Excuse my dust: Susan Ferrier
Susan Ferrier wrote two more novels, The Inheritance (1824), and Destiny (1831). Sir Walter Scott was impressed and the two writers became friends. Destiny earned Ferrier the huge sum of £1700, and Blackwood’s offered her £1000 for her next novel, which she never wrote.
After her mother’s death, Susan Ferrier became her father’s housekeeper, and retired from writing. She suffered poor health for many years, failing eyesight forcing her to withdraw into darkened rooms. She did, however, remain engaged with social issues, notably the anti-slavery movement to which she was deeply committed. She died at home in Albany Street, Edinburgh, in 1854.
Julie Watt, November 2011