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The Chronicles of Peach Grove Farm: An Exceptional Early South African Children’s Book by Nellie Fincher
Abstract
The Chronicles of Peach Grove Farm by Nellie Fincher was published in
Pietermaritzburg by The Times Printing and Publishing Company in 1910
(Fincher 1910a). Sub-titled A Story for S. African Children, it is one of the
first books in English by a South African author written explicitly for child
readers to have been published in South Africa (Jenkins 2002, 35). Stories in
English about young South African children, especially girls, had started
appearing in 1889, with the publication of The Wood-cutters of the Perie
Bush: A South African Story, by Mrs Mary Carey-Hobson (Carey-Hobson
1889). Most were published in the United Kingdom, and not all the authors
were born South Africans or resident in the country. Of the dozen or so
published up to 1911, Fincher’s Peach Grove is, by modern standards, the
best: it eschews flowery language and sentimentality and moves beyond
robust narrative to explore the distinct personalities and intellectual and
emotional lives of her protagonists.
Pietermaritzburg by The Times Printing and Publishing Company in 1910
(Fincher 1910a). Sub-titled A Story for S. African Children, it is one of the
first books in English by a South African author written explicitly for child
readers to have been published in South Africa (Jenkins 2002, 35). Stories in
English about young South African children, especially girls, had started
appearing in 1889, with the publication of The Wood-cutters of the Perie
Bush: A South African Story, by Mrs Mary Carey-Hobson (Carey-Hobson
1889). Most were published in the United Kingdom, and not all the authors
were born South Africans or resident in the country. Of the dozen or so
published up to 1911, Fincher’s Peach Grove is, by modern standards, the
best: it eschews flowery language and sentimentality and moves beyond
robust narrative to explore the distinct personalities and intellectual and
emotional lives of her protagonists.
