Josephine Elder was the penname of Olive Gwendoline Potter (5 December 1895, Croydon

Croydon

Croydon is a town in South London, England, located within the London Borough of Croydon to which it gives its name. It is situated south of Charing Cross...

 - 24 July 1988), an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 children's author who published ten school stories between 1924 and 1940 as well as numerous short stories for annuals. She is widely regarded as one of the best writers of the girls' school story

School story

The school story is a fiction genre centering on older pre-adolescent and adolescent school life, at its most popular in the first half of the twentieth century. While examples do exist in other countries, it is most commonly set in English boarding schools and mostly written in girls and boys sub...

. Her most acclaimed book is the 1929 title, Evelyn Finds Herself. Twenty years later Clare Mallory

Clare Mallory

Clare Mallory is the penname under which Winifred Constance McQuilkan Hall wrote ten children's books published between 1947 and 1951....

, another leading exponent of the girls' school story, dedicated one of her own books, Juliet Overseas to Josephine Elder, describing her as "Author of the best girls' school story I know: Evelyn Finds Herself."

In addition to her children's books Josephine Elder also wrote six novels for adults. Throughout her writing career she continued to practise as a doctor.

Biography

Josephine Elder was educated at Croydon High School

Croydon High School

Croydon High School for Girls GDST is a leading non-denominational independent school for girls, located near Croydon, Greater London, England. It is one of the schools in the Girls' Day School Trust....

 and later at Cambridge University where she studied medicine. She practised as a G.P. in Sutton, Surrey from 1923 to 1983.

School stories

• Erica Wins Through (Chambers, 1924)
• The Scholarship Girl (Chambers, 1925)
• The Scholarship Girl at Cambridge (Chambers, 1926)
• Thomasina Toddy (Chambers, 1927)
• Evelyn Finds Herself (OUP, 1929)
• Barbara at School (Blackie, 1930)
• The Redheads (OUP, 1931)

Farm school series

• Exile for Annis (Collins, 1938)
• Cherry Tree Perch (Collins, 1939)
• Strangers at the Farm School (Collins, 1940)

Adult novels

as Margaret Potter

• Sister Anne Resigns (Selwyn & Blount, 1931)
• The Mystery of the Purple Bentley (Selwyn & Blount, 1932)

as Josephine Elder

• Lady of Letters (Lutterworth, 1949)
• The Encircled Heart (Lutterworth, 1951)
• The Doctor's Children (Lutterworth, 1954)
• Fantastic Honeymoon (Robert Hale, 1961)

Recent reprints

• Evelyn Finds Herself (Girls Gone By Publishers
  Girls Gone By Publishers
  Girls Gone By Publishers is a publishing company run by Clarissa Cridland and Ann Mackie-Hunter and is based in Bath, Somerset. They re-publish new editions of some of the most popular girls' fiction titles from the twentieth century.-Elinor Brent-Dyer:...
  
  , 2006)
• Lady of Letters (Greyladies, 2008)
• The Encircled Heart (Greyladies, 2009)
• Erica Wins Through (Girls Gone By Publishers
  Girls Gone By Publishers
  Girls Gone By Publishers is a publishing company run by Clarissa Cridland and Ann Mackie-Hunter and is based in Bath, Somerset. They re-publish new editions of some of the most popular girls' fiction titles from the twentieth century.-Elinor Brent-Dyer:...
  
  , 2010)