Margaret Barber

[1] Barber was born in Rastrick, Brighouse, West Riding of Yorkshire, the youngest of three daughters.

She was initially tutored at home by her mother, Maria Louisa, née Musgrave (1831–1890) and elder sisters.

[2] As a child, Barber was an avid reader of Charles Dickens, Walter Scott and books on natural history.

[3] Her father, solicitor and amateur archaeologist Fairless Barber, died in 1881, and her mother, unable to cope, sent her to relatives in Torquay where she attended a local school.

Her first book was the religious romance The Gathering of Brother Hilarius (1901) but it was The Roadmender (1902) that achieved a wild success, being reprinted 31 times in 10 years.