Margaret Irwin was born on March 27, 1889 in Highgate Hill, London to Andrew Clarke and Anna Julia (nee Baker) Irwin. Her father was originally from Perth, Australia. After her mother’s death in 1899 and her father’s death in 1902, Irwin was sent to be raised by her uncle, Sidney T. Irwin, a classics professor at Clifton College in Bristol. She was educated at Clifton High School in Bristol and went on to study at Oxford, where she took a degree in English.  Her uncle died in 1911.

Irwin’s earliest novel, How Many Miles to Babylon, was published in 1913 and was followed by a couple more novels in the teens before she hit her stride in the 1920s. Her 1924 novel Still She Wished for Company was a fantasy novel in which an occultist drew the heroine into 1779. It was followed a year later by These Mortals about a woman raised in isolation in a magical palace. Although she continued to, occasionally write short fiction with fantastic elements, such as “Monsieur Seeks a Wife” and “The Curate and the Rake,” the majority of her writing was historical fiction, for which she became well known.

In 1929, Irwin married John Robert Monsell, an author who also illustrated children’s books. They remained married until his death in 1952. Monsell created the covers of some of her novels.

In 1932, she published Royal Flush, about Henrietta Stuart, the sister of Charles II. The Stranger Prince in 1937 was about Prince Rupert of the Rhine, the nephew of Charles I. Other novels deal with Mary, Queen of Scotts and the Marquess of Montrose. Between 1944 and 1953, she wrote the Queen Elizabeth Trilogy, beginning with Young Bess, which was adapted into the 1953 film of the same title, which starred Jean Simmons, Stewart Granger, Deborah Kerr, and Charles Laughton. Subsequent novels in the series including Elizabeth, Captive Princess and Elizabeth and the Prince of Spain. Her historical novels were often praised for their accuracy and the research she put into them.

Not only was one of her novels adapted for film, she also wrote the script for “The Doughty Plot,” and episode of the television series Sir Francis Drake.

In 1960, she turned her research skills to biography, publishing That Great Lucifer, a well-regarded exploration of Sir Walter Raleigh.

Irwin died in London on December 11, 1967. She is buried in St. Luke’s Churchyard in Stoke Hammond, Buckinghamshire. Her papers are preserved at the University of Reading.

---

Steven H Silver is a twenty-two-time Hugo Award nominee and was the publisher of the Hugo-nominated fanzine Argentus as well as the editor and publisher of ISFiC Press for eight years. He has also edited books for DAW, NESFA Press, and ZNB. His most recent anthology is Alternate Peace and his novel After Hastings was published in 2020. Steven has chaired the first Midwest Construction, Windycon three times, and the SFWA Nebula Conference numerous times. He was programming chair for Chicon 2000 and Vice Chair of Chicon 7.