Sarah Grand (Frances Elizabeth Bellenden McFall, née Clarke)

Sitter in 3 portraits
Born in Ireland, Grand entered formal education when the family moved to Yorkshire when she was 14. She attended finishing school in Holland Park before entering an unhappy marriage to an army surgeon. In 1890 she left him and their son to pursue a writing career in London and anonymously published Ideala: a Study from Life at her own expense. It wasn't until she wrote The Heavenly Twins that she found success. Influenced by Josephine Butler's campaign against the Contagious Diseases Act, the novel explored men passing on syphilis to their families and the restricted lives of women. Published under the pseudonym Sarah Grand, it became a best seller. She published and lectured on women's suffrage and became president of the Union of Women's Suffrage Societies in Tunbridge Wells.