Ellen Pickering

Ellen Pickering (1802 – 25 November 1843) was a British novelist who published sixteen three-volume novels, one of them posthumously. At a time when stories about gypsies were common in nineteenth-century Victorian literature, Pickering achieved her greatest success with the novel Nan Darrell, or The Gypsy Mother. Her books mixed history and romance in the style of Sir Walter Scott.

Life and work Ellen Pickering was baptized on 21 August 1802 at Lyndhurst, Hampshire near the family estate of Foxlease, to Isaac Pickering (of Kingston Lisle, (was Berkshire now Oxfordshire)) and Katherine nee Collins (from East Lockinge, (was Berkshire now Oxfordshire). The Pickering family income was derived from the Trinidad and Virgin Islands Caribbean slave trade; when the practice was made illegal, the family moved to Bathwick a suburb of Bath, Somerset in South West England. Pickering had early success as a writer and she reputedly earned £100 a year after she started publishing in 1825. Her books mixed history and romance in the style of Sir Walter Scott. The motif of gypsies, particularly in the fictional role of kidnappers, was popular in nineteenth-century Victorian literature. Nan Darrell, or The Gypsy Mother features a lead gypsy character reminiscent of Meg Merrilies from Scott's novel Guy Mannering.

Legacy Cultural historian Mary Poovey notes that Pickering "enjoyed success among her contemporaries but achieved no lasting legacy".

Selected works

Pickering published a total of sixteen novels. The Grandfather was published posthumously. The Marriage of the Favourite, or, She Bred Him a Soldier, 1826 The Heiress (three volumes), 1833 Agnes Serle, 1835 The Merchant's Daughter, 1836 The Prince and the Pedlar, or The Siege of Bristol, 1839 The Squire, 1837 Nan Darrell, or The Gipsy Mother, 1839 The Fright, 1839 The Quiet Husband, 1840 Who Shall Be Heir?, 1840 The Secret Foe, 1841 The Expectant, 1842 Cousin Hinton, or, Friend or Foe?, 1843 Charades for Acting, 1843 The Grumbler, 1843 The Grandfather, 1846 (completed by a friend) (An edition exists published in fragile tan wrappers with an imprint of New York: Harper & Brothers, 1844. No. 39 - Library of Select Novels