Kathleen Mannington Caffyn

Kathleen Mannington Caffyn (; – 6 February 1926) was a nurse and writer. Born in Ireland around 1853, she moved to London in her twenties and trained as a nurse. She married a surgeon in 1879 and moved to Australia the following year. There, she advocated for the professionalisation of nursing and began to contribute fiction to local magazines and newspapers.

After returning to London in 1892, she published her first and best-known novel, A Yellow Aster, under the pen name "Iota". She became known as a New Woman writer and published an additional sixteen novels, in which she explored themes of marriage, femininity, and sexuality. After publishing her final novel in 1916, she died in Turin, Italy, in 1926.

Biography

Early life

Kathleen Mannington Caffyn was born Kathleen Mannington Hunt