Joyce West

Who was Joyce West?

Joyce Tarlton West was a New Zealand novelist and children's writer. She spent her childhood in remote country districts where her parents taught in Māori schools. Of herself she wrote: “We lived far from towns, in a world of bush roads and river crossings; we rode horseback everywhere, and kept a large menagerie of dogs, cats, kittens, ducks, turkeys, pet lambs, and goats. . . . When I began to write, it was with the wish that I might save a little of the charm and flavour of those times and places for the children of today.”

Joyce West is best known for her novel Drovers Road, a tale of family life on a New Zealand sheep station first published in London in 1953. She published two sequels to Drovers Road: The Golden Country and Cape Lost, which have been reprinted as the Drovers Road Collection. She has been described as the most distinguished author of rural fiction of her time, "delineating children growing to maturity with the warm acceptance of their families and communities". She illustrated several of her books with her own ink drawings. Her works include five thrillers written with New Zealand novelist and teacher Mary Edith Scott. She also contributed poetry and articles to the New Zealand Railways Magazine .