On Monday evening, I was on Twitter
enjoying some Te Reo discussions. Tweets began to filter through that Margaret Mahy had died. They were tentative and probing tweets as people tried to discover if it was true. Her Wikipedia article had date of death added, Whitcoulls had a Facebook post, but many of us were eager to believe it was a hoax or misinformation.
But when Bookman Beattie posted R.I.P. Margaret Mahy 21 March 1936 – 23 July 2012 the librarians and journalists amongst us realised it was true. Gutted. We were gutted. I didn’t go to bed until much later – after a lot of emotional online sharing.
Monday had been a big day. Our new Central Library Tuam opened. Our wonderful and popular South Library closed after its seismic capacity was evaluated at less than 34 percent of the New Building Standard (NBS).
Margaret had of course been our Children’s Librarian – a Kiwi character, ardent library supporter and a peerless imaginative writer. A huge huge loss.
On Tuesday I donned a fuzzy wig in tribute to Margaret. It was her thing to wear the fro, or a costume – and I wanted to do a wee tribute. My daughter tried to wrestle it off me in the morning. No-one on the bus batted an eye. Librarians (many who had worked with Margaret) enjoyed my getup and shared their Mahy memories. We went wiggy online too – decorating our avatars on Twitter and Facebook.
On the bus home, a gent said “I love the look”. I said “Do you know what it’s about?”. He said “Oh yes, I saw you the other day dressed as a gargoyle”. Seemed to me a Mahy moment.
We loved you Margaret. And we’re so lucky to have your words still. Arohanui.
Explore our Margaret Mahy resources:
- Our Margaret Mahy pages. We have added a selection of the tributes and obituaries to the More information page.
- Read Down the back of the chair and The Word-Eater (set in our own Central Library, with cool illustrations from Bob Kerr).
- Margaret Mahy books and more in our collection.
- Images on Flickr.
Christchurch City Libraries Blog 
I saw you getting off your bus, crossing the exchange and heading to work – You left me with a Mahy inspired smile that did not leave my face all day. I had the pleasure of meeting the woman herself just once but it is a memory i’ll treasure for the rest of my life. Storylines family day 2008 – she sat and signed autographs for a huge line of kids & wouldn’t stop signing until each and every book, flyer or scrap of paper had her monkier etched into it. In my book, she draw a cat, one book i’ll never part with.
Arohanui.
Emma
Kia ora Emma, thanks for that & the lovely story – must be super cool to have a book with something special from her in it.
What a wonderful tribute to a great Lady.
Well done.
Kia Kaha
Emma, I had the same experience. Margaret was such a generous woman and she treated her adult fans exactly the same as the child ones. Her death is devastating for us all. My heartfelt condolences to Penny and Bridget and their families; they’ve lost someone very precious to them.
I will probably part with most of my Mahy books eventually (I just need to be able to get them in epub format first!) but that particular one will always remain with me.
Thank you, Margaret, for all the pleasure you gave me over the years.
Thanks for a wonderful blog full of memories. My children loved her books and I loved reading them to them, so rhyme-y and fun-sy! She will be missed by people world wide
A lovely tribute Donna, with you and the wig I feel Margaret is walking amongst us!
truly impressed by the wig Donna!