Mary Anne Barker

Mary Anne Barker [née Stewart], Lady Barker [other married name Mary Anne Broome, Lady Broome] (1831-1911), journalist and writer. Born in Spanish Town, Jamaica. She turned to journalism to earn a living when she moved to London with her second husband in 1868. Her work appeared regularly in the Cornhill Magazine and Macmillan's Magazine, and she wrote literary reviews for The Times. But her greatest literary achievement came in 1870 when she published the first of a series of books about her colonial experiences. These memoirs went through numerous reprints between 1870 and 1887, and were translated into French and German. Her works provide a unique social history of Victorian colonial expansion through fascinating, informed, and witty anecdotal and autobiographical details.