Nancy Francis arrived in Australia around 1910 as a young English wife and mother. She settled in a remote region of Far North Queensland, between Cooktown and Cairns. In her home she provided a literary education for her three daughters, Patricia, Kathleen and Christobel, all of whom became published writers.
Often writing under the pen-name 'Black Bonnet,' Francis regularly contributed poems to Australian newspapers and periodicals. Some of her poetry was collected in Feet in the Night and Other Poems (1947). Francis's poetry was especially concerned with the themes of romantic love, family relationships, war, death, natural beauty, and life in North Queensland. In 1923 her novel, Queensland Luck, was serialised in the Northern Herald. The numerous essays which Francis wrote for Queensland newspapers included a series of studies of North Queensland Aboriginal culture, entitled 'By Forest, Scrub and Shore' (1939-1940); a series of historical essays on 'The Anglican Church in North Queensland' (1936-1938); and many essays on the travels of Captain Cook. Around 1930, a visit to Western Europe and Northern Africa inspired several poems in which Francis expressed both her identification with the North Queensland landscape and a longing for her North Queensland home.
