Catherine Julia Mackay

Catherine Julia Mackay (; 12 November 1864 – 28 March 1944), known by her pen name Katrine, was an Australian-born New Zealand journalist, novelist and cook. She was best known for her elegant social columns and for her bestselling book, Practical Home Cookery Chats and Recipes. She has been described as the first of New Zealand's great food writers.

Early life and family Mackay was born in Merino, Victoria, Australia on 12 November 1864. Her parents were Ellen Augustine McElligott and her husband, George Yarra Bilston, an innkeeper and grazier, and she was the fifth of their nine children. Mackay grew up on a sheep station and attended school until the age of 10.

Mackay began writing as a teenager and by age 17 had published a serial novel, Eve's Sacrifice, in The Australian Journal. She had also had novellas and short stories published in The Australasian, the Hamilton Spectator and the Sydney Bulletin.

In August 1908 she began working as the "lady editor" of the New Zealand Times in Wellington, for nearly twice the pay, However, she was exhausted by the long hours at the Times and by the stress of paying for her son's school fees. She suffered a nervous breakdown and resigned in November 1909, after which she returned to live in Auckland. During the First World War she ran a tea kiosk in the suburb of Parnell. When her estranged husband died in 1919 she left Auckland and moved to Canterbury where her daughter was now living, where she worked as a cook for many years on several sheep stations. She continued to write regularly on a variety of topics, using nearly 20 different pseudonyms, for publications such as Aussie, the Otago Witness and The Sun.

Mackay died in Christchurch on 28 March 1944. Her son became a newspaper editor and her daughter became herself a prolific journalist and an author under the name Mona Tracy.