By Peter Berresford Ellis

Mrs J. H. Riddell was one of the most popular and influential writers of the Victorian period. The author of 56 books, novels and short stories, she was also part owner and editor of the St. James’s Magazine, one of the most prestigious literary magazines of the 1860s.

Yet Mrs J. H. Riddell had arrived in England in 1855 as a penniless 23-year-old from Dundonald, Co. Down. All but forgotten today, I was astounded to see that Sarob Press of Mountain Ash, Wales, has just republished The Haunted River & Three Other Ghostly Novellas by Mrs J. H. Riddell. The volume is edited and introduced by literary critic Richard Dalby (hardback, £25).

The Haunted River and her other supernatural tales have placed much of her work in the class of such Irish writers as Charles Maturin, Sheridan le Fanu, Fitzjames O’Brien, Bram Stoker and others. Indeed, some critics have said that Mrs Riddell has produced some of the best ghost stories ever written. James L. Campbell wrote: “Next to Le Fanu, Riddell is the best writer of supernatural tales in the Victorian era.” Charlotte Elizabeth Lawson Cowan, was born on September 30, 1832, at The Barn, Carrickfergus.

She was the youngest daughter of James Cowan, High Sheriff of Co. Antrim, and his wife Ellen Kilshaw. Charlotte grew up in Carrickfergus, a happy child and one with a fertile imagination and ability to write. She had written her first story by the age of 15. But before she was 21 her father had died and the family became much reduced in their financial circumstances. Forced to leave their home, Mrs Cowan found a cottage in the village of Dundonald, Co. Down. Charlotte was to use this setting for her novel Berna Boyle (1884) which also includes scenes from the Belfast of her childhood.

Charlotte was a keen observer of her native Ireland and used the places she visited as settings in several novels. Maxwell Drewitt (1865) is set in Connemara in which she depicts the excitement of an election, the rank-renting squireen of Castle Cronac and his drunken wife, against some extraordinary word pictures of its vivid landscape.

The Nun’s Curse (1888) is a tremendous portrait of the wild beauty of Donegal conjuring up brooding mysteries. Supernatural and satanic possession with a setting on the bleak coast of Antrim was the background to The Last Squire of Ennismore (1888).

In shorter tales such as The Earl’s Promise (1873), The Rusty Sword (1893), The Banshee's Warning (1894) and Handsome Phil (1899), Charlotte uses her Ulster background with superb and telling affect.

Charlotte was 23 years old when she accompanied her mother to London. Her mother had developed cancer and died the following year. Charlotte determined to make her living from her writing. That year she managed to sell her first novel Zuriel’s Grandchild to Thomas Cautley Newby. Her second book The Moors and Fens was sold to Smith Elder, the publishers of Charlotte Brontë. She began to use the pen name of F. G. Trafford.

Charlotte was 25 years old when she married Joseph H. Riddell, a civil engineer from Stafford who worked in the City of London. They set up home just off Cannon Street. Her next novel The Rich Husband was published anonymously by Charles Skeet, but in 1860 she returned to the pen-name of F.G. Trafford which name she used until her 10th book when she started to use the name Mrs J.H. Riddell.

Her books began to sell well and in 1863 Charlotte expressed herself dissatisfied with the terms being given by Charles Skeet. She went to see the Tinsley Brothers in Catherine Street, off the Strand. Edward and William Tinsley had long admired her work and immediately offered the almost unheard of sum of £800 for her next novel with £50 immediately on account. Charles Skeet, hearing of the deal, declared the Tinseleys would never get their investment back. But they did and much more besides.

The new novel was George Geith of Fen Court (1864). It was a novel set against the high finance circles of the City. It became one of the most successful novels of the time. It was dramatised as a play and even went on international tour. Charlotte and her husband moved to St John’s Lodge, Hanger’s Lane, Tottenham where she lived between 1873 to 1875.

Her husband was dealing in questionable business ventures in the City and was losing money. Charlotte found herself paying his debts. She was now at the height of her success and in 1867 she became part proprietor and editor of The St James’s Magazine. She was a power and influence in the literary world; to be invited to meet with her was an accolade indeed.

One of those who came to seek her advice was a 19-year-old Wexford youth, Harry Furniss. Furniss wrote a letter on August 11, 1873, describing his visit to Charlotte. She gave him advice as to how he could develop his career.

A few years later the boy from Wexford had joined the Illustrated London News and then moved to Punch as a principal cartoonist. He moved to America, founded two weekly journals and then joined Edison as a film writer and producer. He illustrated the complete works of Dickens (1910) and Thackeray (1911). Furniss died in Hastings in 1925 having achieved a world-wide reputation.

Charlotte’s husband died in 1880, broken in health and spirit by his unsuccessful business ventures. Charlotte now removed to Addlestone, near Weybridge, where in 1875 she took Raglan House. Here she found the inspiration for her most impressive book The Haunted River (1877).

Yet by the time it was published she had moved on again to Kingston Hill, then to Lambeth. At the age of 51 she defied social convention and a young friend, Arthur Hamilton Norway, became her companion and lived with her for several years. They travelled to Germany and Ireland together.

In 1885 Charlotte returned with Arthur for an extended visit to Ulster, visiting Derry and Dunfanaghy, Donegal. Back in London she moved to near Shepperton.

In 1889 she returned to Ireland but it was to be her last extended stay there. A few years later her relationship with Arthur ended. She became aware that she had cancer, the same illness which had resulted in her mother’s death. She became reclusive, a sad and lonely woman and her symptoms were kept in check by medication. She moved several times, restless, depressed and in pain. Yet she still kept writing.

She finally settled in a house in Witham Road, Spring Grove, in Isleworth. She died there on September 24, 1906. She was buried on the west side of Heston churchyard. The headstone bears the words: “Charlotte, widow of J. H. Riddell esq, Born 30th Sept. 1832. Died 24th Sept 1906. Author of George Geith, The Senior Partner and many other novels.” Richard Dalby has expressed a hope that his new edition of The Haunted River will mark a revival and surge of interest in this much neglected, indeed, almost forgotten, Irish writer. Let us hope so for this extraordinary Irishwoman deserves greater recognition.