Two titles in matched polished calf bindings both written by 'V[era]. Fetherstonhaugh'. Mrs Jim Barker and Frosts of June, pub. Chapman and Hall, 1899, first and only edition. With: A Younger Son, pub. Downey & Co, London, 1901. First and only edition. V[era] Fetherstonhaugh (pron.- of course - Fanshaw) is something of a mystery. She wrote only (these) two published books (though she also contributed short stories to magazines), but as to her identity we are largely in the dark. One candidate is Katharine Vera Fetherstonhaugh (née Digby), born in London in 1870. In 1893, she married Cuthbert Lionel Fetherstonhaugh. Her husband’s family had direct ties to investments in Saskatchewan, Canada during the late 19th century. She eventually passed away in Dorset in 1955. It is, however, entirely possible that this is a pseudonym, adopted by a woman who lived, or at least travelled in the Canadian far west, and so was familiar with the terrain and the characters there. The fact that the second volume was published by Downey adds another layer of intrigue. The firm of Downey & Co was founded in 1894 by the Irish author, Edmund Downey [1856-1937] who promoted many Irish authors through this imprint. It is possible, therefore that Fetherstonhaugh came from the Anglo-Irish class, perhaps from the prominent Fetherstonhaughs of Westmeath. The dispersal of the family estates subsequent to the Irish Land Acts and the assassination of Howard Fetherstonhaugh, a tyrannical landlord in 1868 would have prompted the emigration of family members. The two novels and novella are set partly in England, partly in Canada, where the English visitors, or emigrants encounter love and loss, growing in the process. In The Younger Son, we see the common enough Victorian theme of the younger son of a moneyed family forced to make his own way in the world, his elder brother being the heir. He travels to Canada where he works as a labourer on farms until he is, with his father's help, able to set up on his own. He is drawn to a woman in an unhappy marriage to an alcoholic, and, after much tribulation, they are finally able to marry themselves. Mrs Jim Barker tells the story of a haughty woman whose husband loves her deeply, but she leaves him for an extended visit to England a life she fells more suited to her temperament, finally returning after an education in love. Frosts of June, the novella which accompanies the latter title, is a tale of unrequited love between a snobbish, young woman and a man she meets on a Canadian ranch run by her cousin, a man whom she might once have married. Just as things seem to be going well, the man she loves is arrested and tried - unjustly - for manslaughter causing them to be parted for over a decade before encountering each other once more, older and very much wiser. The writing is effective, and the plots strong, but the author is hampered, at least in part by her reluctance to delve deep enough into the darker elements of human nature. Had she pushed the characters further, Vera Fetherstonhaugh might have a higher standing in the annals of Canadian literature. Notwithstanding the flaws, these title do make a minor contribution to that literature, and they are fantastically rare. A nice couple of volumes, in matching polished calf, titles on the spine with gilt stylings. Marbled edges to the pages. No inscriptions, though I rather wish there were; they might give some indication as to who decided to have them nicely bound. Vera, herself, perhaps?