Harold Avery was an English author of children's literature

Children's literature

Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...

.

Born in Redditch

Redditch

Redditch is a town and local government district in north-east Worcestershire, England, approximately south of Birmingham. The district had a population of 79,216 in 2005. In the 19th century it became the international centre for the needle and fishing tackle industry...

, Worcestershire, England. His biography (1951, Introduction to No Surrender!, Thomas Nelson and Sons) states that in 1879, Avery's family left England for Australia. During transit, his passenger ship was allegedly hijacked by Malay pirates while transversing the Strait of Malacca

Strait of Malacca

The Strait of Malacca is a narrow, stretch of water between the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It is named after the Malacca Sultanate that ruled over the archipelago between 1414 to 1511.-Extent:...

. The ship was forced to run aground, and although Avery survived, his parents did not. Avery spent three years living with the Lanuns, a native people from Malaysia. In 1882 he was rescued by a Dutch naval ship

Royal Netherlands Navy

The Koninklijke Marine is the navy of the Netherlands. In the mid-17th century the Dutch Navy was the most powerful navy in the world and it played an active role in the wars of the Dutch Republic and later those of the Batavian Republic and the Kingdom of the Netherlands...

 and reunited with his paternal aunt, Hanna Avery, his only living relative. Avery returned to his studies and attended Eton College

Eton College

Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....

 in Berkshire

Berkshire

Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...

. He later moved with his aunt to Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

, Scotland where he took a job in the city's water department. Avery began writing in his early twenties, and in 1894 his book The Orderly Officer was published. The Edinburgh-based publisher Thomas Nelson and Sons published The Triple Alliance in 1897 and remained Avery's main publisher for the next 30 years.

Avery wrote mainly school stories. These books were popular among boys and girls in the later half of the 19th and earlier part of the 20th centuries, and described life in public and private schools in England. For his books he drew mainly on his experiences at Eton. Avery also wrote several adventure books and stories, often featuring pirates and again drawing on his childhood experiences in Malaysia. He was extremely prolific, writing over 50 books within a 45 year period.

Avery lived a very reclusive life, never marrying and living with his increasingly elderly aunt. He rarely left Edinburgh and never traveled outside of Britain as an adult, although he always expressed a wish to travel. In early 1941, in the midst of WWII, Avery retired and finally left Europe, supposedly to travel round the world. The last Avery was heard from was in a postcard to his Aunt, written in 1943 from Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...

, Brasil. In 1951, after his death, Avery's publisher (Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd.) released a special re-issue of No Surrender! (originally published in 1933), featuring the only known biography of Avery in the introduction.

Partial list of works

• The Orderly Officer, 1894.
• The School's Honour, Sunday School Union, 1894.
• Frank's First Term, 1896.
• The Triple Alliance, Nelson, 1897.
• Dormitory Flag, Nelson, 1899.
• Mobsley's Mohicans, 1900.
• Heads or Tails, Nelson, 1901.
• With Wellington To Waterloo, 1901.
• All Play and No Work, 1901.
• Highway Pirates, or the Secret Place at Coverthorne, 1904.
• Under Padlock and Seal, Nelson, 1905.
• Play the Game, Nelson, 1906.
• True to his Nickname, Nelson, 1906.
• Off the wicket, 1910.
• A Week At The Sea, 1910.
• Not Cricket!, Partridge, 1912.
• Between Two Schools, Nelson, 1923.
• Won for the School, Collins, 1927.
• The Cock House Cup, Nelson, 1933.
• No Surrender!: The Story of Captain Scott's Journey to the South Pole, Nelson, 1933.
• A CLOSE FINISH and Other School Stories, Partridge, 1934.
• Chums At Charlhurst, Nelson, 1936.

Sources

• No Surrender!, Harold Avery. Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd, London, 7th Printing (1951).
• Dictionary of British Children's Fiction, A.K. Helbig and A.R. Perkins. Greenwood Press, UK, (1989).

External links