Jenny_Pattrick
Jenny Pattrick
New Zealand novelist (born 1936)
Jennifer Lynette Pattrick OBE (née Priestley, born 1936) is a New Zealand novelist, known primarily for her historical fiction.[1] Her first novel, The Denniston Rose (2003) and its sequel Heart of Coal (2004) became two of New Zealand's best-selling novels.[1] She has published nine novels, and also writes and publishes songbooks for children.[2] The Denniston Rose has been optioned by Bohemia Group Originals.[3]
Pattrick is a graduate of the International Institute of Modern Letters.[4] In 2009, she was awarded the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship,[1] during which she wrote her sixth novel Inheritance (2010).[5] She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for services to the arts, in the 1989 Queen's Birthday Honours.[3][6]
Pattrick's novels are often set in New Zealand locations. The Denniston Rose and Heart of Coal centre on coalmining communities on the Denniston plateau from the late 1800s to early 1900s.[7] Landings (2008) is about the Whanganui River at the turn of the twentieth century.[8] Heartland (2014) is set in a fictional town based on the Central Plateau settlement of Rangataua.[9]
Pattrick was a jeweller for 35 years and has had pieces gifted to overseas dignitaries by the New Zealand government.[10]