ABSTRACT
William Tinsley published one three-volume novel by Collins: Two Plunges for a Pearl, 1872. Tinsley refers to ‘that audacious, very clever, but uncertain writer’ but his remarks seem to show that Tinsley was himself the uncertain one, rather overwhelmed by an ebullience and humour that he found hard to understand. Of the former there were inevitably some whose brightest days would come after their association with Tinsley Brothers was over. Of the latter there were, not unexpectedly, those who never managed to regain the heights of early successes achieved before their Tinsley association began. W. W. Fenn was born in Pimlico, and after rather sketchy schooling he began studying at the age of nineteen at the Battersea Training College for Teachers. Born in Edinburgh, James Grant’s only connection with the previous writer was the coincidence of their names, which remained an embarrassment to them both during their working lives.
