author
Mimosa
b. 1873
Known to readers as “Mimosa,” this Irish writer built fiction and short stories out of her experiences in Burma, giving her work an unusual setting for the time. Her life was dramatic even by novelistic standards, stretching from Cork to Burma and later into literary scandal.
1 Audiobook
Told on the Pagoda: Tales of Burmah
by Mimosa
About the author
Born Mary Mabel Cosgrove in Cork on May 12, 1873, she later became known as Mabel Cosgrove Wodehouse-Pearse and also used the name Princess Chan-toon. She married Prince Chan-Toon, a Burmese barrister and nephew of a hereditary king of Arakan, and became known for writing fiction set in Burma.
Her books include A Marriage in Burmah, A Shadow of Burmah, and the story collection Told on the Pagoda: Tales of Burmah, which was published under the name “Mimosa.” That pen name is likely the reason she appears in some library records simply as “Mimosa.”
Her biography is strikingly eventful. Sources describe a turbulent later life that included a second marriage, prison sentences, and a well-known controversy over a play she claimed was by Oscar Wilde. Even so, she remains of interest for the way she brought Burmese settings and colonial-era social worlds into popular fiction.