The South Canterbury romance writer whose stories travelled the world
1913–2010
Romance novelist
South Canterbury Writers’ Guild
On the shelves of Timaru District Libraries are books that carried South Canterbury places far beyond the district.
Their author, Ivy Alice Preston, grew up on a small farm at Southburn, worked as a housekeeper at Dunrobin Station and married local farmer Percival Preston in 1937. She later recalled her childhood, courtship, farming life and writing career in a three-hour oral-history interview recorded for the National Library in 1992.
Ivy and Percy lived at Valpre near St Andrews and raised four children. Percy died in 1956. Ivy’s own later account connected this loss with her decision to pursue writing more seriously, although her interest in stories and periodical writing had begun much earlier.
Her first book, The Silver Stream, appeared through Pegasus Press in 1959. It was a memoir of her life with Percy rather than a romance novel. Her first published novel, Where Ratas Twine, followed in 1960. The National Library catalogue confirms that it was first issued in London by Wright & Brown, demonstrating that Ivy’s international publishing career began with her first novel.
More than 40 novels are attributed to Ivy by the Aoraki Heritage Collection and the Timaru library research used for the existing WuHoo profile. Her books were issued by British publishers and many were later republished in large-print editions. Contemporary Timaru interviews report that her writing was translated into nine languages. That figure is credible but should be checked against publisher records or a complete international bibliography before the individual languages are listed as settled fact.
Ivy repeatedly used New Zealand settings. The existing heritage research identifies Timaru Hospital, Caroline Bay, Dashing Rocks and South Canterbury high-country stations within her fiction, alongside other parts of the country such as Stewart Island and Westland. These settings allowed readers overseas to encounter recognisable New Zealand landscapes and forms of everyday life through popular fiction.
Her novels placed women at the centre of stories about work, family, illness, grief, money, travel and relationships. They reflected the conventions of the romance publishing market in which she worked, and should not automatically be treated as documentary accounts of women’s lives. They are nevertheless useful cultural evidence of what publishers and readers expected from romance fiction across several decades.
Ivy described her books as “moonlight and roses” romances that stopped at the bedroom door. The phrase summed up her preference for emotional and relational storytelling as the international market increasingly asked for more explicit material. It also demonstrates that she made conscious decisions about the kind of writing she wished to produce.
Her contribution extended beyond commercial romance. Ivy prepared a 115-page typescript about her great-grandmother Elizabeth Ward, who farmed at Pareora after her husband’s death. That manuscript is held by the National Library and preserves another South Canterbury woman’s life within the public research record.
Ivy’s own career continued for more than three decades. Her books remained in circulation through later large-print editions, including editions published during the 1990s. These reissues should not be confused with evidence that every title appearing in that decade was a newly written novel. A complete chronological bibliography would clarify the date of her last original work.
Ivy died on 1 April 2010, aged 96, and was buried with Percy in Timaru Cemetery. Her impact can be measured in more than the number of books she produced. She made a sustained writing career from South Canterbury, placed local settings into internationally distributed popular fiction and preserved the history of another rural woman for later researchers.
Read the WuHoo story Moonlight and Roses: The Life and Legacy of Ivy Preston
Sources
National Library: Interview with Ivy Preston
The strongest first-person source located. It covers her Southburn and Scottish family connections, childhood, Dunrobin employment, marriage, farm life, widowhood, writing process, publishing success, travel and writers’ group.
National Library: Where Ratas Twine
Confirms that her first novel was originally published in London by Wright & Brown in 1960.
Aoraki Heritage Collection: Ivy Preston
Supports her rural upbringing, marriage, four children, prolific novel-writing career and use of New Zealand and South Canterbury settings.
Aoraki Heritage Collection: Ivy Preston’s 21st Novel of Romance
Confirms that she had reached her twenty-first romance novel by 1973 and that the collection holds many of her books, including The Silver Stream.
National Library: Ivy Preston’s Elizabeth Ward, Pioneer
Identifies her unpublished 115-page family-history manuscript and its South Canterbury rural-women content.
National Library authority record: Ivy Alice Preston
Confirms her life years and provides connections to the oral history, manuscript and publishing records.
Nomination of Ivy Alice Preston for the Timaru District Hall of Fame, 2025
Provides a detailed synthesis based on Ivy’s memoir, local newspaper interviews and library research. Its quotations and numerical claims should continue to be checked against those underlying sources.