Essie Summers
Encyclopedia
Essie Summers was a New Zealand
author
who wrote so vividly of the people and landscape of her native country that she was offered The Order Of the British Empire
for her contributions to New Zealand tourism
.
, Essie was always proud of both her British heritage and her New Zealand citizenship. Both her parents were exceptional storytellers, and this, combined with her early introduction to the Anne of Green Gables
stories, engendered in her a life-long fascination with the craft of writing and the colorful legacy of pioneers everywhere.
Leaving school at 14 when her father's butcher shop experienced financial difficulties, she worked for a number of years in draper's shops and later turned her experiences to good use in writing the romantic novels for which she became famous.
She met her husband-to-be William Flett when she was only 13 years old, but it was 13 years before she consented to marry him. A minister's wife and the mother of two, William and Elizabeth, she yet found many opportunities to pen short stories, poetry and newspaper columns before embarking on her first novel, which sold to the firm of Mills & Boon
in 1956.
Summers died in Taradale, Hawkes Bay on the 27 August 1998.
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
who wrote so vividly of the people and landscape of her native country that she was offered The Order Of the British Empire
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
for her contributions to New Zealand tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
.
Biography
Ethel Snelson Summers was born on on 24 July 1912 to a newly-emigrated couple, Ethel Snelson and Edwin Summers, situated in Bordesley Street in ChristchurchChristchurch
Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...
, Essie was always proud of both her British heritage and her New Zealand citizenship. Both her parents were exceptional storytellers, and this, combined with her early introduction to the Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Green Gables is a bestselling novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery published in 1908. Set in 1878, it was written as fiction for readers of all ages, but in recent decades has been considered a children's book...
stories, engendered in her a life-long fascination with the craft of writing and the colorful legacy of pioneers everywhere.
Leaving school at 14 when her father's butcher shop experienced financial difficulties, she worked for a number of years in draper's shops and later turned her experiences to good use in writing the romantic novels for which she became famous.
She met her husband-to-be William Flett when she was only 13 years old, but it was 13 years before she consented to marry him. A minister's wife and the mother of two, William and Elizabeth, she yet found many opportunities to pen short stories, poetry and newspaper columns before embarking on her first novel, which sold to the firm of Mills & Boon
Mills & Boon
Mills & Boon is a British publisher of romance novels. It was founded in 1908, and was independent until its purchase in 1971 by Harlequin Enterprises with whom the company had had a long informal partnership...
in 1956.
Summers died in Taradale, Hawkes Bay on the 27 August 1998.
Single novels
- 1957 New Zealand Inheritance (Heatherleigh)
- 1958 Bachelors Galore
- 1958 The Time and the Place
- 1959 Master of Tawhai
- 1959 The Lark in the Meadow (Nurse Abroad)
- 1960 Moon Over the Alps
- 1961 Come Blossom Time My Love
- 1962 No Roses in June
- 1962 The House of the Shining Tide
- 1963 Where No Roads Go
- 1963 South to Forget (Nurse Mary's Engagement)
- 1964 The Smoke and the Fire
- 1964 Bride in Flight
- 1965 No Legacy for Lindsay
- 1965 No Orchids By Request
- 1965 Sweet are the Ways
- 1966 Heir to Windrush Hill
- 1966 His Serene Miss Smith
- 1966 Postscript to Yesterday
- 1967 A Place Called Paradise
- 1968 Rosalind Comes Home
- 1968 Meet on My Ground
- 1969 Revolt - and Virginia
- 1969 The Kindled Fire
- 1970 Summer in December
- 1970 The Bay of the Nightingales
- 1971 Return to Dragonshill
- 1971 The House on Gregor's Brae
- 1972 South Island Stowaway
- 1973 A Touch of Magic
- 1973 The Forbidden Valley
- 1974 Through all the years
- 1974 The Gold of Noon
- 1975 Anna of Strathallan
- 1976 Not by Appointment
- 1976 Beyond the Foothills
- 1977 Goblin Hill
- 1977 Adair of Starlight Peaks
- 1978 Spring in September
- 1978 The Lake of the Kingfisher
- 1979 My Lady of the Fuchsias
- 1979 One More River to Cross
- 1980 The Tender Leaves
- 1981 Autumn in April
- 1981 Daughter of the Misty Gorges
- 1982 A Lamp for Jonathan
- 1983 A Mountain for Luenda
- 1983 Season of Forgetfulness
- 1984 MacBride of Tordarroch
- 1985 Winter in July
- 1986 To Bring you Joy
- 1987 High Country Governess
- 1995 South Horizon Man
- 1995 So Comes Tomorrow
- 1996 Caleb's Kingdom
- 1997 Design for Life
Omnibus
- Summer in December / Bay of the Nightingales / Return to Dragonshill (1976)
- Master of Tawhai / His Serene Miss Smith / Place Called Paradise (1977)
- Essie Summers Fifth Harlequin Omnibus (1980)
- No Legacy for Lindsay/ No Orchids By Request / Sweet Are the Ways (1980)
- The House on Gregor's Brae / South Island Stowaway / Touch of Magic (1981)
- The Forbidden Valley / Through All the Years / Gold of Noon (1984)
Anthologies in collaboration
- Golden Harlequin Library Vol. XXXIII: Flower for a Bride / Bachelors Galore / Hope for the Doctor (1970) (with Barbara Rowan and Margaret Malcolm)
- Golden Harlequin Library Vol. XVII: No Silver Spoon / Nurse Nolan / The Time and the Place (1971) (with Jane ArborJane ArborJane Arbor was the pseudonym used by Eileen Norah Owbridge a British writer of 57 romance for Mills & Boon from 1948 to 1985....
and Susan Barrie) - Other Miss Donne / Thistle and the Rose / Beyond the Foothills (1985) (with Jane ArborJane ArborJane Arbor was the pseudonym used by Eileen Norah Owbridge a British writer of 57 romance for Mills & Boon from 1948 to 1985....
and Margaret Rome) - The Little Dragon / Adair of Starlight Peaks / The Dark Warrior (1987) (with Betty NeelsBetty NeelsEvelyn Jessy "Betty" Neels was a prolific English author of romance novels. She wrote over 134 titles , beginning in 1969 and continuing until her death...
and Mary Wibberley)