Background
Her family claimed to be descended from Irish gentry, the French family of Roscommon and Lord Annaly.
Her family claimed to be descended from Irish gentry, the French family of Roscommon and Lord Annaly.
Born in 1825, she was the only child of Robert French, a Dublin solicitor. On the paternal side, she was related to the poet Charles Wolfe and on her mother"s side, to the Shakespearian scholar, Edmund Malone. Annie’s father lost his money in 1844 and moved first to Liverpool, before settling in London.
After his death in 1875, she used his first name as her pseudonym and published over forty novels as ‘Mrs Alexander’, many published by George and Richard Bentley.
Her final novel, Kitty Costello (1902), was a quasi-autobiographical novel, detailing a young Irish girl’s move to London.