Mrs. Henry Clarke


Amy Clarke, was an English writer of historical fiction and children's books.

Life

The daughter of Joseph Henry Key and Elizabeth Hosking, Clarke was born Amy Key in Plymouth in 1853. She started writing when young, publishing a story in the magazine Good Words when she was 16. At 20, she obtained a first in the Cambridge Examination and began teaching at Plymouth High School for Girls. Two years later she took one year's leave to read mathematics at Newnham College, Cambridge. She left Plymouth High School in 1880 to become the first headmistress of Truro High School for Girls.
Clarke continued her education even during this appointment, attending London University to earn an external MA. While at university, she met the lecturer Henry Clarke, whom she married in 1889. They had four children: John Henry Clarke, Walter Oakley Clarke, Amy Key Clarke and Wilfrid Kinton Clarke. After her marriage, Clarke's teaching was limited to occasional lectures at Westfield College. Her primary occupation became writing.
In 1908, she died of cancer.

Selected works