Mary Elizabeth Southwell Dudley Leathley

Born in Clonmel, County Tipperary, on 18 June 1818, she was the daughter of George Dudley, a member of the Society of Friends. She published her first book at just sixteen and went on to build a remarkably productive writing life focused on children's fiction and religious works.

Reliable biographical sources say she converted from Quakerism to Roman Catholicism in 1847, the same year she married solicitor William H. Leathley. Over the course of her career she produced more than a hundred publications; among the best known were Chickseed without chickweed (1861), Children of scripture: a Sunday school book for youth (1866), The story of stories (1875), and Requiescent: a little book of anniversaries (1888).

She died in Hastings on 22 December 1899. Remembered as a prolific Victorian writer, she combined moral and religious themes with an accessible style that made her books popular with young readers and families.