Essie Summers. New Zealand Inheritance. London: Mills & Boon, 1957.
In 1956, with her husband’s full encouragement, Summers wrote what became her first romantic novel to appear in print. New Zealand Inheritance was published in 1957 by Mills and Boon, in a form reflecting Alan Boon’s own suggestion that his new author remove a mystery subplot to focus upon a New Zealand romance.
It was the first of several novels set in the area around Weston, North Otago, where Essie’s family thrived in that rural community. These titles, informally known as the Heatherleigh series, clustered around a farm given that fictional name.
