Mary E. Mann

Mary Elizabeth Mann, née Rackham (1848–1929), was born in Norwich and spent her married life at Shropham, where her husband farmed 800 acres. She began writing in the 1880s and published her first novel, The Parish of Hilby (1883), at her own expense, going on to produce 33 novels, 14 plays, and hundreds of short stories across a career of some 35 years. Her subject was the Norfolk countryside during the long agricultural depression, from labourers up to yeoman farmers. She is often called Norfolk's Thomas Hardy, though critics note her mood is more matter-of-fact than Hardy's darker determinism.