Mary Elizabeth Braddon (4 October 1835 – 4 February 1915) was an English popular novelist of the Victorian era.

[4] Braddon acted as stepmother to his children until 1874, when Maxwell's wife died and they were able to get married at St. Bride's Church in Fleet Street.

In the 1920s, they were living in Wyke Castle, where Fanny founded a local branch of the Woman's Institute in 1923, of which she became the first president.

A number of nearby streets are named after characters in her novels – her husband was a property developer in the area.

It has remained in print since its publication and been dramatised and filmed several times, with the first stage adaptation opening in London by the winter of 1863.

Since it also featured a woman trapped in a bigamous relationship, Aurora Floyd and Lady Audley's Secret have been referred to as Braddon's "bigamy novels."

Like Lady Audley, Aurora Floyd was first serialized in Temple Bar, a magazine, before appearing in novelized form.

[8] R. D. Blackmore's anonymous sensation novel Clara Vaughan (1864) was wrongly attributed to Braddon by some critics.

[12] Braddon founded Belgravia magazine (1866), which presented readers with serialised sensation novels, poems, travel narratives and biographies, along with essays on fashion, history and science.