Elizabeth von Arnim, born Mary Annette Beauchamp, married a Prussian aristocrat to become Countess von Arnim. Elizabeth and her German Garden, a semi-autobiographical novel based on her life in her beloved German country garden, was published anonymously under the name “Elizabeth”. It was so popular that she was soon known, not as “Mary”, but as “Elizabeth”, even to her family. She went on to write twenty successful novels, and after being widowed, married Bertrand Russell’s elder brother to become Countess Russell.