Turner, Ethel (1872-1958), was an Australian author best known for her children’s novels. Turner’s children’s stories explore middle-class Australian characteristics and values. Critics and educators have praised her books for their realistic and sympathetic portrayals of children, especially girls, and their problems, interests, and needs. Much of Turner’s juvenile fiction reflects the sentimentality and melodrama popular in children’s writing of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.
Turner’s first and most famous children’s novel is Seven Little Australians (1894), which deals with the adventures of the Woolcott family. It has become an Australian children’s classic. The story follows the mischief and rebellion of the seven children of the family, who range in age from infant to young adult. There is a special focus on Judy, a tomboy who rejects her father’s strict discipline. Turner wrote a sequel about the Woolcotts called The Family at Misrule (1895). Her final novel, Judy and Punch (1928), also dealt with the Woolcotts.
Turner was born Ethel Sybil Barwell on Jan. 24, 1872, in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. Her father died when she was an infant, and she took the surname of her mother’s second husband. After he died, the remaining family moved to Australia and settled in Sydney in 1881. Turner began writing children’s stories as a teenager. From 1894 to 1928, she wrote 42 children’s and adult novels, poetry, and short stories. Her other popular children’s books include The Little Larrikin (1896), Miss Bobbie (1897), That Girl (1907), and Flower o’ the Pine (1914). She wrote three adult novels set during World War I (1914-1918): The Cub (1915), Captain Cub (1917), and Brigid and the Cub (1919). All of the novels combined the theme of loyalty to the United Kingdom with a strong sense of Australian nationalism.
Turner married Herbert Curlewis, a lawyer, in 1896. She stopped writing following the death of her daughter, Jean, in 1930. Turner died on April 8, 1958.
