Christchurch City Libraries Blog

Gale Biography in Context describes the lives of the world’s important and intriguing figures from history, around the world, and across all subject areas.  For example did you know that:

• Winston Churchill was such a poor student that his father  feared he was intellectually challenged;
• Anne Boleyn had her head cut off with a sword rather than an axe as a gesture of  ‘mercy’ from her then husband Henry VIII;
• J K Rowling ‘s book Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was rejected by seven  publishers;
• Whina Cooper is thought to have been the first woman elected president of a rugby union branch in 1947;
• Barack Obama’s first name means ‘blessing’ in his father’s native Swahili;
• Lady Ga Ga’s real name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. Her stage name is from the Queen song Radio Ga-Ga.

Biography in Context gives users the ability to search on names, occupations, nationalities, birthplaces and death places.

Access this and many other fantastic electronic resources  from home with your library card number and PIN, or at our open community libraries through the Source.

… and in time for that milestone, Richard Greenaway (our genealogical guru) has written a fascinating piece on Benjamin Lancaster and the origins of Lancaster Park.

Here are some photos of Lancaster Park gone by:

Much to the dismay of my devout Italian grandmother, I have long given up going to church.

However, I still love places of worship. For me, they are imbued with memories:  memories of happy times and sad times, beginnings and farewells.

And, whenever I enter a church, a temple or a mosque, I cannot help but feel that there is something special in the air, a certain sacredness that transcends the religious – as if the building itself retains a lingering awareness of the many prayers and hopes of those who have visited it.

So I have been really saddened by the fact that many of the churches in Christchurch have not fared well in the earthquakes.

Most of us are aware of the severe damage suffered by the iconic  Anglican and Catholic Cathedrals, but these unfortunately have not been the only casualties. My quick roll-call includes:

• St Luke’s in  the City, on the corner of Manchester and Kilmore Streets;
• Holy Trinity in Avonside;
• Knox Church, on the corner of Victoria Street and Bealey Avenue;
• the Sydenham Church, in Colombo Street;
• St Mary and St Athanasious Coptic Church in Edgeware Road; and
• the Union Parish Church and Holy Trinity Church in Lyttelton.

Luckily the memory of many of these buildings lives on in the library:

• in our books;
• in our local history fact files;
• and in our digitised photographs.

And, even more luckily, many gems have survived, though admitttedly some a tad battered.

My personal favourites are St Peter’s at Church Corner in Riccarton – a little island of peace surrounded by busy streets – and St Paul’s in Papanui, which was designed by B. W. Mountfort, and whose cemetery is home to a number of illustrious Cantabrians, including Robert Heaton Rhodes and Charles Upham, V.C.

Do you have a favourite church, or any other places of worship to add to my sad roll-call of earthquake casualties?

I was walking to work today when I was approached by a very friendlydog without a collar. She happily trotted along beside me before crossing Linwood Avenue without a care for oncoming traffic. Shocked I quickly wrapped my polar fleece around her to act as a makeshift collar. At this point my faith in humanity was restored as two cars pulled over to see if they could help! One lovely lady by the name of Kate (thank you if you read this!) dropped me at Linwood Service Centre where I could ring Dog Control.

Luckily for this dog, her owners had thought to have her micro chipped and it was with some relief  that Kerry the kind dog control officer could get her quickly home. There are three things I like to remember here:

1. Micro chipping is a cheap way to keep a track on your loved ones (pets that is);
2. When it counts the vast majority of people are very helpful;
3. People are not the only ones to get scared during aftershocks.

Christchurch City Libraries  has a huge array of information about all animals including dogs who wish to be loved and love. Give a pat to a friendly dog today for a rush of joy!

This wonderful book is a volume of selected writings by the late Michael King.  It shows his wide-ranging skills as a historian, cultural commentator, writer, thinker – someone with real insight into New Zealand culture.

The introduction by his daughter Rachael King, herself a brilliant writer, lets you know you are in for something special. She talks of:

Searching through a box by his desk one night, I came across several photocopies of an essay called ‘The Silence Beyond’. It began: ‘At the age of thirty I found out that my name was not my real name’.

This essay resonated with me. There was a similar revelation in my family when it was realised my grandmother didn’t have Swedish origins as we thought, but had been adopted and her ancestry was East End London Jewish. King shows that genealogy and family knowledge isn’t  a dry thing, it does opens up ‘the silence beyond’.

Amongst the eulogies and wise meditations, there is also a big  pulsing vein of humour. His anecdotes about the New Zealand literati are fantastic:

• He is in a rowdy group of students who wake up Charles Brasch. He gives them a thimble of sherry.
• Janet Frame buys a photocopier,  sticks it in the garage, it gets infested with ants and all her photocopied letters and manuscripts are speckled with squashed ants.
• Janet Frame:  Scrabble Star. She invents the word Silltits – “It’s what all those women in New York get when they spend all day leaning out of tenement windows and watching the action in the street”.
• Dan Davin – Starsky and Hutch fan.

In the past few years there have been many adult authors trying their hand at writing books for children and teens.  Just because they’re best-selling adult authors doesn’t always mean they will write best-selling (or even good) books for younger audiences.

Clive Cussler, for example, has written dozens of books for adults and is an author who is always on our best-seller lists. However, back in 2006, he released a book for children called The Adventures of Vin Fiz.  It was so condescending and old-fashioned that I gave up after a few pages.

