Background
Barbara Else was born on the 8th of January, 1947 in Invercargill, New Zealand, the daughter of George and Dorothy (Groves) Pearson.
Barbara Else
1969
362 Leith St, North Dunedin, Dunedin 9016, New Zealand
Barbara Else studied at Otago University and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and History and a Master of Arts degree in English Literature in 1969.
2013
Barbara Else
2014
Chief book judge Barbara Else with Prince George’s gift from the NZ Post Book Awards.
2016
Barbara Else
1969
362 Leith St, North Dunedin, Dunedin 9016, New Zealand
Barbara Else studied at Otago University and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and History and a Master of Arts degree in English Literature in 1969.
2013
Barbara Else
2014
Chief book judge Barbara Else with Prince George’s gift from the NZ Post Book Awards.
2016
Barbara Else
2016
Barbara Else
2018
Barbara Else
(The Warrior Queen is a subversive look at modern middle-c...)
The Warrior Queen is a subversive look at modern middle-class marriage, a guerrilla war of the sexes fought in well-heeled Auckland among the trendy homes and chic cafes of Remmers and Parnell. With her fine ear for male bluster and female bitchiness, and her subtle observations of family life, Barbara Else has created an elegant black comedy to entertain - and warn - readers from either of the warring camps.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008P627MK/?tag=2022091-20
1995
(A touching, tender and witty novel about men and women an...)
A touching, tender and witty novel about men and women and family life. Sophie Redlove has a crumbling Gothic mansion to restore, three children to manage, a distraught friend - as well as possums in the laundry at midnight. She loves her absent husband, Russell - but there's an importunate older man who's after her, a slightly sycophantic younger one, an angel and a Viking on the scene and what the hell is Russell up to?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008P61K5K/?tag=2022091-20
1997
(This poignant, funny novel explores the intricate influen...)
This poignant, funny novel explores the intricate influences of memory and experience, invention and deception. Delia Whittborne finds herself in a hospital bed but can't recall how she got there, or even who she is. As her memory slowly returns, she realizes it's not just her recent past and love-life she needs to make sense of but also her early childhood on her grandparents' farm and the barn with the peacocks strutting around outside.
https://www.amazon.com/Eating-Peacocks-Barbara-Else-ebook/dp/B00H6U39MS/?tag=2022091-20
1998
(A delicately layered, humorous novel, deliciously written...)
A delicately layered, humorous novel, deliciously written, ranging over time and place. In the aftermath of Barnaby Rivers' death, complictions arise for three beautiful women: Bella, Ruth and wicked old Jocasta. Now nothing can go on in the old way.
https://www.amazon.com/Three-Pretty-Widows-Barbara-Else-ebook/dp/B00AP8RG7W/?tag=2022091-20
2000
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1869415655/?tag=2022091-20
2003
(The worst week of Suzie's life begins when Caine summons ...)
The worst week of Suzie's life begins when Caine summons her to the morgue to identify a woman's body. She arrives home, shocked, to find the place has been burgled. Caine insists Suzie and the children spend the night at his place. Suddenly her kids have gone missing and her world is falling apart. Over the next days, Suzie darts around the city driven by her ferocious maternal instinct and a perverse obstinacy that always seems to prevent her from taking the most sensible course of action. Will she get to the bottom of the mystery - and how many mysteries are there, past and present? And what's happened to her kitchen?
https://www.amazon.com/Case-Missing-Kitchen-Barbara-Else-ebook/dp/B00MB2EFS8/?tag=2022091-20
2003
(After the unusual death of their papa, Adele Overend and ...)
After the unusual death of their papa, Adele Overend and her younger brother Godwin are dispatched from comfortable Autumn Hall in Yorkshire to the uttermost ends of the earth - to gold rush Dunedin in 1864.
https://www.amazon.com/Wild-Latitudes-Barbara-Else-ebook/dp/B01MXJCJ84/?tag=2022091-20
2007
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1877467774/?tag=2022091-20
2011
(When bored twelve-year-old Dorrity finds a magic book abo...)
When bored twelve-year-old Dorrity finds a magic book about her containing five different endings, an exciting journey begins.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1927271614/?tag=2022091-20
2012
(An adventure story about greed, rebellion, and finding al...)
An adventure story about greed, rebellion, and finding allies in the most unlikely places. The Queen and the Nobody Boy is the stand-alone follow-up to the award-winning middle-grade novel, The Traveling Restaurant. Hodie is the unpaid odd-job boy at the Grand Palace in the Kingdom of Fontana.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1877579491/?tag=2022091-20
2012
(Rufkin, a perpetual no-hoper, is left to work in a salvag...)
