Ethel Colburn Mayne (7 January 1865 – 30 April 1941) was an Irish novelist, short-story writer, biographer, literary critic, journalist and translator.

[2] Mayne's first published work came when in 1895, aged 30, she submitted a short story to the recently established literary periodical The Yellow Book.

[3] The editor Henry Harland accepted it, writing her an effusive letter,[3] and the story, "A Pen-and-ink Effect", appeared in July 1895 in Volume 6 of the periodical, under the pen name Frances E. Huntley.

In 1909 she published her first biographical work, Enchanters of Men, "studies of two dozen sirens from Diane de Poitiers to Adah Isaacs Menken".

In January 1927 her father died, which meant the loss of his pension, and left the family, which included Violet and a brother-in-law, dependent on her literary income.

[3] The family moved from Kensingston to Richmond[3] and then to near-by St. Margarets, in Twickenham, where she continued her literary work, and found recreation in "walking, reading and playing patience".

[3] According to Allan Nevins, her short stories showed "exquisite pains addressed to essentially inconsequential themes".

[2] Robert Morss Lovett wrote "Miss Mayne's touch upon reality is delicate, reserved, withdrawing".