Richard Doddridge Blackmore (1825-1900) was one of the most famous English novelists of the second half of the 19th century and his novel Lorna Doone (1869) has enjoyed continuing popularity, with several film adaptations and a TV series to its name. He won acclaim for his vivid descriptions of the countryside, and the region of Exmoor in Devon where he grew up, and other rural locations, play a significant role in many of his works. Excelling in classical studies, he won a scholarship to Exeter College, Oxford, where he took his degree in 1847, and it was during a university vacation that he began writing his first novel, not completed until many years later. It was eventually published as The Maid of Sker in 1872 and Blackmore considered it his finest work. His novel writing career did not begin until the mid-1860s, prior to which he had done legal work, held teaching posts and established a market garden at his home in Teddington (now in Greater London, but still quite rural in his day). Erema; or My Father's Sin (1877) is narrated by a young girl who has grown up in exile with her father who has escaped from England after being charged with a murder he did not commit. The story opens in California in the 1850s, and following her father's death Erema returns to England to clear his name.