Lady Adelaide Cadogan

Born Adelaide Paget in 1820, she was the daughter of Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey, and later became Lady Adelaide Cadogan after her marriage to Hon. Frederick William Cadogan. Before she was known as an author, she appeared in royal ceremonial life as one of the train-bearers at Queen Victoria's coronation.

She became a notably prolific writer, publishing as Lady Adelaide Cadogan. She is especially associated with books on plays and card games, including influential writing on patience and other domestic entertainments that suited the social world of the Victorian drawing room.

That mix of aristocratic background and practical, accessible subject matter makes her an unusual literary figure: someone who wrote not only for readers' minds, but also for their leisure hours. Her books offer a glimpse of how nineteenth-century households amused themselves, and why simple games and home performance could become a serious publishing success.