Lucy Clifford (1846 - 1929), better known as Mrs W K Clifford, was the wife of William Kingdon Clifford.

She was born Lucy Lane, the daughter of John Lane of Barbados, and married Clifford in 1875. After his death in 1879, she earned herself a prominent place in English literary life as a novelist, and later as a dramatist. Her best-known story, Mrs Keith's Crime (1885), was followed by several other volumes, the best-known of which is Aunt Anne (1893). She wrote also The Last Touches and Other Stories (1892) and Mere Stories (1896); and a play, A Woman Alone(1898). She is perhaps most remembered, however, as the author of The Anyhow Stories, Moral and Otherwise(1882): a collection of stories written for her children.

She had a wide circle of literary friends, amongst them Henry James.Her daughter Ethel Clifford , later Ethel Fisher Dilke, was a published poet.

Read the Anyhow Stories [1]