Margaret Emma Faith Irwin (27 March 1889 – 11 December 1967) was an English historical novelist. She also wrote a factual biography of Sir Walter Raleigh.
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Early life and education
Margaret was born in Highgate Hill, London. Her mother was Anna Julia Baker, daughter of Col. George Baker of 16th The Queen's Lancers, and she died in 1899. Her father Andrew Clarke Irwin, an East India Merchant. Andrew was born in 1846 in Perth, Western Australia, while his father Frederick Chidley was commandant of the Western Australian Forces. Andrew died 1902 in Edmonton, Middlesex, England. Anna and Andrew were married in 1875 in India.
Margaret was brought up by her uncle S. T. Irwin (Sidney Thomas Irwin), a master of Classics at Clifton College, then a boys' school. Sidney died in 1911. Margaret attended the nearby Clifton High School, a girls' school, in Bristol, after her parents died. She was educated at Clifton and at Oxford University, where she took a degree in English.
Career
She began writing books and short stories in her early twenties. In 1929 she married children's author and illustrator John Robert Monsell, who created the covers for some of her books.
Her novels were esteemed for the accuracy of their historical research, and she became a noted authority on the Elizabethan and early Stuart era. Young Bess, a novel about the early years of Queen Elizabeth I, was made into a film of the same title starring Jean Simmons.
Irwin wrote several ghost stories (including "The Book" and "The Earlier Service"). Irwin also wrote two fantasy novels: Still She Wished for Company is about a magical time slip, and These Mortals is an adult fairy tale about a wizard's daughter.