Lady Florence Henrietta Fisher Darwin

Born in Kensington, London, on January 31, 1864, Florence Henrietta Fisher later became Lady Darwin. She was an English playwright, born into a well-connected intellectual family, and was first married to the legal historian Frederic William Maitland before marrying Sir Francis Darwin in 1913.

Her writing is most closely associated with dramatic pieces shaped by traditional song and rural themes. After her death on March 5, 1920, family friend Cecil Sharp published Six Plays in 1921, bringing together works including The New Year, The Seeds of Love, Princess Royal, My Man John, Bushes and Briars, and The Lover's Tasks. Another book, Green Broom, appeared in 1923.

She is also remembered through the wider cultural circles around her family: she was connected to the Fisher family and, through them, to several notable literary and artistic figures of her time. Even so, her own reputation rests on her plays, which give a glimpse of an original dramatic voice with a feel for song, speech, and performance.