Author: Mona Brougham Bickerstaffe
Author: Mona Brougham Bickerstaffe (1829–1916)
Alternate Name(s): Elizabeth Mona Brougham Drew (maiden name); Brent (2nd married name)
Biography: Mona Brougham Bickerstaffe was born on 10 October 1829 in Co. Cork, the daughter of Rev. Pierce William Drew, the rector of Youghal. In 1851, she married clergyman Harry Lloyd Bickerstaffe and the couple had four children. The marriage appears to have been an unhappy one. After holding several positions in the course of five years, her husband turned to drink and became violent. The couple separated in 1859. While separated, he courted and married a woman he met in Brighton. After the trial for bigamy, Bickerstaffe divorced her estranged husband in 1861 and he died in December 1868. In 1870, she remarried Charles Brent. Between the end of her first marriage and the start of the second, Bickerstaffe wrote a handful of novels aimed at young adult readers. Her youngest son was the novelist Francis Drew Bickerstaffe Drew who converted to Catholicism and was ordained. His mother joined the Catholic Church a year later. She died on 13 July 1916 in Winterbourne, Wiltshire.
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References: British Census (1911); Cork Constitution (14 October 1851); Cork Examiner (16 March 1860); Northampton Mercury (23 April 1870); Tablet (21 February 1885)
Fiction Titles:
- Araki the Daimio: A Japanese Story of the Olden Time. 1 vol. London: Jackson, Walford and Hodder, 1865.
- The White Roe of Glenmere and Other Tales. 1 vol. London: J. Hunter, 1867.
- Down Among Water Weeds: or, Marvels of Pond Life. 1 vol. Edinburgh: Johnstone, Hunter, and Co., 1868.
- The Sunbeam's Story: or, Sketches from Beetle Life. 1 vol. Edinburgh: Johnstone, Hunter, and Co., 1868.
- Tales from the Holly-Tree Farm. 1 vol. Edinburgh: Johnstone, Hunter, and Co., 1870.