(bapt. 23 September 1828[1] – 10 May 1899) was a British children's writer and illustrator, perhaps best known for her
adventure novelLeft to Themselves: A Boy's Adventure in Australia (1878)[2] – later published as The Young Lamberts. The novel is set in Australia, but she is not known to have ever visited the continent.[3]
Life
Marryat was born in
Fulham,
Surrey, England,[4] the daughter of
Frederick Marryat and his wife Catherine (née Shairp). Captain Marryat was a successful popular novelist and two of Augusta's sisters,
Florence and
Emilia, also became writers. Augusta wrote adventure fiction heavily infused with morality in her father's vein,[2] and Florence was a prolific author of sensationalist novels who also acquired a reputation for hanging out with spiritual mediums.