Sylvia Ashton-Warner

Ashton-Warner was born on 17 December 1908, in Stratford, New Zealand. She spent many years teaching Māori children, using stimulating and often pioneering techniques which she wrote about in her 1963 treatise Teacher and in the various volumes of her autobiography. Her success derived from a commitment to "releasing the native imagery and using it for working material" and her belief that communication must produce a mutual response in order to effect a lasting change. As a novelist, she produced several works mostly centred on strong female characters. Her novel Spinster (1958) was made into the 1961 film Two Loves (also known as The Spinster) starring Shirley MacLaine. She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for services to education and literature, in the 1982 Queen's Birthday Honours.[1]

Ashton-Warner died on 28 April 1984, in Tauranga. Her life story was adapted for the 1985 biographical film Sylvia, based on her work and writings.

The Faculty of Education library at The University of Auckland—the institution at which Ashton-Warner trained between 1928 and 1929— was named the Sylvia Ashton-Warner Library in 1987[2] and includes the Sylvia Ashton-Warner Collection.[3]

The Ashton School in the Dominican Republic was founded in 1998 and was named in honour of Ashton-Warner, whose teaching methods inspired the school.[4]

"You must be true to yourself. Strong enough to be true to yourself. Brave enough to be strong enough to be true to yourself. Wise enough to be brave enough to be strong enough to shape yourself from what you actually are."

• Spinster 1958
• I Passed This Way by Sylvia Ashton-Warner
• Teacher
• Three 1970 – her first novel set outside New Zealand

• Sylvia Ashton-Warner at IMDb
• List of books and published material
• Biographical entry from The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature