author
John Presland
1885–1975
An Australian-born writer who made her life in Britain, she published poetry, novels, and plays under the pen name John Presland. Her work ranges from verse and pageants to fiction, with a literary career that stretched across much of the 20th century.
3 Audiobooks
Lynton and Lynmouth: A Pageant of Cliff & Moorland
by John Presland
Poems of London, and Other Verses
by John Presland
The Deluge, and Other Poems
by John Presland
About the author
Born in Melbourne in 1885 as Gladys Williams, she later became known as Gladys Skelton and wrote under the pseudonym John Presland. She lived in the United Kingdom from early adulthood, and sources describe her as a poet, novelist, and playwright.
She studied at Girton College, Cambridge, where she gained history honours, and she also worked as a university lecturer in English literature as well as in history and economics. Archival records note that her papers survive at Girton College, and that her surname changed over time through marriage, while John Presland remained her best-known pen name.
Her surviving bibliography shows a wide range of interests: poetry collections such as The Deluge, and Other Poems and Poems of London, and Other Verses, as well as works like Lynton and Lynmouth. Reference sources also note that she published fiction, including Barricade and Escape Me – Never!, making her a versatile and somewhat rediscovered figure in early 20th-century literature.