Emily Flora Klickmann (26 January 1867 – 20 November 1958) was an English journalist, author and editor. She was the second editor of the ''

Girl's Own Paper ''The Girl's Own Paper'' (''G.O.P.'') was a British story paper catering to girls and young women, published from 1880 until 1956. Publishing history The first weekly number of ''The Girl's Own Paper'' appeared on 3 January 1880. As with its m ...

'', but became best known for her ''Flower-Patch'' series of books of anecdotes, autobiography and nature description.

Life

Flora Klickmann was born on 26 January 1867 in

Brixton Brixton is an area of South London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th century ...

, London, one of six children of German-born Rudolf Klickmann and his wife, Fanny Warne. The family moved to

Sydenham Sydenham may refer to: Places Australia * Sydenham, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney ** Sydenham railway station, Sydney * Sydenham, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne ** Sydenham railway line, the name of the Sunbury railway line, Melbourne un ...

in south London when Flora was in her teens.Charles Miles, ''Flora Klickmann and the Flower Patch'', The New Record (Journal of the Forest of Dean Local History Society), no.27, 2013, pp.19–23 Biographical article by David Starling at StellaBooks.com
/ref> She aspired to be a concert pianist, and studied at

Trinity College of Music Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance is a music, dance, and musical theatre conservatoire based in South East London. It was formed in 2005 as a merger of two older institutions – Trinity College of Music and Laban Dance Centre. Trini ...

and at the

Royal College of Organists The Royal College of Organists (RCO) is a charity and membership organisation based in the United Kingdom, with members worldwide. Its role is to promote and advance organ playing and choral music, and it offers music education, training and de ...

. However, she was found to be suffering from

arrhythmia Arrhythmias, also known as cardiac arrhythmias, are irregularities in the cardiac cycle, heartbeat, including when it is too fast or too slow. Essentially, this is anything but normal sinus rhythm. A resting heart rate that is too fast – ab ...

, and was advised to rest. She travelled to the small

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

village of

Brockweir Brockweir is a village in Hewelsfield and Brockweir civil parish, in the Forest of Dean District of Gloucestershire, England. The civil parish also includes the separate village of Hewelsfield. The village is located on the eastern bank of ...

in the

Wye valley The Wye Valley () is a valley in Wales and England. The River Wye () is the Rivers of Great Britain#Longest rivers in the United Kingdom, fourth-longest river in the United Kingdom. The upper part of the valley is in the Cambrian Mountains an ...

, where her mother's family lived, before returning to London. The illness she suffered from was quinsy, a complication of tonsillitis. At the age of 21 she began writing on musical subjects for ''Sylvia's Home Journal'' and other magazines aimed at women, and by 1895 had started contributing articles and interviews with musicians to '' The Windsor Magazine'', one of the best-known story periodicals of the time. Her mother died in 1903, when they were living at Ondine Road, East Dulwich, and her Prussian-born father, Rudolph Klickmann, remarried in 1908 and went to live in Battersea with his new wife – a Russian emigre. Flora stayed in the house in Dulwich until her marriage. In 1904, she became the editor of ''The Foreign Field'', a magazine published by the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society. By this time, she had also begun writing and editing books on crafts and etiquette, aimed at young girls. Four years later, in 1908, she was appointed editor of the ''Girl's Own Paper'', in succession to its first editor, Charles Peters. This was a highly successful periodical aimed at girls and young women, published by the

Religious Tract Society The Religious Tract Society was a British evangelical Christian organization founded in 1799 and known for publishing a variety of popular religious and quasi-religious texts in the 19th century. The society engaged in charity as well as commerc ...

(RTS). The magazine moved from a weekly to monthly format, and she introduced new themes such as careers advice for girls, advice on style and dress, photography competitions and crafts. Long serials became less common, and their place was taken by a larger number of shorter stories, often from distant parts of the world. In 1912 she suffered a breakdown through overwork and stress. While remaining as editor, she spent a period of convalescence at a rented cottage close to Brockweir.

Monmouthshire County Council Monmouthshire County Council (or simply Monmouthshire Council) () is the governing body for the Monmouthshire principal area – one of the unitary authorities of Wales. The current unitary authority was created in 1996 and covers the eastern ...

, ''Popular Walks Around Tintern'', 1999 In June 1913, she married a widower, Ebenezer Henderson Smith (1851–1937), one of the executives at the RTS; her married name was Emily Flora Henderson Smith. The wedding was at St John the Evangelist, on Goose Green, East Dulwich. Their marital home was 'Hillthorpe' on Sydenham Hill; it was pulled down in the 1950s. The couple also purchased a second house at Brockweir, Sylvan View (now Sylvan House). In May 1916 she published the first of a series of books of written sketches of life in her country cottage at Brockweir, known in her books as "Rosemary Cottage", with its idyllic

cottage garden The cottage garden is a distinct garden style that uses informal design, traditional materials, dense plantings, and a mixture of ornamental plants, ornamental and edible plants. English in origin, it depends on grace and charm rather than grandeu ...

and spectacular views over the

River Wye The River Wye (; ) is the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, fourth-longest river in the UK, stretching some from its source on Plynlimon in mid Wales to the Severn Estuary. The lower reaches of the river forms part of Wales-England bor ...

and

Tintern Abbey Tintern Abbey ( ) is a ruined medieval abbey situated adjacent to the village of Tintern in Monmouthshire, on the Welsh bank of the River Wye, which at this location forms the border between Monmouthshire in Wales and Gloucestershire in England. ...

