About the book
Blanche Edith Baughan (1870–1958) was one of New Zealand’s first poets and travel writers – her poems were praised for their New Zealand vernacular and her travel writing introduced people here and overseas to our walks and wilderness areas. Born in England, Blanche emigrated to New Zealand in 1900, settling in Sumner and Banks Peninsula, where she embraced the freedom to write and think, and formed friendships with poets Jessie Mackay and Ursula Bethell.
It was here that Blanche’s interest in the environment and her advocacy for the vulnerable in society flourished. She became a botanist, conservationist and prison reformer, known for her fierce correspondence in defence of her causes.
Carol Markwell’s meticulous and thoughtful biography is a tour de force.
“Enough Horizon will be welcomed by literary readers, by feminists, by admirers of the Victorian and Edwardian ‘lady travellers’, and by anyone interested in our early twentieth-century cultural history.” — John Newton