Dinah Maria Mulock

Dinah Maria Craik (nee Dinah Maria Mulock) (20 April 1826 - 12 October 1887), was an English novelist and poet. She was born at Stoke-upon-Trent, Staffordshire.

She is best known for the novel John Halifax, Gentleman (1857). She had settled in London about 1846, determined to obtain a livelihood by her pen, and, beginning with fiction for children, advanced steadily until placed in the front rank of the women novelists of her day. She followed it by A Life for a Life (1859). Other novels were The Ogvies (1849), Olive (1850), The Head of the Family (1851), Agatha's Husband (1853).

Other works include Avillion and other Tales. She published some poetry, narratives of tours in Ireland and Cornwall, and A Woman's Thoughts about Women.

She married George Lillie Craik, a partner with Alexander Macmillan in the publishing house of Macmillan & Company, in 1864, and died at Shortlands, near Bromley, Kent.