author
Marianne Farningham
1834–1909
A prolific Victorian writer, teacher, and lecturer, she built a wide readership with poems, hymns, biographies, and thoughtful religious prose. Writing under several names, she became one of the notable women authors to rise from a modest background in 19th-century Britain.
2 Audiobooks
Nineteen hundred? A forecast and a story
by Marianne Farningham
Grace Darling, Heroine of the Farne Islands
by Marianne Farningham
About the author
Born Mary Anne Hearn in Farningham, Kent, on December 17, 1834, she later took the pen name Marianne Farningham from her home village. She was raised in a Baptist family and worked as a teacher before turning fully to writing, eventually settling in Northampton for much of her adult life.
Her work appeared widely in The Christian World, and she also published under names including Eva Hope and Marianne Hearn. She wrote poetry, hymns, biographies, essays, and fiction, and was known in her time not only as an author and editor but also as a public lecturer.
What makes her story especially interesting is how much she achieved from relatively humble beginnings in Victorian England. Her writing was often shaped by faith and everyday moral concerns, but her career also reflects a broader opening of literary and public life to women in the 19th century.