Florence Louisa Barclay 2 December 1862 ampndash 10 March 1921 was an English romance novelist and short story writerShe was born Florence Louisa Charlesworth in Limpsfield Surrey England the daughter of the local Anglican rector One of three girls she was a sister to Maud Ballington Booth the Salvation Army leader and cofounder of the Volunteers of America When Florence was seven years old the family moved to Limehouse in the London Borough of Tower HamletsIn 1881 Florence Charlesworth married the Rev Charles W Barclay and honeymooned in the Holy Land where in Shechem they reportedly discovered Jacobamp39s Well the place where according to the Gospel of St John Jesus met the woman of Samaria John 45 Florence Barclay and her husband settled in Hertford Heath in Hertfordshire where she fulfilled the duties of a rectoramp39s wife She became the mother of eight children In her early forties health problems left her bedridden for a time and she passed the hours by writing what became her first romance novel titled The Wheels of Time Her next novel The Rosary a story of undying love was published in 1909 and its success eventually resulted in its being translated into eight languages and made into five motion pictures also in several languages According to the New York Times the novel was the No1 bestselling novel of 1910 in the United States The enduring popularity of the book was such that more than twentyfive years later Sunday Circle magazine serialized the story and in...
