Katharine Burdekin (23 July 1896 – 10 August 1963) (born Katharine Penelope Cade) was a British novelist who wrote speculative fiction concerned with social and spiritual matters. She was the younger sister of Rowena Cade, creator of the Minack Theatre in Cornwall. Several of her novels could be categorised as feminist utopian/dystopian fiction. She also wrote under the name Kay Burdekin and under the pseudonym Murray Constantine. Daphne Patai unraveled "Murray Constantine's" true identity while doing research on utopian and dystopian fiction in the mid-1980s. Early life Katharine Burdekin was born in Spondon, Derbyshire in 1896, the youngest of Charles Cade's four children. Her family had lived in Derby for many years and their ancestors include Joseph Wright of Derby. She was educated by a governess at their home, The Homestead, and later at Cheltenham Ladies' College. Highly intelligent and an avid reader, she wanted to study at Oxford like her brothers, but her parents did not allow it. She married Olympic rower and barrister Beaufort Burdekin in 1915. They had two daughters, Katharine Jayne (b. 1917) and Helen Eugenie (b. 1920). Her family moved to Australia, where Katharine started writing. Her first novel, Anna Colquhoun, was published in 1922. Her marriage ended in the same year, and she moved to Minack Head to join her sister. In 1926, she met and formed a lifelong relationship with Isobel Allan-Burns. Writing career Burdekin wrote several novels during the 1920s, but she later considered The Rebel Passion (1929) to be her first mature work. The Burning Ring (1927) and The Rebel Passion are both time travel fantasies. In the 1930s she wrote thirteen novels, six of which were published. Her partner describes how Burdekin's wide-ranging reading would precede a period of quiet for a few days. She would then appear to surrender herself to writing and she would write single mindedly until it was complete. She didn't appear to plan her books, and each book was completed within six weeks. Burdekin began using the pseudonym Murray Constantine in 1934. She allegedly adopted the pseudonym to protect her family from the risk of repercussions and attacks for her novel's political nature and strong criticism of fascism. Murray Constantine's true identity was unknown until long after Burdekin's death. In Proud Man (1934) Burdekin uses the arrival of a hermaphrodite visitor from the future to criticise 1930s gender roles. Published the same year, The Devil,