author
Gertrude Page
1872–1922
A bestselling early-20th-century novelist, she wrote romantic fiction shaped by life in Rhodesia and found a wide readership with stories like Paddy the Next Best Thing and Love in the Wilderness.
3 Audiobooks
The Rhodesian
by Gertrude Page
Winding Paths
by Gertrude Page
Paddy-The-Next-Best-Thing
by Gertrude Page
About the author
Born in Erdington, Warwickshire, in 1872, Gertrude Eliza Page was educated at Bedford High School and began writing young, contributing to The Girl's Own Paper as a teenager. In 1902 she married George Alexander "Alec" Dobbin, and after moving to Rhodesia, she drew on colonial life there in much of her fiction.
Her novels were widely read in the years before and after World War I. Among the best known are Love in the Wilderness, Paddy the Next Best Thing, and The Edge o' Beyond, books that helped make her a popular name with readers who enjoyed romance, family feeling, and dramatic settings.
Page died on April 1, 1922, in Southern Rhodesia. Though she is less familiar to many readers today, her work offers a glimpse of the tastes and attitudes of popular fiction in the Edwardian and early modern era.