Annie Tinsley

Annie Tinsley, born Annie Turner (11 January 1808 – 20 January 1885), was a British novelist and poet. She used the name Mrs Charles Tinsley.

Life Tinsley was born in Preston in 1808. She claimed to have read "the classics" at an early age and she published her first set of poetry at her own risk in 1826. The collection was called The Children of the Mist and other Poems and it bore the date of 1827. The publication made a loss and even although she was still a child in the eyes of the law she could have been sent to prison, albeit illegally. However she met her husband Charles Tinsley and they married. Usefully he was a solicitor but he was a poor one. Tinsley had to turn herself into a hack writer to raise funds. She said that she was so desperate that she did not check her work, but just moved on to the next task. She ignored poetry and wrote for periodicals including Family Herald, the Monthly Chronicle, the Metropolitan Magazine, People's Journal and the Literary Gazette.

Her best work is thought to be her 1848 collection of poems, Lays for the Thoughtful and Solitary which exposed her thoughts on the poor position of women in civilization's hierarchy. He had presented it to the Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire in 1929.

Publications include The Children of the Mist and other Poems (1827) Margaret (1853) Eunice (1854) serialised in the Family Herald Women as They Are (1854) The Heiress of Barren Court (1855), serialised in the Family Herald and the Metropolitan Magazine Darkest Before Dawn (1864)