Fleur Beale

Fleur Una Maude Beale (née Corney, born 22 February 1945) is a New Zealand teenage fiction writer, best known for her novel I Am Not Esther, which has been published worldwide.

Early life and education Beale was one of six children of a dairy farmer, Cedric Corney, and of a teacher and author, Estelle Corney (née Cook). She was born in Inglewood, Taranaki, New Zealand, on the farm where her father was born. Beale grew up in the town and attended Inglewood High School From 1958, before attending Victoria University, Wellington and Christchurch Teachers' College, where she met her husband, Tim (Timothy Gerald Beale).

Career She taught at Melville High School in Hamilton from the mid 1980s to the late 1990s. Beale's first stories were written for the children's radio programme Grandpa's Place. Her first book was a small reader and picture book for young children and she started to write for teenagers in 1993. Her stories often involve troubled adolescents engaged in outdoor activities.

In the 2015 New Year Honours, Beale was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature.

Printed works

The Great Pumpkin Battle (1988), Shortland A Surprise for Anna (1990), Cocky's Circle Slide the Corner (1992), Scholastic Against the Tide (1993), HarperCollins Driving a Bargain (1993), HarperCollins Over the Edge (1994), Scholastic The Fortune Teller (1995), HarperCollins Dear Pop (1995), Land's End The Rich and Famous Body and the Empty Chequebook (1995), Land's End Fifteen and Screaming (1996), HarperCollins Rockman (1996), HarperCollins Further Back than Zero (1998), Scholastic Keep Out (1999), Learning Media Destination Disaster (1999), Shortland Playing to Win (2000), Scholastic Trucker (2000), Learning Media Deadly Prospect (2000), Scholastic Ambushed (2000), Scholastic Seven readers for Pearson Education, Singapore (2001) Lucky for Some (2002), Scholastic Red Dog in Bandit Country (2003), Longacre [non-fiction] Lacey and the Drama Queens (2004), Scholastic My Story A New Song in the Land. The Writings of Atapo, Pahia, c.1840 (2004), Scholastic Walking Lightly (2004), Mallinson Rendel A Respectable Girl (2006), Random House The Transformation of Minna Hargreaves (2007), Random House My Life of Crime (2007), Mallinson Rendel Slide the Corner (2007), Scholastic End of the Alphabet (2009), Random House Dirt Bomb (2011), Random House The Juno series: Juno of Taris (2008) Fierce September (2010) Heart of Danger (2011) I Am Not Esther I Am Not Esther (1998), I am Rebecca (2014), Being Magdalene (2015), Random House Lyla: Through My Eyes (Allen & Unwin, 2018) The Calling (Penguin, 2021) Faraway Girl (Penguin, 2022) Once Upon a Wickedness (Penguin, 2023)