Gwendoline Courtney

Gwendoline Courtney (23 September 1911 – March 1996) was an English writer of children's literature.

Early life and education

Gwendoline Courtney was born in Hampshire in 1911. Her father was an antiques dealer. Allan asked Courtney about this, and Courtney said that she had not read The Girls of the Hamlet Club. Those Verney Girls (originally 1948, republished 1956) was described by the New York Herald Tribune in 1957 as "a rather gentle and leisurely story", whilst Kirkus Reviews said of the same book, "Something happening all the time here, and with local characters thrown in, much of it is amusing".

Books

Torley Grange (Nelson, 1935) The Grenville Garrison (Nelson, 1940), a Ruritanian novel The Denehurst Secret Service (Oxford University Press, illustrated by Margaret Horder, 1940) Well Done, Denehurst! (OUP, illus. Horder, 1941) Sally's Family (OUP, 1946, illus. Jennetta Vise) Stepmother (OUP, 1948; republished by Children's Press in 1965 as Elizabeth of the Garret Theatre, illus. TR Freeman); also published as Those Verney Girls (1956) A Coronet for Cathie (Nelson, 1950, illus. Edith Brier; republished by Girls Gone By Publishers in 2003) Long Barrow (OUP, 1950, illus. Richard Kennedy; also published as The Farm on the Downs); described as "a modern family book" At School with the Stanhopes (Nelson, 1951, illus. Valerie Sweet) The Girls of Friar's Rise (Nelson, 1952, illus. Edith Brier) The Chiltons (Nelson, 1952) The Wild Lorings at School (Hutchinson, 1954) The Wild Lorings, Detectives (Hutchinson, 1956)

A serial she wrote for the Salisbury Journal in 1953 was republished as a book by Girls Gone By in 2011.