Margaret Oliphant (1828-97) was a Scottish novelist and historical writer of the Victorian era who usually wrote as Mrs Oliphant. Her fictional works encompass domestic realism, the historical novel, and tales of the supernatural. As a girl she constantly experimented with writing and in 1849 her first novel Passages in the Life of Mrs Margaret Maitland was published. It was followed in 1851 by Caleb Field, and in that year she met the publisher William Blackwood who invited her to contribute to Blackwood's Magazine. The association would last throughout her lifetime during which she contributed well over 100 articles. In 1852 she married her cousin Frank with whom she had six children, three of whom died in infancy. The family moved to Italy in 1859 for the sake of Frank's health but he died in Rome leaving his wife almost entirely without resources, and on her return to England she was dependent on her literary output to support her three surviving children. She soon established herself as a popular writer and worked hard to sustain this position, but her private life was dogged with sorrow as her remaining children all pre-deceased her. Oliphant wrote over 120 works, mostly novels, but also travel books, biographies, historical works and volumes of literary criticism. Some of her most popular fictional works are the six novels which make up The Chronicles of Carlingford, originally serialised in Blackwood's from 1862-5 prior to book publication. This novel first published in 1886 tells the story of 18-year-old Frances Waring who is living with her father in Bordighera, Italy, knowing nothing of his past and presuming her mother is dead. The arrival of a young woman announcing herself to be Frances's twin sister, Constance, comes as a great shock, as does the discovery that her mother and half-brother are living in England. Frances is sent to join them where she finds society, as her newly-found family know it, to be artificial and insincere, and matters become more complicated when her siblings befriend a young man to whom Frances is attracted.