Julia Pardoe (4 December 1804 – 26 November 1862), was an English poet, novelist, historian and traveller. Her most popular work, The City of the Sultan and Domestic Manners of the Turks (1837), presented the Ottoman Turkish upper class with sympathy and humanity. Life Julia Sophia H. Pardoe was born in Beverley, Yorkshire. She was the second daughter born to Major Thomas Pardoe, who was said to be of Spanish extraction, and his wife Elizabeth. Her father reportedly served in the Peninsular campaigns of the Napoleonic Wars and fought at Waterloo before retiring from the service. Pardoe was baptized at Beverley on 4 December 1804. She began writing at an early age and anonymously published her first work, The Nun: a Poetical Romance, and Two Others (1824), at the end of her teens. Like many others in the early 19th century, she moved south to avoid tuberculosis. There she found material for her first book. In 1835, she travelled to Turkey with her father, on a trip which inspired some of her most popular writings. Pardoe lived in London until 1842, when overwork caused her to return to live with her parents, first at Perry Street, then at Northfleet, Kent. Her contributions to literature gained Pardoe a civil-list pension in January 1860. Death Pardoe fell victim to insomnia and chronic liver disease and died on 26 November 1862 at Upper Montagu Street, London. She was unmarried. Her death certificate gave her age as 56 at the time of her death, but baptismal records indicate that she was actually 58. She is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery in London. Work A gifted and varied writer, Pardoe published many books on varied subjects that strayed across genres and often had an international perspective. Many of her works were originally published in serial form in British and American periodicals. Poetry Pardoe's first book of poetry, The Nun: a Poetical Romance, and Two Others (1824), was dedicated to her uncle, Captain William Pardoe. Novels Her first novel, published anonymously in 1829, was Lord Morcar of Hereward. Other works include Speculation, published in 1834, The Mardens and the Daventrys in 1835, The Romance of the Harem in 1839, and Hungarian Castle in 1842. After returning to Kent, Pardoe wrote for Fraser's Magazine, the Illuminated Magazine, and several annuals. She also published further novels: The Confessions of a Pretty Woman in 1846, The Rival Beauties in