Introduction
Allen Raine was the pseudonym of the Welsh novelist Anne Adaliza Beynon Puddicombe (6 October 1836 – 21 June 1908).
Life
She was born Anne Adaliza Evans in Newcastle Emlyn, Carmarthenshire, the eldest daughter of a lawyer Benjamin and Letitia Grace Evans. Her father was a lawyer and the grandson of David Davis (1745–1827); her mother was the granddaughter of Daniel Rowland.
In 1849, she was sent to be educated with the family of a Unitarian minister, Henry Solly, at Cheltenham, and afterwards lived in the suburbs of London with her sister Lettie. Returning to Wales in 1856 she married the banker Beynon Puddicombe at Penbryn Church, Tresaith on 10 April 1872; he was the foreign correspondent of Smith Payne's Bank, London. They lived in the London area until February 1900, when her husband became mentally ill.
They retired to Bronmôr, Tresaith in Cardiganshire until his death in 1906 (29 May; buried at Penbryn Church); she remained there until her death, on 21 June 1908.
Works
- Ynysoer (National Eisteddfod winner; 1894)
- A Welsh Singer (1896)
- Torn Sails (1897)
- By Berwen Banks (1899)
- Garthowen (1900)
- A Welsh Witch (1902) Republished by Honno Classics, 2013
- On the Wings of the Wind (1903)
- Hearts of Wales (1905)
- Queen of the Rushes (1906) Republished by Honno Classics, 1998
- Neither Storehouse nor Barn (1908)
- All in a Month (short story collection; 1908)
- Where Billows Roll (originally Ynysoer, Eisteddfod winner 1894)
- Under the Thatch - unfinished at her death, eventually completed by Lyn Evans (1910)
Films
Torn Sails (1915), A Welsh Singer (starring Florence Turner 1920) and By Berwen Banks (1920).