Grant Allen

Grant Allen was born in Canada in 1848. He moved with his family to the USA and then France, before settling in the UK. Allen was a professor in the UK and Jamaica, until he resigned in order to spend more of his time writing. His output was extremely varied, ranging from science fiction to feminism, from academic articles on evolution to detective stories. His most-read work nowadays is his bestselling novel, ‘The Woman who Did’, about an unmarried mother – it caused a scandal at the time it was written. Allen died in 1899.