All The Details About Amelia Edwards Hulton Archive/Getty Images Lara Croft, from the video game Tomb Raider, was a privileged young girl who became an explorer and treasure hunter. And while she doesn't exactly have a real-life counterpart, Amelia Edwards, an English novelist and Egyptologist, comes close. Edwards is one of the fascinating women whose stories somehow aren't taught to students. Born in 1831 to a father who was a British Army captain-turned-banker, Edwards wanted to be a writer at an early age. Her mother was teaching her at home, but it was clear she was destined for more. Edwards was seven when her parent submitted one of her poems to famous literary journals, and she was 12 when they published her first story, said the Egypt Exploration Society. By 1850, she had published her first book.