John Grisham is another adult author who recently turned to Young Adult fiction, with his Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer books.  I haven’t tried it myself (I couldn’t bring myself to do so), but the reviews have been pretty bad all round.

There are equally as many adult authors who have written some amazing books for children and teens.

• John Connolly, author of the Charlie Parker mystery novels, is one of my favourite adult authors, and he recently turned to Young Adult novels.  His first YA novel, The Gates, is a darkly humorous book about a boy who discovers the gates of hell have opened in his neighbour’s house.
• My favourite author, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, author of The Shadow of the Wind, started his career with young adult novels (Prince of Mist, Midnight Palace), which have recently been translated into English.
• Thriller writer, Harlan Coben has just released his first Young Adult novel, Shelter, featuring Mickey Bolitar, the nephew of his adult protaganist, Myron Bolitar.  As all books should, it hooks you right from the very first sentence and leaves you longing for the next book.  You can read what I thought about Shelter in our cool new catalogue.

Should authors experiment or should they stick with what they’re good at?  What do you think?

Ngaio and Ray, even the names suggest a difference. These two completely different people have written fascinating accounts of growing up in Christchurch.

First Ngaio Marsh. Is anyone called Ngaio these days?  Queen of crime, she grew up in Christchurch, attended St Margaret’s College and lived here for a significant part of her life. As well as her international fame as a mystery writer she contributed to local cultural life with her passionate involvement in theatre and her support and advocacy for young acting talent.

Her biography, Black beech and honeydew, evokes an Edwardian childhood amongst the well off families of Fendalton and Cashmere. Gardens were large, ponies and tennis courts available, the Avon River a playground.

Ray Columbus on the other hand is a child of the 1940s, growing up in a large  family in working class Woolston. His book, The Modfather, describes  after school jobs and selling bottles to raise money for  a treat like going to the pictures ,   wearing homemade clothes and walking everywhere.

I’ve read and enjoyed both these books. Somehow when I think of Ngaio I think of hills and trees and green, when I think of Ray I think of the other Christchurch, hot and flat and hard edged with concrete.

Can anyone suggest any other autobiographies of growing up in Christchurch? Childhood memories of a place are special.

Spring is a great time to get enthused about your garden. Regardless of the size of your section, balcony or paddock we have load of gardening resources for you.

If your soil is still a bit cold for such things as tomatoes, you can start planning what goes where, and when to plant. Some frost-tender plants can be started in glasshouses, cloches or on your windowsill.

Vegetable gardens are very popular in spring. Start putting nutients in your soil now while you decide what to plant.

Before outdoor summer entertaining, you could renovate your courtyard or garden room, or make new garden furniture. How about garden sculptures?

Got no room? Container gardens  can thrive in a small space. Got loads of room? How about planting an orchard and  large trees and hedges.

Through the Source you can access Gardening, Landscape and Horticulture. A collection of more than 100 journals focused on key issues in gardening, landscaping, and other areas of horticulture. You can access it with your library card number and PIN.

Don’t have a PIN? Ask at one of our libraries or call us. PINs allow you to access your library account information and place holds on items through the online catalogue. Your PIN also gives you free access to  the Source — paid services the library subscribes to.

What are you growing this season? Any good tips to share?

“There is nothing new under the sun” my mother would say. In line with my mother’s wisdom let me introduce Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery Reference Center. This resource offers information on best practice based on previous experience of  disaster recovery from corporations, medical facilities, government agencies, and academic institutions throughout the world.  It covers:

• Business Continuity Management;
• Business Impact Analysis;
• Crisis Communications;
• Disaster Mitigation;
• Emergency Preparedness;
• Organizational Resiliency;
• Risk Evaluation;
• Strategic Planning.

Access this from home with your library card number and PIN through the Source or library catalogue and at our open community libraries.

The Bridge of Remembrance is one of Christchurch’s great landmarks – redolent of days of war, marching troops and tribute. Christchurch City Council reported recently that work will begin on securing it.

We have in our digitised collection a pamphlet Christchurch War Memorial: Bridge of Remembrance that explores the history and symbolic features of the Bridge of Remembrance. It explains the origins of the Bridge. The booklet contains extracts from the address of J. Wyn Irwin, of the Bridge of Remembrance Committee at the opening ceremony. It was officially opened by Viscount Jellicoe of Scapa, Armistice Day 11 November 1924.

The Memorial owes its origin to a letter written to the Press on July 24th, 1919, by a Christchurch lady, suggesting the appropriateness of erecting, over a site made sacred and historic by its association with the departure of the Canterbury troops, a beautiful memorial in the shape of a Stone Arch and Bridge, bearing the inscription, “Bridge of Remembrance.”

The pamphlet also details the layers of symbolism and meaning:

As a Bridge spanning the banks of the river it should remind us of
the brief span of human existence, and of the Great Beyond.

• Read our page on the Bridge of Remembrance
• View historic images of the Bridge of Remembrance in our collection
• Public Art in Central Christchurch: Bridge of Remembrance – information on the Bridge and its history from this publication locating and documenting publicly owned works of art in central Christchurch.
• Search the BiblioCommons catalogue for items about the Bridge of Remembrance