Violet Needham

Violet Needham (1876-1967) was the author of 19 popular children's books.

She came to writing late in life, publishing her first book at the age of 63. She was born in England to a privileged but chaotic family. Her father was a gambler and their finances fluctuated considerably. [http://www.violetneedhamsociety.org.uk/] They spent summer holidays in Europe, and lived there for six years when Needham and her sister were young women. This experience fed into her books, which were set in European Ruritania style countries, invented by her and named Flavonia and Ornowitza.

Her first published book, "The Black Riders", was published in 1939. It tells the story of an orphan boy, Dick, who lives in Flavonia and becomes a member of a secret rebel movement led by a saint-like figure called Far-Away Moses. Their chief enemy is Count Jasper, the chief of the paramilitary Black Riders, known as Jasper the Terrible. However, the villain Jasper is also described as a darkly attractive character, whose allure is felt by the main female heroine, Wych Hazel. The novelist and poet Michele Roberts described how her childhood reading of "The Black Riders" "both turned me on and made me feel guilty. Secret pleasure reading it; secret guilt." [Roberts, M "The Mystery of the Man in Black, "Children's Literature in Education" 28:1 1997]

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