Mary Elizabeth Braddon

Mary Elizabeth Braddon was an English novelist of the Victorian era. Her 1862 novel Lady Audley's Secret, with its bigamy and hidden past, is considered one of the foundational works of sensation fiction. Before she became established she worked as an actress for eight years to support herself and her mother. Later she edited and published the magazine Belgravia, which she founded in 1866, and she kept writing novels for decades. Her books have often been dramatized.