Marjorie Bowen

Born Margaret Gabrielle Vere Long in 1885, she became widely known by the pen name Marjorie Bowen and published an astonishingly large number of books across historical fiction, horror, biography, and drama. She also wrote under other names, including Joseph Shearing, and gained lasting attention for her ghostly and psychologically charged stories as well as her historical novels.

Her career was notably prolific, with well over a hundred works credited to her. That productivity helped her support her family, and it also gave her an unusual breadth: readers could find her moving between eerie short fiction, courtly historical settings, and vivid retellings of past lives and events.

She died in 1952, but her work continues to attract readers who enjoy classic historical storytelling with a darker edge. Her fiction still stands out for its clear style, strong atmosphere, and talent for turning history and the uncanny into compelling entertainment.