The Chronicles of Peach Grove Farm by Nellie Fincher was published in Pietermaritzburg by The Times Printing and Publishing Company in 1910 (Fincher 1910a). Sub-titled “A Story for S. African Children”, it is one of the first books in English by a South African author written explicitly for child readers to have been published in South Africa (Jenkins 2002, 35). Stories in English about young South African children, especially girls, had started appearing in 1889, with the publication of The Wood-cutters of the Perie Bush: A South African Story, by Mary Carey-Hobson. Most were published in the UK, and not all the authors were born South Africans or resident in the country. Of the dozen or so published up to 1911, Peach Grove is, by modern standards, the best: it eschews flowery language and sentimentality and moves beyond robust narrative to explore the distinct personalities and intellectual and emotional lives of her protagonists.

Nellie Fincher was born in England in 1872, and came from London. Her maiden name was Ellen Fincher, and she wrote all her books under the name Nellie Fincher. Contemporary newspaper reviews of her books referred to her as “Miss Fincher” (Fincher 1910c, n.p.). She married a schoolteacher, William Wells-Wyld, in Pietermaritzburg, and they had no children. According to her obituary (Cape Times, 31 July 1946), she worked for many years as a member of the editorial staff of the Natal Witness. It would appear from a note in one of her books (Fincher 1910b, n.p.) that she was living in Pietermaritzburg in 1910, when Peach Grove was published. When her husband died in 1937 they were living in Verulam. She died in Cape Town.

Fincher wrote six books between 1908 and 1910, of which the best known is The Heir of Brendiford (Fincher 1909b), published by Davis & Sons in three editions. All her books were published in Pietermaritzburg or Durban, while some were also published in London by Simpkin, Hamilton, Marshall, Kent & Co. (Fincher 1910b, n.p.). The Chronicles of Peach Grove Farm is her only children's book. Copies are very rare, and it is little known. It is not included in the list of her works in the Companion to South African English Literature (Adey et al. 1986) or the bibliography by E.R. Seary (1938).