Maude Gertrude Annesley Webster-Wedderburn Hadden Rider Brownlow (11 January 1871 – 6 November 1930) was a British novelist who published under the name Maude Annesley. She was born Maude Gertrude Annesley Webster-Wedderburn on 11 January 1871 in

Newcastle-under-Lyme Newcastle-under-Lyme is a market town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. It is adjacent to the city of Stoke-on-Trent. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, the population ...

, the daughter of Major George Gordon Trophime-Gérard de Lally-Tollendal Webster-Wedderburn, son of James Webster-Wedderburn, and Caroline Teresa Dixon.Mosley, Charles, editor. ''Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes''. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003, volume 2, page 2984. She married Henry Alexander Hadden, a

solicitor A solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to p ...

, in 1892. Still married to Hadden, Annesley moved to Paris with William Henry Rider, a publisher, in 1902. The ensuing divorce was a public scandal. Annesley was a contributor to ''

The Fortnightly Review ''The Fortnightly Review'' was one of the most prominent and influential magazines in nineteenth-century England. It was founded in 1865 by Anthony Trollope, Frederic Harrison, Edward Spencer Beesly, and six others with an investment of £9,000 ...

'', ''

The Westminster Gazette ''The Westminster Gazette'' was an influential Liberal newspaper based in London. It was known for publishing sketches and short stories, including early works by Raymond Chandler, Anthony Hope, D. H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, Margaret ...

'', and other publications. She published a number of novels mainly featuring, in the words of Sandra Kemp, "restless daughters and wives." Some of them featured supernatural elements, like the

clairvoyant Clairvoyance (; ) is the claimed ability to acquire information that would be considered impossible to get through scientifically proven sensations, thus classified as extrasensory perception, or "sixth sense". Any person who is claimed to ...

protagonist of ''The Door of Darkness'' (1909) or the sinister

hypnotist Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychological ...

of ''Shadow-Shapes'' (1911). Two of her novels were adapted for film: ''Wind Along the Waste'' (1910) as '' Shattered Dreams'' (1922) and ''The Wine of Life'' (1907) as the 1924 film of the same name. According to her great-grandson John Stewart, Rider introduced Annesley to "the world of the occult, the Golden Dawn,

Swinburne Algernon Charles Swinburne (5 April 1837 – 10 April 1909) was an English poet, playwright, novelist and critic. He wrote many plays – all tragedies – and collections of poetry such as '' Poems and Ballads'', and contributed to the Eleve ...

, MacGregor Mather, drugs and orgies," which eventually took their toll on her. Her third husband had her institutionalized at Camberwell House Lunatic Asylum in

Peckham Peckham ( ) is a district in south-east London, within the London Borough of Southwark. It is south-east of Charing Cross. At the 2001 Census the Peckham ward had a population of 14,720. History "Peckham" is a Saxon place name meaning the vi ...

. Maude Annesley died on 6 November 1930.

Personal life

Maude Annesley was married three times: * Henry Alexander Hadden, in 1892. They had a daughter, Betty Valentia Hadden Stewart (1893-1978) * William Henry Rider, in 1902. * Major Harry Blaikie Brownlow, in 1915.

Bibliography

* ''The Wine of Life'' (1907) * ''The Door of Darkness'' (1909) * ''This Day's Madness'' (1909) * ''Wind Along the Waste'' (1910) * ''All Awry'' (1911) * ''Shadow-Shapes'' (1911) * ''Nights and Days'' (1912) * ''The Sphinx in the Labyrinth'' (1913) * ''My Parisian Year: A Woman's Point of View'' (1914) * ''Blind Understanding'' (1915) * ''The Player'' (1922) * ''Where I Made One'' (1923)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Annesley, Maude Created via preloaddraft 1871 births 1930 deaths English women novelists People from Newcastle-under-Lyme Writers from Staffordshire