Essie Summers wrote that tourists often liked to mark the setting of her books as they visited the areas. The author identified their precise locations in her own map book, a personal reference point she retained.
At Belleknowes, in the study area her husband built for her, she hung a wall plaque close to her desk, as a reminder of the high standards she aspired to in her writing and other aspects of her life. Its meaning puzzled her children in their early years.
Essie Summers’ wall plaque with motto ‘The second-rate is excellence – for the second-rate’.
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Her original typed manuscript on novel preparation illustrates one example of her many talks about the business of writing. They ranged from supportive advice for young writers, and guidelines for school students aspiring to journalism as a career, through to correspondence with fellow authors (such as Australian writer and penfriend Joyce Dingwell) and personalised annotations to general advice, encouraging her daughter Elizabeth to persist with experiments in fiction.
‘A Few Practical Hints on Preparing a Novel’. Autographed typescript by Essie Summers.
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