author
Mrs. (Susannah) Gunning
d. 1800
An 18th-century British novelist whose life mixed sentimental fiction with real social drama, she wrote both with her sister Margaret Minifie and on her own. Her story is also remembered for the very public family scandal that swirled around her daughter in the 1790s.
1 Audiobook
Barford Abbey, a Novel: In a Series of Letters
by Mrs. (Susannah) Gunning
About the author
Born Susannah Minifie around 1740, she became known as Susannah Gunning after marrying John Gunning in 1768. She was a British novelist who first published with her sister, Margaret Minifie, and later wrote several novels of her own.
Her work belongs to the lively world of late-18th-century fiction, and modern readers often meet her through titles linked to sentimental and epistolary storytelling. Beyond her books, her name is frequently mentioned in connection with a notorious society scandal involving her family, which kept her in the public eye as much as her writing did.
She died in London on August 28, 1800, and was buried at Westminster Abbey. A suitable confirmed portrait image could not be found from the page images available during this search, so no profile image is included here.