Autor. Her parents separated while she was still a child, and she wrote and worked as an actress to support her mother. Her first novel, “Three Times Dead” (also known as “The Trail of the Serpent”) sold well, but her second, “Lady Audley’s Secret” was reprinted nine times in three months. In 2000, it was dramatised for British Television. Of her many other books, “The Doctor’s Wife” is an English version of Gustave Flaubert’s “Madame Bovary”, and “The Rose of Life” is based upon the downfall of Oscar Wilde. For many years, she had lived with her publisher, John Maxwell, but was unable to marry him until 1874, because his mentally ill wife was still alive and in an asylum. In addition to the five children from his earlier marriage, the couple had six of their own. One of their sons, William Babington Maxwell (1876-1938) went on to become a well-known writer. She has a cenotaph in her memory located at St. Mary Magdalene Churchyard in Richmond, England. (bio by: Iain MacFarlaine)