Bithia Mary Croker facts for kids

Bithia Mary Croker (born around 1848 or 1849, died 1920) was an Irish writer. She wrote many novels, mostly about life in British India. Her book The Road to Mandalay (1917), which was set in Burma, was used as the uncredited basis for a silent movie in 1926. She also wrote exciting ghost stories!

Her Life Story

Bithia was born in Kilgefin, County Roscommon, Ireland. She was the only daughter of Reverend William Sheppard, who was a church leader and also a writer. Bithia went to school in Rockferry, Cheshire, England, and in Tours, France. She was known for being a great horse rider with the Kildare Hunt.

In 1871, Bithia married John Stokes Croker. He was an officer in the army.

Life in India

In 1877, Bithia moved to Madras and then to Bengal in India with her husband. She lived in India for 14 years. She spent some time in a cool mountain town called Wellington in Tamil Nadu. She started writing there to keep busy during the hot season.

After her husband retired from the army in 1892, they moved back to Ireland, to County Wicklow. Later, they moved to London, and then to Folkestone, Kent, where her husband died in 1911. Bithia had one daughter named Eileen, who was born in 1872. Bithia loved reading, traveling, and going to the theatre. She died in London in 1920 and was buried in Folkestone.

Her Books and Stories

Bithia Croker wrote for 37 years, starting in 1882 when she was 33. Her last novel was published after she died in 1921. She wrote 42 novels and 7 collections of short stories!

First Novels

Her first novel, Proper Pride (1880), was written secretly in Secunderabad, India. She even read it aloud to other women. The first copy was lost, but Bithia rewrote it. It was published without her name on it in the UK. People thought a man had written it, and it received good reviews. It was reprinted 12 times by 1896! Even William Ewart Gladstone, a famous politician, was seen reading it. The book showed sympathy for men's views and told the story of a strong, horse-riding heroine whose pride caused problems with her husband.

Writing Style

People often praised Croker's writing because she was good at showing how different people spoke. She used lively and fun conversations in her books. Her stories often showed what happened when the usual way of life was challenged. Her second novel, Pretty Miss Neville (1883), was also very popular.

She explored challenges faced by women in India, like in The Cat's Paw (1902), where a woman didn't want to marry the man she was sent to India for. She also wrote about men who faced social difficulties, like in The Company's Servant (1907). Her book Village Tales and Jungle Tragedies (1895) showed her interest in Indian village life. Overall, 17 of her novels were set in India, one in Burma, and seven in Ireland.

Spooky Stories

Some of Croker's work had a spooky, mysterious feel, like old Gothic fiction stories. For example, her 1905 story "The Little Brass God" was about a statue of Kali, a goddess of destruction. This statue brought bad luck to the Anglo-Indians who owned it. The curse ended when the statue was stolen and thrown into a well.

Global Reach and Friends

Many of Bithia Croker's novels were translated into French, German, Hungarian, and Norwegian. A collection of her ghost stories was published around the year 2000. Her story "To Let" (around 1896) was even included in The Oxford Book of Victorian Ghost Stories. One of her novels set in Ireland, Terence (1899), was turned into a play and was performed for two years in the United States.

Bithia Croker knew many writers in London. Her novel Angel (1901) was dedicated to Alice Perrin, another writer who focused on India. A writer and professor named Douglas Sladen once said that Bithia, along with her friends Alice Perrin and Flora Annie Steel, were like the "three who have long divided the Indian Empire with Rudyard Kipling as a realm of fiction." This meant they were all top writers about India in their own ways.