HELEN MATHERS.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 12021, 21 March 1903, Page 3 (Supplement)

HELEN MATHERS.

A.utliore3s of " Oomia' Tiro' tlio Rye." (AT.J.P.) There are some women- who never grow old—the Queen, God bless her, is one. And Mrs Henry Reeves is another. Next year ■will be her jubilee—but a fig for chronology. She is not a day older than she -was twenty-seven years ago, when, a highsprited, ardent, healthy-minded, and healthy-bodied girl, with glorious auburn hair, cream-white complexion, and seagreen eyes, she took the town by storm with "Comiu' thro' the Bye," and was a reigning toast in literary circles. She could then jump a five-barred gate. And I believe she could do so now—certainly the spirit would be very willing. Born in Somersetshire, with Irish blood in her veins, she was educated at Chantry School, Frome, where she distinguished herself chiefly as a long-distance-runner and a bat of the G. L. Jessop order. No doubt the openair life she then led inspired her with that love of Nature which is one of her strongest characteristics. The literary seed in her sprouted early, for she was but eight when she wrote her first novel. It was a bloodthirsty production. There were two heroines—one with red, the other with pale golden hair—both in love with the hero, who, \7ith the usual perversity of his own class, preferred the insipid charms of the blonde to the flamboyant beauty of the other. Even when she of the Titian chevelure murdered her rival in circumstances of peculiar atrocity, he did not perceive the advisableness of marrying her out of hand, and, consequently, was very rightly burned alive by his impulsive adorer. Seventeen military milestones mark her progress from her first book to her latest—and, next to the "Rye," most successful one. Her march has been triumphal. Wherein lies the secret of her success? Possibly in that she has ever striven to present life as she' sees it, and is gifted with sane and sympathetic perception. The "Rye" was written in secret, and on odd bits of paper. Recently she came across the original MSS. —a curious document, annotated as it is with details of household expenditure. When it was half finished, Miss Rhoda Broughton's " Cometh up as a Flower " appeared, and the young writer in Somersetshire was in despair, for the resemblance was great. However, she took the uncompleted MSS. to Mr Bent-ley, with a result that the world knows. After its appearance, Miss Broughton was frequently congratulated on having written it; buff on the other hand, well-meaning creatures often complimented Miss Mathers on her charming song! Most of her books have been written under difficulties. Providence, she says, Jaughing, disapproves of her labours, and interposes every possible obstacle to her completing a book once begun, so she works at breakneck speed. " Malincourt" and " Honey " took but three weeks and two months and a half respectively, and, always saving the " Rye," which took nine months, they are, her most successful works. She writes every line herself in a somewhat illegible hand, retains her old passion for scraps of paper, and buys pins by the pound to fasten them together. Being nothing if notwomanly, she is fond of smart gowns, but cares little for society, being happiest in the open-air, scudding along on her bicycle, or revelling in the beauties of the woods and moors. Indoors, she is old-fashioned enough to work with the needle, and her taste in the arrangement of a house is consummate.