Serious novel readers who grew up in the first half of this century were quite familiar with the writings of Sheila Kaye-Smith. She was designated by critics as the novelist of Sussex and often compared with Thomas Hardy ("the novelist of Wessex"). She was lauded for the "masculine" strength of her prose and "man-like" unsentimental approach to her material. After World War II, however, her popularity declined, and although she continued to write spellbinding tales until her death, only a few of her books are presently remembered and alluded to.

Born in St. Leonards-on-Sea, near Hastings, Sussex, she was a bright and imaginative child who was particularly devoted to her father, a country doctor. She loved to invent, relate, and write stories and early resolved to be a famous novelist. Her first work of fiction, The Tramping Methodist (1908), was published when she was only twenty-one. In two ways...