Maude Robinson (1859–1950) was a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

writer of

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

and a

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autob ...

about growing up on a

South Downs The South Downs are a range of chalk hills in the south-eastern coastal counties of England that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the ...

farm at

Saddlescombe Newtimber is a small village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. It is located north-west of Brighton. The parish also includes the hamlet of Saddlescombe. The parish lies almost wholly with the South Downs Na ...

in the 1860s. She was the younger sister of the paediatrician Louis Robinson.

Life and works

Maude Robinson described her stories as "simple narratives founded on fact... sketches from real life of men and women who lived and laboured for the spreading of the Truth as it had been revealed to them, and for the help and healing of their fellowmen."Preface to ''Wedded in Prison'' ''The Time of Her Life'' is a collection of 12 such stories woven together from letters of Quakers in England from 1682 to 1875. In ''Wedded in Prison'' she draws on first-hand written accounts of Quaker experiences, records and traditions of her own ancestors, and oral history. She writes of Quaker courage in the face of

religious persecution Religious persecution is the systematic oppression of an individual or a group of individuals as a response to their religion, religious beliefs or affiliations or their irreligion, lack thereof. The tendency of societies or groups within socie ...

and the efforts of Quakers to alleviate human suffering in the

Irish Famine The Great Famine, also known as the Great Hunger ( ), the Famine and the Irish Potato Famine, was a period of mass starvation and disease in Ireland lasting from 1845 to 1852 that constituted a historical social crisis and had a major impact ...

and the

Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...

. Contemporary reviewers commented on the wholesomeness, homely fragrance and charm of her stories.

Bibliography

* * * * * * * :*reprinted as ''The Quiet Valley: Memories of a South Down Farm in the 1860s'' (London: Turnastone, 1994, )

Notes

1859 births 1950 deaths English Quakers People from Newtimber Quaker writers {{UK-writer-stub