Emily Sarah Holt was an English author who lived from 1836 to 1893. She was born on April 25, 1836, in Stubbylee, Bacup, Lancashire. She was the oldest daughter of John Holt and Judith Mason of Greens, whose husband was a judge for Lancashire and the West Riding. She is said to have gone to school at Oxford. She got sick in late 1893 while she was in Harrogate and went to go live with her brother in Balham, London. She died there on Christmas Day. An obelisk marks the spot where she was buried in the Church of St. Saviour's, Bacup. Holt had written more than fifty books, most of them for kids. The BML catalogue lists 52 of Holt's books as historical stories, which is what most of her work is. Protestantism is a theme in Holt's work.