At the Circulating Library

Author: Frances Isabelle M. Kershaw

Author: Frances Isabelle M. Kershaw (1860–1930)

Biography: Frances Isabella M. Kershaw was born in 1860 in Egmanton, Nottinghamshire, the daughter of clergyman George Senior Wilkinson Kershaw and his wife Isabella. Sometime in her teens, Kershaw underwent a crisis of faith resulting in her conversion to Roman Catholicism which she chronicled in her later autobiographical novel Our Mother (1900). She turned her hand to religious writings, including fiction. In addition, she joined at least one convent and attempted to start another one outside Nottingham which lasted several years. She never married and died in 1930 in Camberwell.

References: British Census (1871, 1881, 1891, 1911); Literary Year-Book (1903)

Fiction Titles:

1. Bobbie and Birdie: or, Our Lady's Picture. A Story for the Very Little Ones.  1 vol.  London: R. Washbourne, 1882.
2. Baby: A Study of Baby Life.  1 vol.  London: Burns and Oates, 1883.
3. The Gamekeeper's Little Son: And Other Stories for Children.  1 vol.  London: R. Washbourne, 1883.
4. Little Snowwhite: A Story of the Rheinlands.  1 vol.  London: Burns and Oates, 1885.
5. Mrs. Markham's Nieces.  1 vol.  London: Burns and Oates, 1898.
6. The Cup of the Tregarvans: A Temperance Story.  1 vol.  London: R. Washbourne, 1899.
7. Our Mother.  1 vol.  London: Burns and Oates, 1900.