Baroness Emmuska Orczy was born in Hungary in 1865, to Baron Felix Orczy and his wife, Emmuska. She was their only daughter. Baron Felix was a well-known composer and conductor of music, and little Emmuska grew up listening to famous musicians, like Wagner and Liszt. The family moved from Budapest to Brussels and then to London, and Emmuska learnt to speak English when she was fifteen. she studied at the West London School of Art and her paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy, London. She married a schoolmate, Montague Barstow, in 1894. Together, they illustrated and published an edition of Hungarian folktales in 1895. Her first collection of mystery stories was entitled The Case of Miss Elliot, (1905). Baroness Emmuska Orczy died in London on November 12,1947.