Queenie Scott-Hopper

[8] Scott-Hopper’s prolific output for the twenty year period that she was active as a writer included children’s novels and short stories, occasional poems, essays, and devotional literature.

Platt suggests that she was determined to succeed financially, which “encouraged her to write for any and every outlet which would accept her work.”[9] She cites Scott-Hopper’s address book as an indicator of her anxiety over remuneration for her work, as she recorded terms of payment for various publications next to the names of publishers, most offering one guinea per 1,000 words.

Her subjects were varied, ranging from the efforts to rescue miners in the Sacristan Pit, County Durham, on 16 November 1903[10] to honoring Belgian soldiers and refugees during the First World War.

Platt believes Rock Bottom to be semi-autobiographical, citing the plot in which a girl “copes with an unsatisfactory father’s financial disasters by using her writing talent, first by penning verse for her local newspaper, then by approaching established publishers.”[8] Christmas editions of newspapers annually featured her seasonal stories for children and from 1905 until her death she regularly produced short stories with holiday themes, such as “A Bunch of Mistletoe” (1908),[20] “How Nell and Bell Met Santa Claus” (1912),[21] and “Jack Frost and Santa Claus” (1918).

In 1920 the Sunday Sun (Newcastle) ran her weekly illustrated series titled “Fairy Tale Country: And What We Did There.”[23] Reception of Scott-Hopper’s work during her lifetime generally took the form of advertising copy that praised her popularity rather than full and independent reviews.

A short review of Rock Bottom in 1920 cited characters who “are delightfully portrayed,” and noted that “the author's sense of humor is evident all through the book, while the touches of pathos make it all the more true to life.”[25] Angel Unawares (1921) was reviewed in The Scotsman, which noted that the lessons taught by would be useful for “[h]ealthy-minded girls,”[26] while the Dundee Courier thought “the account of the many schemes [the protagonist] adopts to do a good turn and smooth out difficulties makes really exciting reading.”[27] Perhaps her most lasting work is the poem “Very Nearly,” about a child’s possible encounters with fairies, mermaids, and goblins.

“Very Nearly” was widely republished in subsequent poetry collections[29] and words to the poem were set to music on at least three occasions between 1926 and 1932, including songs by Henry Geehl and Gerrard Williams.