Maurice Hewlett (1861-1923) was an English historical novelist, poet and essayist. Born in Weybridge, he was educated at the London International College, Isleworth, and called to the bar in 1891 but gave up the law after the success of his historical novel The Forest Lovers published in 1898. From 1896-1901 he was Keeper of Lands, Revenues, Records and Enrolments, a government post as adviser on matters of medieval law. He married Hilda Beatrice Herbert in 1888, with whom he had a son and a daughter, but they separated in 1914 partly due to Hilda's increasing interest in aviation. In 1911 she became the first woman in the UK to gain a pilot's licence. Hewlett settled in Broad Chalke, Wiltshire, and had a wide circle of friends in the literary world, including Ezra Pound and J M Barrie, and his historical novels proved both popular and influential. T E Lawrence professed The Life and Death of Richard Yea-and-Nay, a 1900 work about Richard the Lionhart, to be one of his favourite books, and Ford Madox Ford claimed that The Queen's Quair (1904) had taught him a lot and influenced his own historical trilogy, The Fifth Queen, about Catherine Howard. The Queen's Quair is an historical romance which offers an in-depth portrayal of the tragic life of Mary Queen of Scots (1542-1587).