Mary Scott (2) (1888–1979)

Mary Scott was born Mary Edith Clarke in Waimate North in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, a daughter of Marsden Clarke, a grazier, and his wife, Frances Emily Stuart. She had what she later described as an ideal childhood with her sister, only minimally supervised by an elderly nurse while their mother worked as a music teacher. In 1900, Mary was sent to boarding school, but two years later, moved with her family to Auckland. In 1905, she enrolled in Auckland University College to study English, French and history, and then won a scholarship to study for an MA in English and French, eventually graduating with first-class honors. In 1911, she began teaching at Christchurch Technical College, but the following year, returned to Auckland, where she accepted a position teaching English at Thames High School.

In 1913, her sister Frances married David Scott, a farmer; Mary and her mother went to Gisborne to stay with them. There Mary met David's brother Walter, whom she married in 1914. Immediately after their wedding, the couple moved to a remote sheep farm called Strathallan on the slopes of Pirongia Mountain. They were joined shortly afterwards on the next-door farm by Frances and David Scott.

Mary Scott and her husband farmed at Strathallan for 13 years in very primitive and isolated conditions, struggling with bush sickness and natural disasters. In 1917 and 1918, fires destroyed their house and all their possessions, as well as the bush, fences, and pastures, and killed most of the stock. In 1927, they moved with their four children to a new farm at Ngutunui, near Te Awamutu.
Mary took a job as a librarian in the town, which provided a house to live in and allowed her to send her two younger children to school there. They returned to the farm on weekends.

In the late 1920s, Mary started sending articles and stories to magazines and newspapers. In 1930, she was named the "Annual Discovery" of the New Zealand Artists' Annual and began to contribute a weekly item to the Dunedin Evening Star, for which she was to write for almost 50 years. A series of amusing stories based on her life in the bush, beginning with "Barbara Bakes," became the basis for her popular Barbara books. During her period at the Te Awamutu library, she contributed 14 articles a month to various papers and wrote her first two novels, published under the pseudonym Marten Stuart. Where the Apple Reddens (1934), followed by And Shadows Flee were historical romances set in the far north of early 19th century New Zealand. Her later, more humorous novels were published under her own name and set in contemporary times. She became widely read both in New Zealand and overseas.

Her first bestseller was Breakfast at Six (1953). Mary was a prolific and successful writer, producing three collections of plays, 33 novels, including five thrillers written with Joyce West, all while under the deadline of her regular contributions to leading newspapers and journals such as The Manchester Guardian.
Her autobiography, Days That Have Been (1966), and her most serious novel, The Unwritten Book (1957), told a grimmer story of life in the bush than her popular novels.