At the Circulating Library Author Information: Burke O'Farrell

Author: Burke O'Farrell (1846–1936)

Alternate Name(s): (pseudonym); Christiana Elizabeth Rufford (maiden name); Jeffery (married name)

Biography: Christiana Elizabeth Jeffery was born in 1846 in Sheldon, Warwickshire, the daughter of clergyman Philip Rufford and Elizabeth Gardner. Under the pseudonym "Burke O'Farrell," she wrote three novels beginning with Even Betting (1869). In 1871, she married John Edward Jeffery in Greenwich and the couple had two children. Her husband was a member of the Bengal civil service, so the family lived in India for several years. By the end of the century, Jeffery had returned to England where she lived in Sussex. She was a convert to Roman Catholicism and continued to contribute to the periodical press throughout her life. She died in Hove in 1936.

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References: British Census (1851, 1861, 1871, 1891); Catholic Who's Who (1923)

Fiction Titles:

  1. Even Betting: or, Which is the Winner. A Novel.  3 vol.  London: T. C. Newby, 1869.
  2. Cold Comfort: A Novel.  3 vol.  London: T. C. Newby, 1871.
  3. Proud as Lucifer: A Novel.  3 vol.  London: Chapman and Hall, 1877.