She was the youngest daughter of Harry Edgar Nicholls, a Harbour Board Secretary and a prominent actor in the Wellington theatre scene.
She entered Victoria in 1909, where she studied Greek, Latin and French and became involved with the Edwardian Spike group of writers (1902–15), that included Siegfried Eichelbaum, Seaforth Mackenzie, A. F. T. Chorlton, Hubert Church, Philip Grey, Mary E. Heath (later Mrs Ballantyne), Erica R. Fell (later Mrs Erica R. Wilson), A. E. Caddick and F. A. de la Mare.
She moved back and forth between her activities at Victoria and further travel overseas visiting a number of countries, including Australia, South Africa, France and India, before returning to Wellington around 1919.
On the death of her husband from enteric fever soon after the wedding, Nicholls returned to Wellington, where her family lived and where she became a well-known personality in the arts scene.
In addition, she worked as a university extension lecturer in drama for the Workers' Educational Association, taught at Wellington Girls' College and Chilton St James School and in teaching elocution.
Her other interests included the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and she was a member of the League of Nations local branch, and also of the International Council of Women.
The Post obituary wrote: ‘Her death removes a cultured and charming personality who could ill be spared.’ A large attendance at her funeral on 4 October 1930 indicated the esteem and high regard with which Wellingtonians held her.
In her will, Nicholls made a bequest of moneys to buy artworks for display in the woman's common room at Victoria College.
Beryl Hughes notes that the painting hung in the Women's Studies Department at Victoria University of Wellington[4] but is now in storage.
1, 1933) contributed by her father, H. E. Nicholls, and another poem, 'She Clothed Herself in Dreams', appears in The Evening Post (14 March 1936) reproduced by C. A. Marris on popular request for his "Postscripts" column edited under the pseudonym of Percy Flage.
This can be seen as a reappraisal of her place in New Zealand poetry during the Georgian and post-war period (1915–1930) and a sign of her status as an early feminist writer.
That same year, a selection of her poems was made by Cameron La Follette for the University of Toronto Libraries' RPO [Representative Poetry Online] website.