Beverley Dunlop

Beverley Frances Dunlop (; 25 August 1935 – 18 October 2023) was a New Zealand children's author and short story writer. She published numerous short stories in journals and magazines and four novels for children.

Early life and career Beverley Frances Gorbin was born in Tākaka on 25 August 1935. She moved to Napier at the time of her marriage to John Archibald Dunlop in 1960. She started writing for children while working as a legal secretary and music tutor. Her early work, from 1975 onwards, was published in magazines and literary journals including the New Zealand School Journal and in Landfall. In 1981 one of her stories was included in All The Dangerous Animals are in Zoos, an anthology of New Zealand short stories selected by John Barnett.

Novels In 1981 Dunlop won the Choysa Bursary for Children's Writers, a $5,000 award from the New Zealand Literary Fund enabling a children's writer to work on a specific project. At that time her first novel for children, The Dolphin Boy (1982), was with her publisher Hodder & Stoughton, and she was able to use the bursary to work on her second novel. It is illustrated by Sandra Morris. and a review in The Press said it was "well written with an exciting storyline, plenty of mystery and danger, and with underlying themes that should lead the young reader to think seriously about the relationship between humans and the animal world". Her fourth and final novel, Spirits of the Lake (1988), was about a young boy saving his mother and grandmother from ancient spirits, and was described by The Press as "different, thrilling, scary and thought provoking".

Other work and later life Dunlop was co-writer with Kay Mooney of Hawke's Bay: Profile of a Province (1986).

Dunlop died in Hastings on 18 October 2023, at the age of 88. Her husband John predeceased her in August 2013.

Selected works The Dolphin Boy, illustrated by Sandra Morris (Hodder & Stoughton, 1982) The Poetry Girl (Hodder & Stoughton, 1983) Earthquake Town, illustrated by Garry Meeson (Hodder & Stoughton, 1984) Hawke's Bay: Profile of a Province, with Kay Mooney (Hodder & Stoughton, 1986) Spirits of the Lake (Hodder & Stoughton, 1988) Queen Cat and Other Stories, illustrated by Deirdre Gardiner (Hodder & Stoughton, 1988)