Edith: Tender portrait of a half-forgotten Irish literary figure

Edith Somerville was one half of the duo responsible for The Irish RM stories, along with her second cousin Violet Martin. Writing as Somerville and Ross, the pair were hugely popular in the Victorian and Edwardian eras and published 14 books together before Martin’s death in 1915. Devastated, Edith continued to put her partner’s name on later stories she had solely written herself.

Martina Devlin’s novel is set in that turbulent period between the War ...