F. Tennyson Jesse
F. Tennyson Jesse was an English writer and journalist born in 1888 in Kent, England, and she was a great-niece of the famous poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Coming from a lineage of Cornish seafarers, Jesse's family background included wealth from the coal industry. She pursued art studies at the Newlyn School and began her writing career in 1911, contributing to prominent publications like The Times and The Daily Mail. During World War I, she distinguished herself as one of the few female war correspondents, notably with her piece "A Woman in Battle at Belgium's Last Stand." After the war, Jesse shifted her focus to crime writing, editing notable volumes in the Notable British Trials series and publishing various articles in well-known magazines. Her fiction included the popular novel A Pin to See the Peep-Show, which offered a fictionalized take on a notorious murder case. Jesse remained active as a writer and journalist until her death in 1958, leaving behind a significant legacy in crime literature and journalism.
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F. Tennyson Jesse
Author
- Born: March 1, 1888
- Birthplace: Kent, England
- Died: August 6, 1958
Biography
Fryniwyd Wynifried Margaret Tennyson Jesse was born in 1888 in Kent, England. On her father’s side, she was the great-niece of poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson. On her mother’s side, she was descended from generations of Cornish seafarers, though the tradition faded after her grandfather made a fortune in coal.
Jesse studied art at the Newlyn School of Stanhope and at Elizabeth Forbes school in Cornwall. In 1911, she began writing for The Timesand The Daily Mail. When World War I broke out she became a correspondent, using the name F. Tennyson Jesse, and was one of few woman journalists to report from the front. Her stirring eyewitness account of the German invasion, “A Woman in Battle at Belgium’s Last Stand,” was printed in Collier’s Magazinein late 1914.
Following the war, Jesse continued as a journalist while penning such plays as Quarantine, which served as the basis for the 1925 silent comedy film Lovers in Quarantine, and Moonraker(1927), a romance of pirates and slave revolts. Over time, Jesse took a special interest in crime stories and edited several volumes in the Notable British Trials series, including The Trial of Madeleine Smith(1927), and I>The Trial of Alma Victoria Rattenbury and George Percy Stoner(1935). A number of her articles on true crime cases appeared in such publications as The Strandand Mystery and Detectionduring the 1920’s and 1930’s; one of her real-life adventure features provided the plot for the 1943 film San Demetrio London.
In 1931, Jesse collected a number of her previously published tales about Solange, a Frenchwoman who acts as a detective thanks to psychic powers that allow her to sense the presence of evil, and released them as The Solange Stories. Three years later, her best-known work, A Pin to See the Peep-Show, a fictionalized account of the sensational 1922 Thompson-Bywaters murder case, was published; mystery writer Julian Symons selected the novel as one of the 100 best crime and mystery books.
Jesse continued writing and reporting until her death. Her book The Trial of Timothy John Evans and John Reginald Halliday Christiewas published in 1957, a year before her death at the age of seventy.