1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Barclay, Florence Louisa

BARCLAY, FLORENCE LOUISA (1862–1921), English novelist, was born at Limpsfield, Surrey, Dec. 2 1862, the daughter of the Rev. S. Charlesworth, rector of the parish, and niece of Maria Louisa Charlesworth, author of Ministering Children. On March 10 1881 she married the Rev. Charles Barclay, vicar of Little Amwell, Herts. Her first novel, The Wheels of Time, appeared in 1908, but she is best known by its successor, The Rosary (1909), which reached a circulation of close on a million copies and was translated into many languages. The combination of religious feeling and strong love interest which characterized most of her novels appealed to a very wide public, and she enjoyed for some years an immense popularity, the total circulation of her books exceeding 2,500,000. Later novels included The Mistress of Shenstone (1910), specially filmed in America; The Following of the Star (1911); The Broken Halo (1913); In Hoc Vince (1915); Returned Empty (1920). She died at Limpsfield March 10 1921.