Elinor Brent-Dyer

Elinor M. Brent-Dyer (6 April 1894 – 20 September 1969) was an English writer of children's literature who wrote more than one hundred books during her lifetime, the most famous being the Chalet School series.

Early life and education Brent-Dyer was born Gladys Eleanor May Dyer on 6 April 1894 in South Shields. She was the only daughter of Charles Morris Brent Dyer, a surveyor, and Eleanor Watson Rutherford. Phyllis's aunt, who knew the Dyer family, had introduced them to one another in childhood. Sydney Matthewman served as Brent-Dyer's agent. Brent-Dyer died at Redhill in 1969 and her final book was published posthumously the following year. Brent-Dyer is one of the few writers of girls' school stories whose characters are shown reading. Attar concludes that Brent-Dyer "transforms the school story by turning the games-mad institution to one with an intellectual emphasis, while retaining readers. She ... portrays the unportrayable solitary activity as an enjoyable, often communal, one, and guides her readers to broad, sound reading through the reading of her characters. ... This is a legacy of which to be proud".