author
Mrs. Perring
A little-known Victorian writer of poems and children's stories, remembered today for gentle, moral tales such as Aunt Mary and The Adventures of a Penny. The surviving record is patchy, but she appears to have written with a warm interest in family life and the everyday world of children.
1 Audiobook
Aunt Mary
by Mrs. Perring
About the author
Research on this author is fragmentary, so some details remain uncertain. A reliable modern reference identifies Eliza Perring (1798–1881), born Jane Eliza Marshall, as the woman behind the name Mrs. Perring, and notes that she wrote poetry and fiction for younger readers.
That same source says she married newspaper editor and proprietor Robert Perring in 1815, had seven children, and later contributed verse to her husband's newspapers. She is also linked with the Leeds Intelligencer, and with poetry collections such as Domestic Hours; Poems as well as a run of children's books published under forms of her married name and initials.
Today, she is chiefly associated with charming nineteenth-century juvenile books including Aunt Mary, The Story of a Mouse, The Story of a Dog, The Story of a Cat, The Village School, and The Adventures of a Penny. Because biographical information is so limited, her work itself gives the clearest impression of her voice: domestic, observant, and interested in entertaining young readers while gently guiding them.