Evadne Price

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Evadne Price at work
Evadne Price at work

Evadne Price (1896/1901-1985) (pseudonym Helen Zenna Smith) was a British freelance journalist, columnist, author, playwright, actor, television presenter, screenwriter, and astrologer. She is well remembered for her serialized romance novels under her Helen Zenna Smith pseudonym, her children's books featuring the character of Jane Turpin and as the Astrology columnist for the SHE magazine. However, she is arguably best remembered as the author of the feminist reprise to the novel All Quiet on the Western Front titled Not So Quiet: Stepdaughters of War, a semi-biographical novel based on World War I which was brought into prominence by The Feminist Press reprint of 1989.

Contents

[edit] Birth and early years

Evadne Price was born at sea off the coast of New South Wales, Australia to English parents. The National Union Catalogue lists her birthdate as 1896, but Kenneth Attiwill (her second husband of 54 years) claims she was born in 1901. She was educated in New South Wales and England. She first worked as an actor in London, and then turned to journalism. She wrote a column for the Sunday Chronicle and other newspapers.

[edit] Journalism and the war

Many of Price's stories are set in a backdrop of the World Wars. Price's semi-biographical sketch of a group of ambulance drivers in World War I - Not So Quiet: Stepdaughters of War (1930), received critical acclaim, and was published under her pseudonym. A British publisher initially approached Price to write a spoof on Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. Price managed to persuade him to publish an account of a woman's experience of the war instead. She contacted Winnifred Young, a British ambulance driver who had kept war diaries to provide her with a basis for her story. It was translated into French as "Pas Si Calme" by Gallimard, Paris in 1931. Also translated into Dutch; a trilogy "Gij vrouwen ....!", "Vrouwen in nood" and "Vrouwenroeping".

During World War II, Price was the war correspondent for The People from 1943, covering the Allied invasion and all of the major war stories through the Nuremberg Trials. Her husband was a POW in Japan, and was presumed dead for two years.

[edit] Romance novel author

Evadne Price was a very successful romance novelist and wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Helen Zenna Smith. Some of her books were serialized in the weekly British weekly The People. Several hundred of her novels were serialized in the Novel magazine. Among her more popular books were Society Girl, Glamour Girl, Escape to Marriage, and Air Hostess in Love.

[edit] Playwright and screenwriter

Price's career as a romance novelist took her into playwriting, radio scriptwriting and screenwriting. Her play Big Ben, written for the Malvern Festival in 1939, was a successful one (The Times called it “a large, comfortable play with a soul to call its own”). The Phantom Light (1937) was a stage version of her novel, The Haunted Light. The play was also made into a film starring Gordon Harker. Once a Crook (1939) - a play which was co-written by Price and her husband Kenneth Attiwill, was also both a play and a film. She also acted in the movie Trouble with Junia (1967) in the minor part of Miss Hallyday beside her husband Ken Attiwill.

[edit] Jane Turpin stories

Evadne Price is also remembered for her children's stories, which she often published in magazines. Her most well known creation in this field was Jane Turpin, often referred to as the "Female William" and serialized in the Novel magazine from 1928. Price, however, did not take kindly to Jane stories being referred to as a copy of the William series. She went on record saying she "had never heard of William", even though William stories were regularly advertised on Jane book dust jackets. The famous illustrator Thomas Henry Fisher, who illustrated both Jane and William books, even signed the illustrations for the Jane books as "Marriott" so as to distinguish the two series.

[edit] Astrology

Evadne Price had another parallel career as a broadcaster during the early years of British television. Her afternoon horoscope show called “Fun with the Stars” led to a long-running evening horoscope program. Price was dubbed the “new astrologer extraordinaire” for twenty-five years for the SHE magazine and published a successful collection of these columns as SHE Stargazes. When she and her husband retired to Australia in 1976, Evadne Price wrote the monthly horoscope column for Australian Vogue.

[edit] Final Years

Evadne Price died on April 17, 1985 in Sydney, Australia. Evadne Price has an unfinished autobiography which was to have been named Mother Painted Nude.

[edit] Selected Bibliography

As Helen Zenna Smith:

  • Not So Quiet: Stepdaughters of War, Albert E. Marriott Ltd., London 1930
  • SHE stargazes, National Magazine Company, London 1965

As Evadne Price: (including all Jane books)

  • Just Jane, John Hamilton, London (1928)
  • Meet Jane, Newnes, London (1930)
  • Enter - Jane, Newnes, London (1932)
  • One Woman's Freedom, Longmans, Green London (1932)
  • Red for Danger, John Long, London (1936)
  • Jane the Fourth (1937)
  • Jane the Sleuth (1939)
  • Jane the Unlucky (1939)
  • Jane the Popular (1939)
  • Jane the Patient (1940)
  • Jane Gets Busy (1940)
  • Jane at War (1947)
  • My Pretty Sister (as Helen Zenna Smith), Herbert Jenkins Ltd (1952)
  • Her Stolen Life, Merit Books, London (1950s)
  • The Wrong Mrs. Sylvester (1950s)
  • Jane and Co (selected stories by Mary Cadogan) Macmillan Publishers (1985)

NB: All "Jane" books were published by Robert Hale, London unless otherwise mentioned

[edit] Known Discography

  • The Christmas Story, Narration by Evadne Price, LP, Label: Ember

[edit] Broadway Credits

[edit] Filmography

  1. The Phantom Light (1935) (playwright The Haunted Light)
  2. Wolf's Clothing (1936) (play author, screenwriter)
  3. When the Poppies Bloom Again (1937) (script)
  4. Merry Comes to Town aka Merry Comes to Stay (UK: alternative title) (1937) (short story author)
  5. Silver Top (1938) (short story author)
  6. Lightning Conductor (1938) (short story author)
  7. Blondes for Danger (1938) (novel author)
  8. Once a Crook (1941) (play author)
  9. Not Wanted on Voyage (1957) (play author, screenwriter)
  10. Trouble with Junia (1967) (actress)

[edit] References