Ellen Margaret "Nelle" Scanlan, MBE (1882 – 1968) was a New Zealand journalist and writer. Her best known work was a series of four novels known as the Pencarrow series published between 1932 and 1939. They followed the history of four generations of the Pencarrow family in Wellington, Wairarapa and Marlborough from the 1840s through to the late 1930s (i.e. the 'present day' for her then readers). Their episodic nature led to them becoming among the most popular New Zealand works of fiction of the 1930s and early 1940s. The release of each new volume became a significant literary event and the books reached near-cult status among her primary readership of middle-class women. She shifted regulary between the UK and New Zealand until returning to this country permanently in 1948. Scanlan moved to a cottage in the then-small bach community at Paraparaumu Beach where her final novel The Young Summer (1952) was set. She remained living there until her death in 1968.
See the link below to the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography for further information.
Datec. 1930sPhotographerS. P. AndrewCollectionS P AndrewReference50005-17Holding InstitutionWellington City LibrariesExternal LinkDictionary of NZ Biography