Rufkin, a perpetual no-hoper, is left to work in a salvage yard while his celebrity parents and talented siblings go on a summer acting tour. At the salvage yard, Rufkin meets Nissy and a small boy who can only say "Help!" Soon they are caught up in a magical adventure.
https://www.amazon.com/Knot-Impossible-Rufkins-Travels-Fontania-ebook/dp/B01BV2WKQ2
2016
(Except for five godlet-drops that run in his blood, Harsu...)
Except for five godlet-drops that run in his blood, Harsu is human. His mother is Daama, the forty-first daughter of the fifty-ninth daughter of one of the Wind God's nine thousand or so children. His father was human too, a warrior–physician. But now he's gone and Harsu has inherited only a cloak edged with copper coins, a clay tablet, and an old war-steed. This is all he has to survive what lies beyond the Gate of Time and Place.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RP2P8G2/?tag=2022091-20
2019
Barbara Else was born on the 8th of January, 1947 in Invercargill, New Zealand, the daughter of George and Dorothy (Groves) Pearson.
Barbara Else studied at Otago University and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and History and a Master of Arts degree in English Literature in 1969.
Barbara Else started her career as an affiliate at TFS, Wellington, New Zealand. Barbara has been working since 1988 with her husband Chris Else as a literary agent, editor and fiction consultant. In 1998, Barbara Else was chosen for a New Zealand and Australia Writer’s Exchange and also was a visiting writer at Vancouver International Writers' Festival and the Winnipeg International Writers' Festival. She was also a writing fellow at the University of Victoria, Wellington, New Zealand in 1999.
Barbara began writing novels for adults and children in 1995 when her first novel “The Warrior Queen” was published. Her second novel “Gingerbread Husbands” was published in 1997. She also wrote, “Skitterfoot Leaper” in 1997, “Eating Peacocks” in 1998, “Tricky Situations” in 1999, “Three Pretty Widows” in 2000, “The Case of the Missing Kitchen” in 2003, “Wild Latitudes” in 2007, and her most recent “Harsu and the Werestoat” in 2019.
Else has edited several collections of writing for children. “Like Wallpaper” in 2005, “Mischief and Mayhem: 30 New Zealand Stories” in 2005, is for readers aged 7 - 12. In 2006, she edited “Hideous and Hilarious -30 History Stories for Children” and then “Dare and Double-dare - 30 Sports Stories for Children” in 2007, “Showtime! - 30 NZ Stories for Children” in 2008, “Great Mates: 30 New Zealand Stories for Children” in 2011. She is a contributor of short stories to periodicals. Else works and lives in Dunedin, New Zealand.
Barbara Else has won several awards and grants, including the Aoraki Festival Playwriting Award and support from the New Zealand Literary Fund.
Barbara’s first novel “The Warrior Queen” was shortlisted for the Montana New Zealand Book Awards and her second “Gingerbread Husbands” for the Booksellers BookData Award. She has been Writer in Residence at Victoria University and has held a Creative New Zealand Scholarship in Letters.
In March 2016, Else was named as the winner of the Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal and Lecture Award, presented annually in recognition of an author's outstanding achievement and continued contribution to children's literature. Some of his writings have also been translated into German.
(After the unusual death of their papa, Adele Overend and ...)
2007(The Warrior Queen is a subversive look at modern middle-c...)
1995(Rufkin, a perpetual no-hoper, is left to work in a salvag...)
2016(When bored twelve-year-old Dorrity finds a magic book abo...)
2012(This poignant, funny novel explores the intricate influen...)
1998(The worst week of Suzie's life begins when Caine summons ...)
2003(An adventure story about greed, rebellion, and finding al...)
2012(A delicately layered, humorous novel, deliciously written...)
2000(A touching, tender and witty novel about men and women an...)
1997(Except for five godlet-drops that run in his blood, Harsu...)
2019Barbara Else is a member of the New Zealand Association of Manuscript Assessors (coordinator, 2001-04), New Zealand Society of Authors (PEN), New Zealand Book Council.
Quotes from others about the person
"Her humor is quieter, deeper, found in her dark, sardonic point of skew, in her quirky, wry vignettes that are a fond satire of modern middle-class life and those who live it (…). From the breath-taking succinct title through to the satisfyingly wrapped-up ending, this is a most skillful, involving and enjoyable read". - New Zealand Herald.
Barbara Else was married to T. James Neale, but the couple divorced later. Her second marriage was with Chris Else on February 27, 1993. She has two children from the first marriage, Emma Jane and Sarah Anne.
