Nora Sanderson

Nora Sanderson (; 14 February 1905 – 2 March 1975) was a New Zealand writer of romance novels, children's books and short stories, and nurse. She wrote 21 novels during her lifetime, mainly for the publisher Mills & Boon.

Early life and career Sanderson was born on 14 February 1905 in Ōpōtiki, the daughter of a farming family. She spent most of her children on a farm at Hokianga but attended Auckland schools. She trained as a nurse at the hospital in Rawene and worked in the Auckland area until her marriage. Sanderson's first successful book was a children's story called The Puppy Cat published in 1953. In 1964 she said that each novel took her three months to write. In 1966, at the time of publishing her twelfth novel, she said her novels "are all light romantic nursing stories because my publishers like them that way". A review of A Stranger to the Truth (1969) featured in The Press said that Sanderson "must be commended for her ingenious plot", in which a young American woman impersonates her New Zealand friend. The review noted Sanderson's promotion of New Zealand tourism "by making Kathy the recipient of all kinds of information about the country ... and arranging that she shall be flown extensively over both islands with travelogue descriptions of their charms".

Sanderson held strong political views, and included these themes in her books, such as in The Sun Breaks Through (1975) in which the heroine saves beech forests from being destroyed. Her novels were published in Denmark, the Netherlands and Brazil, as well as other English-speaking countries. Stranger to the Truth (1969) Place in the Sun (1969) The Sun Breaks Through (1975)