Gertrude Eliza Page (1872 – 1 April 1922) was an Anglo-Rhodesian novelist.

Biography

Educated at Bedford High School, Page wrote for ''

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 ...

'' as a teenager. Marrying George Alexander "Alec" Dobbin in 1902, she moved with him to

Rhodesia Rhodesia ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state, unrecognised state in Southern Africa that existed from 1965 to 1979. Rhodesia served as the ''de facto'' Succession of states, successor state to the ...

, where she died in 1922. Her Rhodesia novels were all written between the years 1907 and 1922."Empire, nation, gender and romance : the novels of Cynthia Stockley (1872–1936) and Gertrude Page (1873–1922)"
(thesis), University of Cape Town. 1997. In ''The Rhodesian'' (1914), Page writes admiringly of agricultural productivity and colonial settlement in her "empty" Rhodesian landscapes: "The Valley of Ruins no longer lies alone and unheeded in the sunlight; and no longer do the hills look down upon rich plains left solely to ... idle pleasures." Her best-selling book was '' Paddy the Next Best Thing'', which was dramatized and performed in Britain at the

Savoy Theatre The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre was designed by C. J. Phipps for Richard D'Oyly Carte and opened on 10 October 1881 on a site previously occupied by the Savoy ...

. Another novel by Page, '' The Edge O' Beyond'', of which more than 300,000 copies were sold, was also made into a play as well as being a 1919 film (directed by Fred W. Durrant, featuring

Isobel Elsom Isobel Elsom (born Isabelle Reed; 16 March 1893 – 12 January 1981) was an English film, theatre, and television actress. She was often cast as aristocrats or upper-class women. Early years Born in Chesterton, Cambridge, Elsom attend ...

Owen Nares Owen Ramsay Nares (11 August 1888 – 30 July 1943) was an English stage and film actor. Besides his acting career, he was the author of ''Myself, and Some Others'' (1925). Early life Educated at Reading School, Nares was encouraged by his m ...

, Minna Grey,

C. M. Hallard Charles Maitland Hallard (26 October 1865 – 21 April 1942) was a Scottish actor. In 1895 he appeared in the popular drama ''Trilby (play), Trilby'' with Herbert Beerbohm Tree at the Haymarket Theatre. Selected filmography * ''Convict 99 (191 ...

and Ruby Miller).Stephen Donovan
"Guns and Roses: Reading for Gender in ''The Rose of Rhodesia''"
Screening the Past, 16 August 2009.

Selected bibliography

* '' Love in the Wilderness'', 1907 * '' Paddy the Next Best Thing'', 1908 * '' The Edge O' Beyond'', 1908 * ''The Silent Rancher'', 1909 * ''Two Lovers and a Lighthouse'', 1910 * ''Where the Strange Roads Go Down'', 1910 * ''Jill's Rhodesian Philosophy, or, The Dam Farm'', 1910 * ''Winding Paths'', 1911 * ''The Rhodesian'', 1912 * ''The Great Splendour'', 1912 * '' The Pathway'', 1914 * ''Follow After'', 1915 * ''Some There Are'', 1916 * ''The Supreme Desire'', 1916 * ''The Course of My Ship'' (with Foster-Melliar), 1918 * ''The Veldt Trail'', 1919 * ''Far From the Limelight (and other tales)'', 1920 * ''Jill on a Ranch'', 1922 * ''The Mysterious Strangers''

References

External links

* *
"Gertrude Page - 'The Kipling of Rhodesia'
The Woburn Sands Collection.
Gertrude Page Bibliography with numerous images
The Wade Burgess Collection {{DEFAULTSORT:Page, Gertrude 1872 births 1922 deaths 20th-century English people 20th-century English women 20th-century Zimbabwean women writers 20th-century Zimbabwean writers British emigrants to Southern Rhodesia English women novelists People from Erdington Rhodesian novelists Writers from Birmingham, West Midlands