Kathlyn Rhodes

Biography

Annie Kathleen Rhodes was born in 1877 to a brewer, Quintin Rhodes, and his wife, Sarah Annie, and was given every chance to succeed as a writer. At a very young age, she was educated by a governess in her home in Thirsk, Yorkshire. Her family would later relocate to London where Kathlyn (as she was known) would attend private schools in Old Southgate in North London as well as at Gordon House in Scarborough. She lost her father to illness at the age of 19, in 1896. This prompted a move out of London to Scarborough, where Kathlyn was attending school. Her mother passed away while living in their home in Scarborough, leaving Kathlyn and her sister May as heads of the home in 1907. There, misfortune refused to let up, as the bombardment of Scarborough left them homeless in 1914. Forced to leave the war-torn area, they moved to Staines, where their elder sister, Hilda, resided. They lived there for the rest of their lives.

Despite her economic and educational advantages, Rhodes had a slow start to her career as a writer. She privately published her first novel in 1899, but would have to wait some years before her real writing career took off. Around 1906, she was becoming more recognized as an author, making a name for herself in the romantic fiction genre. She wrote for both children and adults, her children’s books largely falling into the girls’ school story genre. She started writing for The Strand Magazine in 1918, and was known for her romantic fiction pieces, such as “The Second Chance.” This particular story seems to draw heavily from her proximity to the Great War, which was responsible for the destruction of her home in Scarborough. Four of the five characters are British soldiers, stationed together on a base in England. The romantic nature of the story may also be a result of her upbringing with two sisters and a mother, all of whom were at different times bachelorettes.   The story, though not widely known, is a classic example of fiction in the early twentieth century.