Sarah Doudney (1841-1926) was an English novelist and poet, best known as a children's writer and hymnwriter. Doudney was educated at a school for French girls, and started to write poetry and prose as a child. Her The Lesson of the Water-Mill, written when she was fifteen and published in the Anglican Churchman's Family Magazine (1864), became a well known song in both Britain and the United States. She contributed poetry and fiction to periodicals including Dickens's All the Year Round, the Churchman's Shilling Magazine, the Religious Tract Society's Girl's Own Paper, the Sunday Magazine, Good Words and the Quiver. She published her first novel, Under Grey Walls, in 1871; by 1891, when she was describing herself in the census as a 'Novelist', she had written around 35 novels. Most of her novels were aimed at girls, though she also wrote some adult novels. Her other works include: Drifting Leaves (1892), The Love- Dream of Gatty Fenning (1892), Through Pain to Peace (1892), Violets for Faithfulness (1893), Louie's Married Life (1894) and Katherine's Keys (1896).