Constance M. White

Constance Mary White, née Lockett, was born on in Croydon, south London, one of four children of a City accountant and his wife. She had a happy childhood despite three serious attacks of illness -- scarlet fever, measles and double pneumonia -- that kept her in the hospital for some time. She attended a small private school and then Croydon Secondary School (now Selhurst Grammar School). She began writing at a young age. With a friend, she started a magazine for her class at school, and wrote a story modeled on the works of Angela Brazil, whose books were bestsellers at the time. At age 16, she begged her parents to allow her to go to art school, but then dropped out to take a job as a photographic colorist.

At age 22, she married Henry Victor White, an estate agent with whom she had a daughter, Jeanette. Once her daughter started school, Constance’s love of writing re-emerged. After taking a writing course, she sold her assessment article, a humorous piece on painting photos, to the Boy’s Own Paper. Her first book, The Adventurous Three, published in 1939, was based on bedtime stories she told her daughter.
At the outbreak of World War II shortly after, her husband enlisted in the British armed forces, and Constance had to run his business, riding around on a wobbly old bicycle to collect rents. After the war, she returned to her literary career, publishing a total of more than 40 books, most of them children’s and young adult fiction. The Ballet School Mystery (1951) was extremely successful, was reprinted several times, and led to three sequels: Dancer’s Daughter (1955), New Girl at Ballet School (1957), and Ballet School Rivals (1958). She relished researching the background of her books, attending rehearsals of the Croydon Youth Orchestra for Set to Music (1960); for five novels set at St. Mark’s Hospital, she obtained permission from the Matron of Croydon Hospital to wander at will and accompany doctors on their rounds. A visit to India and Pakistan in 1957-1958 led to three books that provided a sympathetic look at the lives of children in those countries.
Constance M. White retired from writing and publishing around 1972.