Essie Summers

Essie Summers (born Ethel Snelson Summers, 24 July 1912 – 27 August 1998) was a New Zealand writer whose romance novels sold more than 19 million copies in 105 countries. She was known as New Zealand's "Queen of Romance."

Writing Despite the responsibilities of being a minister's wife and the mother of two children, Summers found time to pen short stories, poetry, and newspaper columns before embarking on her first novel, which sold to the publishing firm of Mills & Boon in 1956. Entitled New Zealand Inheritance, it was published in 1957.

"All her romances depict strong-charactered heroines who work for a living. Because most of them marry heroes with farms to run, these women continue to work after marriage and children, and there are many positive portraits of other farming women in the novels." Her first published work was a poem, titled Gypsy Heart. It appeared in 1931 in the Australian Woman's Mirror when she was only eighteen. She received eight and sixpence for the poem, and by this stage had been writing poems and short stories for a decade. Continuing to submit poems, articles and short stories to magazines and newspapers, honing her skills, and even becoming a weekly columnist for the Timaru Herald, under the pen-name "Tamsin" for six years, her husband encouraged her to turn her experiences to good use in writing the romantic novels for which she became famous.

She met her husband-to-be, William Flett, when she was 13 years old; it took another 13 years before she consented to marry him and become a minister's wife. William was a Baptist minister who then retrained to become Presbyterian. He served in parishes throughout New Zealand. They had two children, William and Elizabeth.

Summers died in Taradale, Hawkes Bay on 27 August 1998.

Essie Summers' book covers were featured as part of a heritage romance cover display at the Auckland Central Library in 2013.

A Ryman Healthcare retirement village in Christchurch was renamed from Beckenham Courts to Essie Summers Retirement Village in honour of her.