Marie Adelaide Elizabeth Rayner Lowndes (née Belloc; 5 August 1868 – 14 November 1947), who wrote as Marie Belloc Lowndes, was a prolific English novelist, and sister of author

Hilaire Belloc Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc ( ; ; 27 July 187016 July 1953) was a French-English writer, politician, and historian. Belloc was also an orator, poet, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and political activist. His Catholic fait ...

. Active from 1898 until her death, she had a reputation for combining exciting incidents with psychological interest in her books. Four of her works were adapted for the screen: ''

The Chink in the Armour ''The Chink in the Armour'' is a 1912 novel by the British writer Marie Belloc Lowndes. In 1922, it was made into a British silent film ''The House of Peril'' directed by Kenelm Foss and starring Fay Compton Virginia Lilian Emmeline Compt ...

'' (1912; adapted 1922), ''

The Lodger The Lodger may refer to: * ''The Lodger'' (novel), a 1913 horror novel about a Jack the Ripper-like serial killer by Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes ** '' The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog'', a 1927 British silent film by Alfred Hitchcock *** "Th ...

'' (1913; adapted several times), ''

Letty Lynton ''Letty Lynton'' is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film starring Joan Crawford, Robert Montgomery and Nils Asther. The film was directed by Clarence Brown and based on the 1931 novel of the same name by Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes; the n ...

'' (1931; adapted 1932), and ''

The Story of Ivy ''The Story of Ivy'' is a 1927 melodramatic novel by the British writer Marie Belloc Lowndes. It portrays Ivy Jervis, a beautiful but ambitious young woman whose frustrations with her impoverished husband push her to murder him, and let the blam ...

'' (1927; adapted 1947). ''The Lodger'' was also adapted as a 1940 radio drama and 1960 opera.

Personal life

Born in George Street,

Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also ) is an area in London, England, and is located in the City of Westminster. It is in Central London and part of the West End. Oxford Street forms its southern boundary. An ancient parish and latterly a metropo ...

, London, and raised in

La Celle-Saint-Cloud La Celle-Saint-Cloud () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in Northern France. It is a western outer suburb of Paris, from its centre, on the departmental border with Hauts-de-Seine. In 2021, it had a popula ...

, France, Belloc was the only daughter of French

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...

Louis Belloc and English feminist Bessie Parkes. Encyclopedia.com website, ''Parkes, Bessie Rayner (1829–1925)''
/ref> Her younger brother was

, whom she wrote of in her last work, ''The Young Hilaire Belloc'' (published posthumously in 1956). Belloc's paternal grandfather was the French painter Jean-Hilaire Belloc, and her maternal great-great-grandfather was the theologian/philosopher

Joseph Priestley Joseph Priestley (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, Unitarian, Natural philosophy, natural philosopher, English Separatist, separatist theologian, Linguist, grammarian, multi-subject educator and Classical libera ...

. Her father died in 1872 when she and her brother were very young. Her mother never remarried and died in 1925, fifty-three years after her father. In 1896, Belloc married Frederick Sawrey A. Lowndes (1868–1940), a journalist. They had one son and two daughters, the elder of whom married the

Earl of Iddesleigh Earl of Iddesleigh ( ), in the County of Devon, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1885 for the Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician Stafford Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh, Sir Stafford Northcote ...

Personal life

Career