Ethel Turner (24 January 1870 – 8 April 1958) was an English-born Australian novelist and children's literature writer.
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Life
She was born Ethel Mary Burwell in Doncaster in England. Her father died when she was two, leaving her mother Sarah Jane Burwell with two daughters (Ethel and Lillian). A year later, Sarah Jane married Henry Turner, who was 20 years older and had six children of his own. Sarah Jane and Henry had a daughter, Rose. Henry Turner died suddenly, leaving Sarah Jane with nine children and little income. In 1879 Sarah Jane moved to Australia with Ethel, Lillian, and Rose; within the next two years she married Charles Cope and gave birth to his son Rex.
Turner was educated at Paddington, New South Wales Public School and Sydney Girls High School—she was one of the school's original thirty-seven pupils.
She started her writing career at eighteen, founding the Parthenon, a journal for young people, with her sister Lillian. As 'Dame Durden' she wrote children's columns for the Illustrated Sydney News and later for the Australian Town and Country Journal. In 1891, the family moved to Inglewood (now known as Woodlands), a large house in Lindfield, now Killara, which was then out in the country. Woodlands still stands today in Werona Avenue and is where she wrote Seven Little Australians.