A Girl of High Adventure (Illustrated Edition)

L T Meade was the pseudonym of Elizabeth Thomasina Meade Smith (1844-1914), a prolific writer of stories for girls. She was born in Bandon, County Cork, Ireland, the daughter of Rev R T Meade, and later moved to London where she married Alfred Toulmin Smith in 1879. She began writing at 17 and produced over 300 books in her lifetime, primarily juvenile fiction, of which the most famous was A World of Girls (1886). Her output also included adult fiction in a variety of genres, some written with male co-authors, notably Robert Eustace with whom she created two female villains and the occult palmist and detective Diana Marburg. Meade was also the editor of popular girls' magazine Atalanta, and as a feminist was active in women's issues and a member of the Pioneer Club, one of London's most popular women's clubs in the late 19th century. In A Girl of High Adventure, first published in 1914, Meade draws on her Irish heritage to tell the story of Margot St Juste, the orphaned daughter of an Irish mother and French father, who has been brought up by an uncle in an English rectory. Margot's adventures begin when she visits family in both Ireland and Arles in the South of France, beguiling her relatives with her fearless spirit and sense of fun. This edition includes four full-page illustrations by Charles L Wrenn and a facsimile of the cover of the Hurst & Company American edition of 1914.