Ruth France

Who is Ruth France?

Helena Ruth France was a New Zealand librarian, poet and novelist. She was born in Leithfield, Northern Canterbury, New Zealand in 1913, and died in Christchurch in 1968, leaving a third adult novel The Tunnel unfinished.

She lived in Lyttelton and then in Sumner with her husband. She was friends with Elsie Locke, but considered Christchurch authors and poets prejudiced against women.

Her two published novels are The Race and Ice Cold River. She published poems under her own name, and two books of poems Unwilling Pilgrim and The Halting Place under the name of Paul Henderson.