Erroll Collins

Erroll Collins (aka Ellen Edith Hannah Redknap) was a British author active during the 1940s, specialising in adventure and science fiction for boys.

Background

Collins was born Ellen Edith Hannah Redknap in Shadwell, London, the eldest of four children and daughter of Frederick Redknap (1887–1950), a master-plumber. As a child she set such a good example to her younger siblings, she was called "Goody Two Shoes" and as such by many in the family, in the last years of her life, she was known and addressed as Auntie Goody. As a child she had been an excellent pianist, but never played again after the death of her mother in 1934. She did however continue to paint in watercolours occasionally. She was a keen breeder of terrapins and would often have one in her apron as she went about the housework. She had a very broad general knowledge and read a great deal, after she died one room was almost impossible to enter due to there being more than two thousand books packed floor to ceiling.