Somerville and Ross
Somerville and Ross (Edith Somerville and Violet Florence Martin, writing under the name Martin Ross) were an Anglo-Irish writing team, perhaps most famous for their series of books that were made into the TV series The Irish R.M.. The television series is based on stories drawn from:
- Some Experiences of an Irish RM (Longmans, Green & Co., London, 1899)
- Further Experiences of an Irish RM (Longmans Green & Co., London, 1908)
- In Mr Knox's Country (Longmans Green & Co., London, 1915)
All three books are out of copyright and electronic texts can be found on the Internet Archive. The various stories concern the life of an Anglo-Irish former British Army officer recently appointed as a resident magistrate (R.M.) in Ireland, which at that stage was still wholly a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, some years before its partition into the Irish Free State (now the Republic of Ireland) and Northern Ireland.
Somerville and Ross also wrote other work together, including the novel The Real Charlotte (1894). Even after the death of Ross in 1915, Somerville continued to write and publish stories under their joint names, claiming that the two were still in contact. The Big House of Inver, a novel of 1925, falls into that category.
See the articles on the individual authors for a more complete listing.
External links
- Somerville & Ross Manuscript Collection diaries, correspondence, working papers, and draft manuscripts relating to the authors’ literary activities, personal interests and affairs
- Knitting Circle - Somerville and Ross short biographies
- Irelandseye.com Somerville and Ross short biographies
- The E. Œ. Somerville & Martin Ross Exhibition detailed catalogue for a 2006 exhibition held at Queen's University Belfast
- Irish R.M. on Internet Archive