Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson was born in 1870 in Melbourne, and took the pen name 'Henry Handel' from her uncle. After her father's untimely death, Ethel and her sister were supported by their mother. She met her husband J. George Robertson in Germany, where both were students, and where Ethel began her career as a translator and sustained an interest in European culture. Her novels include Maurice Guest (1908), The Fortunes of Richard Mahony (1917-29), The Era of Childhood and Other Stories (1934) and The Young Cosima (1939). Her autobiography, Myself When Young, remained unfinished at her death in 1946.
Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson was born in 1870 in Melbourne, and took the pen name 'Henry Handel' from her uncle. After her father's untimely death, Ethel and her sister were supported by their mother. She met her husband J. George Robertson in Germany, where both were students, and where Et...