Selina Bunbury

Born in 1802 in County Louth, Selina Bunbury was one of fifteen children of the Rev. Henry Bunbury. After her father's bankruptcy, the family moved to Dublin in 1819, where she worked as a primary school teacher and began writing anonymously.

She went on to become a remarkably productive author, publishing nearly a hundred volumes of fiction and nonfiction for both adults and children. Her books included early Irish-themed works such as A Visit to My Birthplace as well as historical novels and travel writing, and she became especially known for accounts of journeys through places such as the Pyrenees, Sweden, northern Europe, and postwar Russia.

Religious and moral themes often shaped her writing, especially in her books for younger readers and in pamphlets for religious societies. She never married and died in Cheltenham on September 8, 1882.