William Westall

Born in Lancashire in 1834, William Bury Westall was an English novelist and journalist. Early reference works describe him as having started out in business before turning to journalism, a shift that shaped the direct, readable style of his fiction.

He went on to write a large number of novels, with titles such as The Old Factory, Strange Crimes, Her Ladyship's Secret, and The Phantom City: A Volcanic Romance. Modern reference sources also note that he spent much of his life in Switzerland and worked as a foreign correspondent for The Times, with travel in South America feeding into the adventurous settings of some of his books.

Westall died in 1903. Though he is not usually placed among the best-known Victorian literary figures, he remains an interesting example of a prolific 19th-century popular writer whose work brought together journalism, travel, and entertaining fiction.