Allen Raine


Allen Raine was the pseudonym of the Welsh novelist Anne Adalisa Beynon Puddicombe. Her novels had sold more than two million copies by 1912.

Life

She was born Anne Adalisa Evans in Newcastle Emlyn, Carmarthenshire, the eldest daughter of a lawyer Benjamin and Letitia Grace Evans.
Her father was a lawyer and the grandson of David Davis. Her mother was the granddaughter of Daniel Rowland.
In 1849, she was sent to be educated with the family of a Unitarian minister, Henry Solly, at Cheltenham. The family included literati such as George Eliot, Mrs Henry Wood, and Bulwer-Lytton. She later lived in the suburbs of London with her sister Lettie. In her youth she publish a short-lived periodical called Home Sunshine with the help of a few friends and printed at Newcastle Emlyn.

Marital life

Returning to Wales in 1856, she married the banker Beynon Puddicombe at Penbryn Church, Tresaith, Cardiganshire, on 10 April 1872. He was the foreign correspondent of Smith Payne's Bank, London. They lived in the London area until February 1900, when her husband became mentally ill. They then retired to Bronmôr, a house in Tresaith until his death in 1906. He died on 29 May and was buried at Penbryn Church.
She spent time in London for her education and marriage, but eventually returned to her Welsh roots. Wales features largely in her romantic fiction, with titles such as A Welsh Singer and A Welsh Witch. She remained there until her death on 21 June 1908.

Works