Hugh Conway

Hugh Conway was the pen name of Frederick John Fargus (1847–1885), an English novelist born in Bristol. Before becoming known as a writer, he worked in the family auction business, a background that gave his literary career an unusually practical beginning.

His breakthrough came with Called Back in 1883, a novel that became a remarkable commercial success and quickly made his pseudonym widely known. He followed it with other fiction, including Dark Days and A Family Affair, building a reputation for lively, readable stories that blended drama and suspense.

His writing career was brief, ending with his death in 1885 at just 37. Even so, Hugh Conway remained closely associated with one of the notable popular successes of late Victorian fiction, and his work still attracts readers interested in nineteenth-century sensation and mystery novels.