[citation needed] In 1874, Besant married Mary Garrett (née Foster Barham), daughter of Eustace Foster-Barham, of Bridgwater, with whom he had four children.

For some time he took care of his sister-in-law Annie Besant, a prominent women's rights activist, socialist, and theosophist.

Thereafter, Besant continued to write voluminously by himself, his main novels being All in a Garden Fair (which Rudyard Kipling credited in Something of Myself with inspiring him to leave India and make a career as a writer, and which George Gissing read with 'extreme delight', calling it 'one of the most charming and delicate of modern novels),[4] Dorothy Forster (his own favorite), Children of Gibeon, and All Sorts and Conditions of Men.

His 1889 novel The Bell of St. Paul's was considered by his contemporary author George Gissing to be an 'absurd and empty book'.

[5] Harper's New Monthly Magazine published ten of his works of fiction, including "All Sorts and Conditions of Men; an Impossible Story," which is famous for having suggested the founding of the People's Palace, London.

[10] Besant was treasurer of the "Atlantic Union", an association which sought to improve social relations between Britons and Americans.

historian of London, secretary of the Palestine exploration fund, originator of the people's palace and founder of the Society of Authors.

Comprising in sequence Ready-Money Mortiboy, This Son of Vulcan, With Harp and Crown, The Golden Butterfly, By Celia's Arbour, The Seamy Side, The Chaplain of the Fleet, The Case of Mr. Lucraft and Other Tales, 'Twas in Trafalgar's Bay and Other Stories, The Ten Years' Tenant and Other Stories [My Little Girl, The Monks of Thelema apparently missing from this series].