Lifespan: 1790-1883
Nationality: England
Types of Work: Historical Novels, Biographies, Travelogue, Reference books
Contemporaries: Christina Rossetti
Other Names: Mrs. Bray
Bio:
Anna Eliza Kempe was born in Newington, Surrey on 25 December 1790 to John Kempe and Ann Arrow. Anna first determined on being an actress, but a severe cold prevented her debut appearance and she lost the opportunity. In February 1818, she married her first husband, Charles Alfred Stothard, illustrator and son of famous painter Thomas Stothard. Charles died on 27 May 1821 after falling from a ladder where he was tracing a portrait from a church window. Later she married Edward Atkyns Bray, the vicar of Tavistock, who also died in 1857.
Mrs. Bray wrote novels-- mostly historical or based on local folklore-- travelogues, children's stories, and biographies. She was a prolific writer who published her first five novels within only four years.
Anna Bray was close friends with Poet Laureate, Robert Southey, and her cousin, the poet Christina Rossetti.
She died in 1883, at the age of 93.
(A more detailed biography is available on Wikipedia)
Novels:
De Foix: A Romance of Bearn (1826)
The White Hoods: A Romance of Flanders (1828)
The Protestant: A Tale of the Times of Queen Mary (1828)
The Talba, or the Moor of Portugal (1830)
Fitz of Fitz Ford: A Tale of Destiny (1830)
Warleigh or the Fatal oak (1834)
Trelawny of Trelawne (1837)
Henry de Pomeroy (1841)
Courtenay of Wareddon (1844)
Harland Forest and Roseteague (1871)
The White Rose
Trials of the Heart
A Father's Curse and a Daughter's Sacrifice
The Good St. Louis and His Times
Trials of Domestic Life