left behind a varied body of fiction that ranges from domestic stories to more ambitious novels. Her life appears to have been unsettled and mobile, which adds an interesting note to the worlds she created.
1 Audiobook
Holiday Tales
by Florence Wilford
About the author
Born on February 29, 1836, in Woolwich, Kent, Florence Wilford was the daughter of Major-General Edmund Neal Wilford and Jane Drew. Reliable biographical sources note that her mother died only a few days after her birth, and census records suggest that Wilford lived in several different places over the course of her life, including Bromley, Winchester, Marylebone, Hastings, and Holdenhurst.
Wilford wrote fiction across several decades of the 19th century. Sources connected with her work show novels such as Nigel Bartram's Ideal (1868), Vivia (1870), and Dominie Freylinghausen (1875), along with books for younger readers including Holiday Tales and A Mother and Her Boys. She also appeared among the nine collaborators on The Miz Maze; or, The Winkworth Puzzle.
Modern scholarship still takes an interest in her writing, especially Nigel Bartram's Ideal, which has been discussed as a novel about women, talent, and the limits placed on female authors in Victorian society. I couldn't confirm a suitable verified portrait image from the sources I checked, so none is included here.