Alone in the World: A Tale of New Zealand

New Zealand colonial texts ; no. 5.

An 1866 sensation novel by Mary Ann Colclough, edited with notes and an introduction by Jenny Coleman

Mary Ann Barnes immigrated to New Zealand from London in 1859 at the age of 23. Within a few years she married Thomas Colclough, a 45 year old gentleman settler and they had two children. Her husband proved to be an incompetent provider and she experienced first hand the injustices of being the breadwinner but not having any of the social and legal powers and privileges that usually accompanied that role. When she was 31 years old her husband died and she was left a widow with two children under the age of five to support.

By the age of 33, Mary Ann Colclough could rightly claim herself a well-established writer of fiction, journalistic articles, light prose, and newspaper correspondence. Despite her regret of the very limited sphere (Polly Plums Last 6) for writers in New Zealand, she published widely and had articles accepted and paid for in England and America as well as in New Zealand. Her first novel, titled The Half Caste Wife was published in the early 1860s in a serialized form in a Melbourne newspaper. Her second novel, Alone in the World: A Tale of New Zealand was published in New Zealand in 1866. Mary Ann Colclough's name did not appear on this novel; under the title of the novel it simply stated "Author of The Half Cast Wife". The only known review of Alone in the World appeared some twenty years later in The Penny Journal on 19 May 1886, more than 18 months after Mary Ann Colclough had died. The reviewer concludes that the novel presents a very pleasing and well written story- and notes that: "The interest throughout is well sustained, the dialogue is fairly managed, and natural, the characters are drawn from the authors point of view with skill, and the story throughout indicates the hand of an observant, fluent, rather cynical, but conscientious writer."