Jean Devanny

Jean Devanny (1894 – 1962) was born Jane Crook near Collingwood in Golden Bay. In 1911 she met and married Francis Harold "Hal" Devanny. Hal Devanny had been active as a mining unionist and Jean quickly also became involved as an activist in left-wing politics. The family moved to Wellington where Jean joined the women's branch of the Labour Party but finding it too far to the 'right', she began her involvement with the Communist Party of New Zealand. By 1920 she began to write and had best-known novel The Butcher Shop published in London in 1926. The book was subsequently banned in New Zealand and Australia, in part because of its perceived obscenity but also because it portrayed rural life in a less than positive light at a time when both countries were trying to attract new migrants from the United Kingdom. A collection of short stories and three further novels were published while she was living in Wellington but in 1929 the family moved to Sydney where they all soon became involved with the Communist Party of Australia. She continued writing but gradually became disillusioned with the Communist movement, blaming her involvement with it for limiting her potential as a writer. She died in Townsville, Queensland from cancer in 1962. 

See the link to the Dictionary of NZ Biography below for further information.