Emily Flora Klickmann (26 January 1867 - 20 November 1958) was an English journalist, author and editor. She was the second editor of the Girl's Own Paper, but became best known for her Flower-Patch series of books of anecdotes, autobiography and nature description.
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Flora Klickmann was born in Brixton, London, one of six children.[1][2] As a girl she aspired to be a concert pianist, but suffered from illness in her teens and at the age of 21 began work as a music teacher. She then moved into music journalism, and by 1895 had started contributing articles to The Windsor Magazine, one of the best-known story periodicals of the time.[2] In 1904, she became the editor of The Foreign Field, a magazine published by the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society.[1] By this time, she had also begun writing and editing books on crafts and etiquette, aimed at young girls.
Four years later, in 1908, she was appointed editor of the Girl's Own Paper, in succession to its first editor, Charles Peters. This was a highly successful periodical aimed at girls and young women, published by the Religious Tract Society (RTS).[1] The magazine moved from a weekly to monthly format, and she introduced new themes such as careers advice for girls, advice on style and dress, photography competitions and crafts. Long serials became less common, and their place was taken by a larger number of shorter stories, often from distant parts of the world.[3]
In 1912 she suffered a breakdown through overwork and stress. While remaining as editor, she spent a period of convalescence at a rented cottage close to the small Gloucestershire village of Brockweir in the Wye valley, an area in which her grandparents had lived.[4] In 1913, she married Ebenezer Henderson Smith, one of the executives at the RTS; her married name was Emily Flora Henderson Smith. They shared a house at Sydenham in south London, and purchased a second house at Brockweir, Sylvan Lodge (now Sylvan House).[2]
In 1916 she published the first of a series of books of written sketches of life in her country cottage at Brockweir (known in her books as "Rosemary Cottage" - see 'Flower Patch Among the Hills', 'The Trail of the Ragged Robin' etc.), with its idyllic cottage garden and spectacular views over the River Wye and Tintern Abbey. The book, The Flower-Patch Among the Hills, was based on articles which she had originally written for the Girl's Own Paper, and was highly successful. She acquired a succession of cottages in the area over the years.[4] In later years the stories grew to involve her household and the local people, combining nature description, anecdote, autobiography, religion, and humour. In all, seven Flower Patch books were published, over 32 years.[1] Her writing has been described as "humorous, elegant and beautifully observed, revealing a genuine love and concern for the natural world".[2] A keen environmentalist, she wrote of the virtues of gardening without artificial chemicals and the value of natural fertilisers long before they became fashionable, and decried the taking of wild flower bulbs.[2]
She also published novels, advice books, children's stories and non-fiction on many topics including gardening, cooking, and needlework techniques, some of which have been republished in recent years. She remained editor of the Girl's Own Paper until 1931, and continued to write Flower Patch books until 1948.[2]
Her husband died in 1937. She died in 1958, and was buried in the graveyard of the Moravian Church at Brockweir.[1]
David Lazell, Flora Klickmann and her Flower Patch: the story of the Girls' Own Paper and the Flower Patch books, East Leake Publishing, 1995