author
1830–1878
Raised in a literary family and writing from an early age, she became a warm, lively voice in Victorian children's books. Her work mixed playful imagination with a strong feeling for home, family, and everyday wonder.
Frances Freeling Broderip was an English children's writer born at Winchmore Hill, Middlesex, on September 11, 1830. She was the second daughter of the poet Thomas Hood and Jane Reynolds Hood, and the sister of the humorist Tom Hood. In 1849 she married the Rev. John Somerville Broderip.
She began writing young, and sources describe her as a poet as well as a writer for children. Her first book, Way-Side Fancies (1857), was followed by stories and verse for younger readers, including Funny Fables for Little Folks, Mamma's Morning Gossips, Tiny Tadpole, and Other Tales, and Tales of the Toys, Told by Themselves. Her writing is remembered for its friendly tone and its appeal to family reading.
Broderip also helped preserve her father's literary legacy, editing Memorials of Thomas Hood with material connected to her family. She died on November 3, 1878. Although she is less widely known today than her father and brother, she remains part of the rich tradition of nineteenth-century English writing for children.