Harriet Parr

Harriet Parr was an English author of the Victorian era, who wrote under the pseudonym Holme Lee. She also wrote stories for children.

The daughter of a commercial traveller, Parr was born in the English city of York on 31 January 1828. She never married and worked first as a governess before finding success as a writer with her first book, Maude Talbot, in 1854. From then until 1883, Parr produced about one novel a year, all published by the London firm Smith, Elder & Co., under the pen name Holme Lee. Charles Dickens, having enjoyed one of Parr's early books, bought three stories from her for the Christmas numbers of his weekly magazines. One included a hymn that would later be republished in several Protestant hymnals in Britain and the United States. Parr also wrote several volumes of fairy tales for children and some works of non-fiction, most of the latter under her real name.

She lived for many years at Shanklin on the Isle of Wight, where she died on 18 February 1900.