Margaret Escott

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Margaret Escott, born Cicely Margaret Escott on 9 July 1908 in Eltham, Kent, England, was a New Zealand novelist, playwright, poet, and drama teacher. She is best known for her novel Show Down (1936), which the United States edition titled I Told My Love. A second New Zealand edition appeared in 1973. Escott died on 15 August 1977 at Waitemata Harbour, New Zealand.

Escott was the youngest of five children of Emily and Harry Escott. She was educated at the City of London School for Girls and moved to New Zealand at age 17, staying first on a Waikato farm before her family settled in Auckland. She worked as a teacher at Seddon Memorial Technical College for a year, then in 1928 returned to London, where she worked at The Times Book Club as a lift attendant and later as a librarian.

She wrote three novels in the 1930s before turning 26. The first two, published under the pen name C. M. Allen and set in England, were Insolence of Office (1934) and Awake at Noon (1935). Show Down, written after she returned to New Zealand, tells of a Waikato farmer who falls in love with a wealthy Englishwoman and their bigamous marriage and subsequent affairs. The book was commercially successful and well reviewed, with some critics comparing her to Ernest Hemingway. The New York Times praised the writing and emotional insight, while noting the work could feel a touch overstrained at times.

After Show Down, Escott returned to New Zealand, worked on her brother’s farm, then moved to Auckland. She worked as a drama teacher, librarian, tutor, and broadcaster, and reportedly destroyed much of her later writing. Her best-known late work is the play Saved (1971), written to mark Auckland’s centenary. Show Down was republished in 1973 by Auckland University Press.

Escott was an advocate for preserving the old pumphouse at Lake Pupuke and helped form the PumpHouse Theatre, which opened in 1977—the year of her death. She is said to be the theatre’s resident ghost, and its green room is named in her honour. Her final work, a poetry collection titled Separation and/or Greeting, was written in the months before she died in 1977. In 2007, Show Down was adapted for radio by Elspeth Sandys, and in 2020 the PumpHouse Theatre hosted a gathering to celebrate the writer.