Julia Cecilia Stretton (born Julia Cecilia Collinson) was an English novelist of the Victorian era. Born in 1812 to the Reverend John Collinson, the rector of Gateshead, she grew up in a large family that included notable figures such as Admiral Richard Collinson and Major General Thomas Bernard Collinson. In 1831, she married Walter Wilkins, a Member of Parliament who later changed the family name to de Winton. Following his death in 1840, she raised their three children and eventually remarried in 1857 to William Richard Stretton, who passed away in 1868.\n\nStretton began her literary career in 1852 with the publication of a children's book titled The Lonely Island. She soon transitioned to writing adult fiction, publishing several successful novels during the mid-nineteenth century. Among her most notable works are Margaret and Her Bridesmaids (1856) and The Valley of a Hundred Fires (1860), which established her reputation in the Victorian literary landscape.\n\nIn addition to her full-length novels, Stretton contributed to the wider Victorian literary scene through periodical publications. Notably, she wrote two stories for Somebody's Luggage (1862), a special Christmas issue of the popular weekly journal All the Year Round, edited by Charles Dickens. Stretton continued writing until her death in July 1878, leaving behind a legacy of domestic and social fiction.
