author
Lady Florence Elsa Bell Richmond
b. 1880
Known as Mrs. Herbert Richmond, she is remembered as the co-author of a playful collection of nursery dramatizations that brought familiar rhymes to life for young performers. Her work survives mainly through The Cat and Fiddle Book, a charming early-20th-century title preserved by Project Gutenberg.
1 Audiobook
The Cat and Fiddle Book Eight Dramatised Nursery Rhymes for Nursery Performers
by Lady Florence Eveleen Eleanore Olliffe Bell, Lady Florence Elsa Bell Richmond
About the author
Born in 1880, Lady Florence Elsa Bell Richmond was the daughter of Sir Hugh Bell and Florence Bell, and part of the prominent Bell family of Yorkshire. She later married Herbert William Richmond and was often credited in print as Mrs. Herbert Richmond.
Her best-known surviving literary work is The Cat and Fiddle Book (1922), written with her mother, Lady Florence Bell. The book turns classic nursery rhymes into short dramatic pieces for children, giving it an easy, lively quality that still feels suited to reading aloud.
Little appears to be widely documented about her writing life beyond that collaboration, but the book's continued availability through public-domain archives has helped keep her name in circulation for modern readers interested in vintage children's literature.