Margaret Escott

Cicely Margaret Escott (9 July 1908 – 15 August 1977) was a New Zealand novelist, playwright, poet and drama teacher. In later life she worked in theatre, and wrote a final volume of poems shortly before her death.

Early life Escott was born in Eltham, Kent, England, to Emily Allen and her husband Harry Escott, a bank clerk. She was the youngest of their five children, and was educated at the City of London School for Girls. After her parents settled in Auckland, she worked for a year as a teacher at Seddon Memorial Technical College, and then in 1928 returned to London alone where she worked at The Times Book Club, first as a lift attendant and then as a librarian. The New York Times reviewer felt the novel at times seemed "a little calculated, a little overstrained", but nevertheless found it "excellently written" and that there was no doubt that Escott was "a writer of great talent, with a fine sense of form and a subtle understanding of emotion". The New Zealand Herald praised the "sheer vigour and emotional power of a novel" and said that it was "pleasing that such a novel has been written by a New Zealand writer, and all the more surprising that it has been written by a woman".

The novel was published under the name "M Escott" and it was speculated by the literary community in New Zealand that the real author was Mary Scott, writing under a pseudonym similar to her own name.

Escott's final work, a volume of poetry titled Separation and/or Greeting, was written in the months prior to her death in 1977, at Waitemata Harbour in New Zealand. On 16 November 2020, the PumpHouse Theatre held an evening event titled "Celebrating Peg Escott: Writer, Poet, Playwright and Friend of The PumpHouse".

Selected works

Published in the U.S. as:

Escott, Margaret (1971). Saved (play), first performed 1977 at the PumpHouse Theatre.