Baroness Orczy, born Emmuska Rosalia Maria Josepha Barbara Orczy in Tarna-Ors, Hungary in 1865. The only daughter of Baron Felix Orczy, a noted composer and conductor, and his wife Emma. The family moved from Budapest to Brussels and then to London, where she learnt to speak English at the age fifteen. Emmuska was educated in convent schools in Brussels and Paris. In London she studied at West London School of Art. In 1894 she married Montaque Barstow, whom she had met while studying at the Heatherby School of Art. Together they started to produce book and magazine illustration and published an edition of Hungarian folktales. She was also an artist, and her works were exhibited at the Royal Academy, London.

The book has inspired many stage, radio, film and television versions. The Scarlet Pimpernel was first seen as a stage play in London's West End before the novel was accepted by a publisher. Some eighty years later there was a West End revival starring Donald Sinden and in 1997 it opened on Broadway as a musical!

Performed 13 July 2003 at Barnsbury Wood, Islington and 19 & 20 July 2003 at Willow Cottage, Essex