. The book, ''The Flower-Patch Among the Hills'', was based on articles which she had originally written for the ''Girl's Own Paper'', and was highly successful; a reprint was needed after two weeks. She acquired a succession of cottages in the area over the years. In later years the stories grew to involve her household and the local people, combining nature description, anecdote, autobiography, religion, and humour. In all, seven ''Flower Patch'' books were published, over 32 years. Her writing has been described as "humorous, elegant and beautifully observed, revealing a genuine love and concern for the natural world". A keen environmentalist, she wrote of the virtues of gardening without artificial chemicals and the value of natural fertilisers long before they became fashionable, and decried the taking of wild flower bulbs. She also published novels, advice books, children's stories and non-fiction on many topics including gardening, cooking, and

needlework Needlework refers to decorative sewing and other textile arts, textile handicrafts that involve the use of a Sewing needle, needle. Needlework may also include related textile crafts like crochet (which uses a crochet hook, hook), or tatting, ( ...

techniques, some of which have been republished in recent years. She remained editor of the ''Girl's Own Paper'' until 1931, when she and her husband retired permanently to Brockweir. However, she continued to write ''Flower Patch'' books until 1948. She lived an increasingly reclusive life after her husband's death in 1937. She died in 1958, and was buried in the graveyard of the

Moravian Church The Moravian Church, or the Moravian Brethren ( or ), formally the (Latin: "Unity of the Brethren"), is one of the oldest Protestant denominations in Christianity, dating back to the Bohemian Reformation of the 15th century and the original ...

Bibliography

The ''Flower-Patch'' Series

*''The Flower-Patch Among the Hills'' (1916) *''Between the Larch Woods and the Weir'' (1917) *''The Trail Of The Ragged Robin'' (1921) *''Flower-Patch Neighbours'' (1928) *''Visitors At The Flower-Patch'' (1931) *''The Flower-Patch Garden Book'' (1933) *''Weeding the Flower-Patch'' (1948)

Others

*''Little Sunshine Picture Book'' (n.d., ca 1890) *''The Rainy-Day Picture Book'' (1896) *''From Nursery Land'' (1897) *''At The Seaside'' (1897) *''How To Behave'' (editor, 1898) *''In Make-Believe Land'' (1899) *''The Language Of Flowers'' (1899) *''How To Dress'' (1900) *''In Pinafore-Land'' (1900) *''The Picture Gallery Of Animals'' (1900) *''The Lever That Moves The World'' (1903) *''Songs Of The Land Of The Stars And Stripes'' (1903) *''Etiquette Of To-Day'' (1903) *''The Ambitions Of Jenny Ingram'' (1911) *''The Home Art Crochet Book'' (editor, 1912) *''The Home Art Book of Fancy Stitchery'' (editor, 1912) *''The Craft of the Crochet Hook'' (editor, 1912) *''The Modern Crochet Book'' (editor, 1913) *''Artistic Crochet'' (editor, 1914) *''Flower Pictures'' (editor, 1914) *''The Cult of the Needle'' (editor, c.1914) *''The Mistress of the Little House'' (editor, 1915) *''The Modern Knitting Book'' (editor, 1915) *''The Little Girl's Knitting and Crochet Book'' (editor, 1915) *''The Little Girl's Sewing Book'' (editor, c.1915) *''Outdoor Pictures'' (editor, 1915) *''Beautiful Crochet on Household Linen'' (editor, 1916) *''The Little Girl's Bird Book'' (editor, 1917) *''Hardanger and Cross-Stitch'' (editor, 1918) *''The Little Girl's Fancy Work'' (editor, 1919) *''Needlework Economies'' (editor, 1919) *''Distinctive Crochet'' (editor, 1919) *''Pillow Lace and Hand-Worked Trimmings'' (editor, 1920) *''The Lure Of The Pen: A Book For Would-be Authors'' (1920) *''The Popular Knitting Book'' (editor, 1921) *''The Little Girl's Cooking Book'' (editor, 1923) *''The Little Girl's Sweet Book'' (editor, 1923) *''The Shining Way'' (1923) *''The Path to Fame'' (1925) *''Mending Your Nerves'' (1925) *''The Carillon of Scarpa'' (1925) *''Many Questions Answered'' (1928) *''The Lady-With-The-Crumbs'' (1931) *''Mystery In The Windflower Wood'' (1932) *''Delicate Fuss'' (1932) *''Victorian Fancy Stitchery: Techniques & Designs'' (2003 reprint of ''The Home Art Book of Fancy Stitchery'') *''Victorian Needlework: Techniques & Designs'' (2003 reprint of ''The Cult of the Needle'')

References

External links