Lowndes, Marie Belloc

Franco-English author and journalist, who was noted for her novels with a mixture of horror, crime and the struggle for the liberation of women, with well-crafted psychological elements as well as romantic undertones. Best known is a book that is regarded as a classic, The Lodger (1913), which is based on the case of Jack the Ripper; over the years, this has been reissued and translated many times. The same applies, although to a somewhat lesser degree, to some of her other titles, including The Chink in the Armour (1912), From the Vasty Deep (1920), The Story of Ivy (1927) and Letty Lynton (1931). A handful of these have been turned in to films; for example, The Lodger has been turned into a film several times, the most famous version being directed by Alfred Hitchcock. That same novel was also the basis for an opera with the same title from 1960.