Dorothea Deakin

She was the daughter of Saretta, the sister of children's writer E. Nesbit. After Saretta's death in 1899, Nesbit 'treated Dorothea like a third daughter,' taking her on holiday with the family, and is cited as an inspiration for Dorothea's beginning to write at the age of sixteen.^[1]

She and Nesbit wrote two one-act plays together, The King’s Highway and The Philandrist, or the London Fortune Teller, which were performed in 1905.^[1] Dorothea's short story The Wishing Ring was also the basis of a play by Owen Davis.^[2]

In 1906, Dorothea's book 'Georgie' was taken on by Nesbit's agent at her request.

Georgie was called by a contemporary reviewer 'Just a jolly book for an idle hour.'^[3] Deakin's books have been described unfavourably as 'fairly tedious comedies of village or country house life... The standard Deakin figure is the heroine of boyish charm whose lover calls her a "good sport" and whose mission in life is to upset the rector's wife.'^[4]

In 1910 she married R.W. Reynolds, the schoolmaster of J.R.R. Tolkien. They had three daughters.^[5] In 1922 the pair moved to Capri, hoping for an improvement in Dorothea's tuberculosis.^[6] She died in 1924.

• The Smile of Melinda (1903)
• The Poet and the Pierrot (1905)
• 'Georgie' (1906)^[7]
• Tormentilla (1908)
• The Young Columbine (1908)
• The Goddess Girl (1910)