The High Fence (PDF)

Netta Muskett was born in Sevenoaks, Kent, and was educated at Kent College, Folkestone. She taught mathematics before joining the Voluntary Aid Detachment which took her to France where she drove an ambulance during the First World War. It was during the same war that she lost her brother who was killed in Egypt whilst serving with the Imperial Camel Corp (ICC) in 1916. In the 1920's she moved to Fleet Street where she worked as a secretary to Lord Riddell who was then Managing Director and owner of the News of the World. In 1925, she married Henry Wallace Muskett and brought up four children, three of whom were from Henry's previous marriage. Two years later she wrote her first novel, 'The Jade Spider'. What followed was a career of writing that spanned over 37 years. During the Second World War she again served with the V.A.D where she taught handicrafts in British and American hospitals. Netta co-founded the Romantic Novelists' Association, where she served as Vice-President. In her honour the RNA created the Netta Muskett award for outstanding new writers, now called the RNA New Writers Scheme. In her private life she was a home-lover who generally shied away from appearing at public functions, avoiding where she could any semblance of sel-publicity. She enjoyed pottery, weaving and sewing, and also loved to travel especially in the tropics and Africa. She died at her home in Putney in 1963 and her last novel, 'Cloudbreak', was published posthumously.