Charlotte Riddell (1832-1906) who also wrote under the pseudonym F. G. Tafford, was one of the most popular and influential writers of the Victorian period. She was born Charlotte Eliza Lawson Cowan in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, Ireland. The author of 56 books, novels and short stories, she was also part owner and editor of the St. James's Magazine, one of the most prestigious literary magazines of the 1860s. She was also the author of many ghost stories, publishing under the name of Mrs. J. H. Riddell. Her husband died in 1880 and Charlotte lived a lonely life thereafter until her she died from cancer in Ashford, Kent, England on 24 September 1906. Amongst her works are: The Moors and the Fens (1858), City and Suburb (1861), George Geith of Fen Court (1864), Above Suspicion (1876), Berna Boyle (1882), Mitre Court (1885) and The Head of the Firm (1892).
