[William Frend]. English novelist, born in London on the 16th of November 1839 and educated at University College school and later at the college itself. He became a student at the Royal Academy in 1859 and in 1864 began the study of stained glass. Six years later he turned to ceramic work and soon became known in artistic circles as a potter, the “De Morgan” tiles being made remarkable by his rediscovery of the secret of some beautiful colours and glazes. But later in life he became even better known to the literary world through his novels, Joseph Vance (1906); Alice for Short (1907); Somehow Good (1908); It Never Can Happen Again (1909); An Affair of Dishonour (1910); A Likely Story (1912); When Ghost meets Ghost (1914), in which the influence of Dickens and of his own earlier family life were conspicuous. He died in London on the 15th of January 1917. In 1919 The Old Madhouse was published posthumously. His last but unfinished novel, The Old Man’s Youth, was published, with additions by his widow (1921).
