Renée Gertrude Taylor, who took as her pen-name simply her first name, as it was the name her mother gave her, was a feminist playwright and fiction writer, and a feisty advocate for the rights of women, lesbians and gays, as well as working class people – in her own words, a “lesbian feminist with socialist working-class ideals”. Throughout her plays and novels women take centre stage, and their primary bonds are with other women.
Born in Napier in 1929 as Renée Gertrude Jones, she was of Ngati Kahungungu, Ngati Porou and Irish-English-Scots ancestry, with her mother half-Maori and her father “Pakeha” (European New Zealander). Because her mother had married a non-Maori, her family was excluded from the social milieu of their Maori relatives; and yet, within the “Pakeha”
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Citation: Ross, John C.. "Renée". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 January 2015 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3747, accessed 23 November 2024.]
