Mrs Archibald Little (1845–1926)

Alicia Ellen Neve Bewicke, later known as Mrs. Archibald Little, was born to British parents on the island of Madeira, Portugal, where she grew up. She traveled to England and became a published novelist in her twenties. These books are now largely forgotten, except for Mother Darling (1885), which highlighted the unjust treatment of a married woman after separation or divorce, including denying her any access to her children, prior to the passage of the Married Women's Property Act of 1893.

In 1886, she married Archibald Little, a writer and merchant who spoke fluent Chinese. They settled in the remote far west of China, near Chongqing (Chungking), where Alicia wrote another three novels, including one called A Marriage in China (1896). However, most of her publications from her time in China were nonfiction, including My Diary in a Chinese Farm (1898), Intimate China (1899), and Land of the Blue Gown (1902). She also campaigned against foot-binding, traveling around the country to give public talks to Chinese audiences. In 1908, her husband died and she edited his final work, Across Yunnan: A Journey of Surprises, which was published as a joint effort.