The Thirteenth Orphan

by Christine Chaundler, Honor C. Appleton (Illustrator)

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1928

About the author

A prolific British children's author, Christine Chaundler was born in 1887 in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, the daughter of solicitor Henry Chaundler, and his wife, Constance Julia Thompson. She was educated at Queen Anne's School, in Caversham, until the age of sixteen, whereupon she attended St. Winifred's School in Llanfairfechan, Wales. She served briefly in the Land Army, during WWI, but otherwise worked in an editorial capacity for a variety of publishers, until her writing career was capable of supporting her, financially.

Chaundler's first work was published in 1912, when she won a poetry contest, and she went on to write many children's novels, for both boys and girls, as well as numerous short stories for various magazines. Her girls' stories were published under her own name, and her boys' stories under the pen-name Peter Martin.

Interestingly, In a census of young girls conducted by the Western Mail in 1927 she ranked sixth among popular authors. Although she was bested by Dickens, Shakespeare, and Kipling, she was listed above Louisa Alcott and Robert Louis Stevenson.

She died on 15 December 1972, aged 85, at Fittleworth, Sussex.