FROM AUTHORESS TO "POSTIE."

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 251, 24 October 1942, Page 3

FROM AUTHORESS TO "POSTIE."

KAIKOURA GIRL'S INTERESTING CAREER. Marlborough friends of Miss Rita Palmer, and especially those in Kaikoura, will be interested to hear that her first book will shortly be on sale in New Zealand. The title is "Adventures Unknown to the Landlubber," and was written when Rita was 19 years old. It is a pretty story of two children who leave the land

of sunshine and explore the seaunderworld. Rita Palmer is a Kaikoura girl, and was encouraged to write by her uncle, the late Charles Oscar Palmer, author of two books of poetry. At the suggestion of Miss Esther Glen ("Lady Gay" of the Christchurch Star and later The Press), Rita wrote this full-length book. But in the meantime Miss Glen died and owing to the outbreak of war there was delay in sending the manuscript to England for publication. Three friends share mention in the dedication— Miss E. Blumhart, of Christchurch (Rita's former Sunday school teacher), Jewel (a Christchurch girl), and Nancy LudstonSmith, of Kaikoura, who has also started to write children's books. Rita Palmer is a very capable girl and already has had a varied career, having nursed in her home town of Kaikoura, workecl in Christchurch factories, and had a job in Nelson as a waitress. She is now a "postie" in Wellington. She is enjoying her outdoor life during her city postal round, but hopes some day to write sbme adult- literature.