Lady Helen Craven, Victorian Novelist

   The novelist Lady Helen Emily Craven (1874-1926), was a direct descendant of Elizabeth Craven. The daughter of the 3^rd Earl of Craven, she is usually known by her married name, Forbes, under which her novels were published.

  She first ventured into print writing newspaper articles about fashion at the age of twenty-six. On 7th October 1890 she advised readers of The Guardian:-

"A fine and warm September has delayed considerably the production of autumnal novelties, for in these days of cheap imitation the best milliners and dressmakers jealously withhold their newest inventions till the last possible moment. Despite the rumours that reach us from Paris of a threatened revolution in dress, of stiff Holbein bodices, with padded rolls upon the hips, as yet the simple, graceful gored skirt and Princess polonaise continue to hold their ground. It is in the Tudor times, the long-past days of pearl-broidered kirtles and jewelled stomachers, that we shall find the originals of the magnificent galons and passementeries, the glittering zones and fringes, on which ingenuity and invention have been chiefly expended this season...

...Velvet will frequently be seen on cloth and cashmere dresses, as a wide band at the edge of the skirt. This fashion should, however, only be adopted by those who are above the average in stature, for it considerably lessens the apparent height, and has an almost ludicrous effect of cutting the figure off at the ankles." Excellent advice. [1]

 The article featured a photograph of her dressed for autumn with a rather fine feather-trimmed hat and boa. [2]

     From journalism she progressed to writing short stories. In 1899 her story "The

Quixotism of the Widow" was published in Country Life. [3]

Soon she went on to write novels. The first, Katherine Cromer, was published by A.D. Innes and Co. in 1897. The Morning Post praised it for having "lively characterisation and a never-failing verve". [4]

  Her second novel, The Outcast Emperor was published in 1900, and tells an adventure story about a hero whose daring deeds save a fugitive monarch in the Far-East, bringing him safely into British diplomatic protection. The characters include a dowager Empress of Cathay. [5]  The London Evening Standard described it as "one of the most entertaining of recent novels, and one of the most humorous."[6]

     In April 1901, Lady Helen married Ian Rose Innes Forbes  (1875-1957, later Lt-Colonel and DSO), of Rothiemay in Scotland. Soon afterwards, she went with his regiment, the Gordon Highlanders, to India and wrote a novel about her experiences there, It's a Way They Have in the Army (1905), which has now been re-issued. 

   This novel is of considerable interest as a historical testimony of what she saw there. Stationed at a large army base that has a strong likeness to Puna, the heroine, an army wife, observes the British colony with a very cold eye. The novel portrays the women in particular as frivolous, snobbish and inward-looking, and the colony as mainly interested in horse-racing, dinner parties, and having illicit affairs. The colonial world seems to be a place where people who would be nobody in London high society can get an inflated idea of their own importance. Written twenty years before E.M.Forster's Passage to India, and nine years before the First World War that would decimate all the European powers, it predicts the sunset of Empire with a remarkable prescience.

    She also published a collection of stories entitled Notes of a Music-lover, which was well- received. Three more novels are recorded under her name, one entitled Responsibility, published by Hutchinson & Co. Others include The Provincials (1905), and The Bounty of the Gods (1910). [7]

    

     Lady Helen and her husband had six children. They moved into Herbertshire Castle, a small Scottish castle owned by his cousin. Among her hobbies was dog-breeding and she was known for her love of border collies.

   Early in her life she had become Roman Catholic and she was married in a RC church. Two of her sons entered a monastic order.

  In later life, her ideas were overshadowed by the tragedy of the First World War and her last published work was a long elegaic poem on the subject, The Saga of the Seventh Division (1920). 

 

 Nowadays, Lady Helen is remembered for another reason: her excellent work in collecting and preserving the manuscripts of her ancestor, Elizabeth Craven. The manuscript volume of Elizabeth Craven's poetry quoted by Broadley in The Beautiful Lady Craven (1911) was at that time in her ownership, as the author mentioned. She must have purchased it, as it belonged to Lord Macartney, and there is a price written inside, along with the various MS letters bequeathed to the Craven family. Since last year these have been on long-term loan to Chawton House, Hampshire, thanks to the generosity of Lady Anne Craven-Smith. 

[1] What fashionable ladies should be wearing this autumn...https://www.theguardian.com › theguardian › oct › arc...

[2] The Victorian author Lady Helen Craven dressed for autumn. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty 

[3] Country Life Illustrated - Volume 5, Part 2 - p. 654 1899.

[4] The Academy Dec 4th 1897, p.509. 

[5] The outcast emperor [microform] in SearchWorks catalog

https://searchworks.stanford.edu › view

[6] 31 December 1900. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk › search › r...

[7 Lady Helen Craven | National Library of ...https://nla.gov.au › nla.cat-vn1116275

And Sandra Kemp, Charlotte Mitchell. Edwardian Fiction: An Oxford Companion, 1997, p. 134.

...