She was born in Otterbourne, Hampshire, England, into a religious family background, and was devoted to the Church of England. Her first commercial success, The Heir of Redclyffe (1854), provided the cash to enable the schooner, Southern Cross, to be put into service on behalf of George Selwyn. Similar charitable works were done with the profits from later novels. Yonge was also editor, for nearly forty years, of a magazine for young ladies, the Monthly Packet.

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