Margaret Gabrielle Vere Long's membership form was recently discovered while completing a collection care condition survey of membership form bindings. Interestingly the form is different from most others because her writing pseudonym is included beneath her signature.

"Marjorie Bowen" is one of many pseudonyms Long used as a writer. She was a prolific British author who wrote historical romances, supernatural horror stories, popular history and biography. Long wrote over 48 books under male pseudonyms including Joseph Shearing, George Preedy and Robert Paye. As "Marjorie Bowen", Long's female pseudonym, she wrote over 150 books, achieving international acclaim and two novels adapted for the big screen.

Long wrote her first published novel, The Viper of Milan, at the age of 16. A number of publishers rejected it claiming that someone so young wasn't capable of writing such a story. Her Shearing novels were especially popular in the United States, with many of them becoming both critical and commercial successes. The true identity of Shearing wasn't known until the late 1940s.

In addition to fiction, biography and crime Long also wrote gothic horror whose work was well respected. During an interview for the Autumn 1953 Paris Review, Graham Greene stated “I chose Marjorie Bowen [as a major influence] because...I don't think that the books that one reads as an adult influence one as a writer...But books such as Marjorie Bowen's, read at a young age, do influence one considerably."

Long's early life was not an easy or happy one. Her father died of alcoholism and her mother was an aspiring writer. The family was poor and were known to move around to avoid paying off accumulated debts. When Long received £60 for her first work, she surrendered it immediately to her mother who was jealous of her success and became increasingly embittered. All of Long's money was banked in her mother's name, and was spent as fast as she earned it. Long seemed always panicked into writing for money, and never stopped being the family breadwinner. The discord affected her so badly that in 1939 she wrote a brutally honest account of her life in The Debate Continues.

The Library holds a number of Long’s volumes, under all her pseudonyms, on the open shelves, along with her biography written under her given name, Margaret Campbell. If you are visiting the Library, there is a small display of her work and biography in the Reading Room.