Ethel May Dell was born on 2nd August 1881, in the London borough of Streatham, England to a middle class and comfortably off family.

She wrote short stories from an early age, mainly romance themed and located in various parts of the British Empire buy more usually India. For their time they were considered to be rather racy.

Her first novel, which she worked on for many years, was constantly rejected by publishers until when finally released in 1911 as ‘The Way of An Eagle’ was a huge success and went through 30 reprints.

Further works followed, all loved by her audience and generally panned by her critics, but it didn’t seem to upset her in the slightest. Her income kept all criticisms and enquiries at bay.

In 1922 she married Lieutenant-Colonel Gerald Tahourdin Savage. He resigned his commission, devoted himself to her well-being and kept all outside interest away from his very shy and private wife.

Across her career she wrote some thirty novels and many short stories in magazines and periodicals which were later collected and published in their own volumes.

Ethel May Dell Savage died of cancer on 17th September 1939. She was 58.