Robina Forrester Hardy (1835âÂÂ1891), known professionally as Robina F. Hardy, was a Scottish Victorian author, poet and Christian missionary.
Hardy was the daughter of a doctor and grand-daughter of a minister at St. Giles' Cathedral.
Hardy's fiction draws on the experiences she gained whilst working as a missionary in the Grassmarket slums, described as 'brutally realistic'. Andrew Nash sees her novel Jock Halliday: A Grassmarket Hero (1883) as influenced by Samuel Smiles' ideas on self help. Her work has also been linked to the Scottish kailyard school and the popular fiction of Annie S. Swan. Furthermore, she became a contributor and sub-editor for the Morning Rays, a Church of Scotland magazine for children, with much of her children's literature subsequently being published separately. Other work includes her time as a cookery teacher at Dr. William Robertson's Vennel School for girls.