Author: Margaret Ann Furber
Author: Margaret Ann Furber (1840–1906)
Alternate Name(s): Reynolds (maiden name); George Challis (pseudonym)
Biography: Margaret Ann Furber was born in 1840 in Manchester, the daughter of post office clerk Charles Reynolds and his wife Jane (née Palmer) (herself a "teacher of dance"). In 1863, she married bank manager William N. W. Fulmer and the couple had four children. As a married woman, she wrote the single novel Britain's Slaves (1885) under the pseudonym "George Challis." The plot of the novel argued against compulsory education, a rather eccentric view. Her granddaughter was the novelist and playwright Dodie Smith (1896‐1990) who recalls in her memoir the literary work of her grandmother. Furber died of pneumonia on 2 January 1906 at her home in Manchester.
References: British Census (1851, 1871); Manchester City News (6 January 1906); pers inf (Rory Muir); Dodie Smith, Look Back with Love (1974)
Fiction Titles:
- Britain's Slaves. 1 vol. London: John Maxwell, 1885.