Canterbury heroes: Picturing Canterbury

Angus Tait, Margaret Mahy and Elsie Locke: Canterbury Heroes.

• Thinking images
• More local pictures on the blog
• Browse our image collection

 

The word-eater by Margaret Mahy: Picturing Canterbury

The word-eater written by Margaret Mahy, illustrated by Bob Kerr. This story and illustrations were first displayed as a ‘big book’ in the children’s section of the Central Library during Christchurch’s Books and Beyond Festival in 1998. Margaret Mahy set the story in and around the library. Bob Kerr painted the pictures during the time the book was on display.

• Our Margaret Mahy pages
• Margaret Mahy images and articles on DigitalNZ
• More local pictures on the blog
• New Zealand Book Month images
• Browse our image collection

 

Remembrance of festivals past

In the city of memories it’s hard to resist looking back. When was the first Christchurch Writers Festival I attended? I used to have a full collection of programmes so I could have checked, but not any more.

It was certainly held in the Arts Centre in the winter, because I remember the fire burning in the Great Hall. There have been so many great writers over the years; who stands out? In a quietly powerful  New Zealand way Noel Virtue and Beryl Fletcher. In a “hairs standing up on the back of your neck I can’t believe what I’m seeing here” sort of way Tusiata Avia. In a “this guy wrote a book that was made into a movie by Steven Spielberg” way Tom Keneally.

Margaret Mahy, mesmerising on the stage and asking the most amazing questions from the floor.  And Don McGlashan with the Seven Sisters in the Town Hall.

Enough looking back, it’s time for some new memories and not long to wait for The Press Christchurch Writers Festival 2012. On my most likely to be memorable list are Emily Perkins, John Lanchester, Chris Cleave, Michael Smythe, Joanne Drayton.

Who am I kidding? I’m looking forward to all the writers. I’ll be at every session humanly possible. I won’t be in a Great or a Town Hall, but in two years’ time I might be blogging about how the Geo Dome was the most memorable of all.

What memories do you have of past writers festivals? And who are you looking forward to this time?

 

Things to do on Saturday 11 August: Stories, markets and art

On Saturday 11 August, New Zealand will be doing a Margaret Mahy nationwide read. The storytimes will take place at 11am. Come along and listen to librarians read Margaret’s stories at:

• Fendalton Library
• Lyttelton Library
• Central Library Peterborough
• Central Library Tuam
• New Brighton Library
• Upper Riccarton Library

In Barbadoes Street the Christchurch Youth Market will be launched. You can check out the stalls, be entertained, and also have a look at the new 298 Youth Health Centre in the Barbadoes Youth Hub.

Wander down then to the NG Gallery on Madras Street, recently home to Michael Parekowhai’s Steinway and Bulls. Now it is hosting Christchurch Art Gallery’s Out of Place:

Tilting a panoramic view until it dissolves, constructing furnishings with which to tackle the new normal, turning a room inside out and revealing a city that is reinventing itself before our eyes – four artists start with structure and examine what is possible when the rules no longer apply. Featuring works by Katharina Jaeger, Chris Pole, Tim J. Veling and Charlotte Watson.

Your Saturday could be sorted.

 

Goodbye Margaret

Being a reluctant learner at school, I never had a lot of time for reading. I definitely wasn’t a fan of books with chapters. My parents were probably disgusted, especially as Dad was a librarian and Mum a primary school teacher. I hated reading with a passion, and once even tried sending my brother up to the teacher to do mine for me.

However, a fond memory I do have is one day I was sitting in my primary school classroom when a sparkly, spirited Margaret Mahy arrived wearing a rainbow coloured wig. This wonderful appearance naturally made me interested. Mahy’s fantastic, bubbly, character and amazing narrative won me over. Unlike most adults, she knew how to enter the world of children which made her truly unique.

A great picture book is multifaceted, complemented by illustrations and appeals to adults as much as they do children. Mahy’s books such as A Lion in the Meadow, The Man Whose Mother was a Pirate and The Spider in the Shower illustrate her wonderful imagination. Children can put themselves in the shoes of the characters in these stories.

Sitting at Margaret’s farewell, in Hagley Park Geo Dome, it did occur to me how important it is that teachers, parents and caregivers try to understand what is going on in the world of children. Sometimes, the story itself isn’t enough, it is how it is told. As the service went on with renowned New Zealand literary greats, such as Tessa Duder, Rosie Belton, Gavin Bishop and Kate De Goldi paying homage to this wonderful New Zealander, I loved the fact a little girl came back and forth to pat the guide dog of an attendee, you could hear children playing and birds chirping in Hagley Park and oddly enough I had a ladybird fly into the Dome and settle on me. I think Margaret would love knowing this occurred.

Mahy’s books will continue to be cherished by future generations of children nationally and internationally and no doubt reprinted. Check out her wonderful collection at Christchurch City Libraries. Interestingly, this reluctant reader is now a trained librarian.

Rest in peace Margaret, you will never be forgotten.

Brendon

 

Celebrating Margaret Mahy’s life

Yesterday we joined the hundreds-strong crowd in the Hagley Park Geo Dome to celebrate the life and work of author Margaret Mahy.

Louise Deans hosted the occasion.

Author and longtime friend Tessa Duder gave a lovely speech about Margaret Mahy, her family and origins, her life and career, and the magic of her writing. She ended with a poem that Margaret dashed off on an airplane sick bag on her way to a speaking engagement. It was a beautiful piece about growing old and seizing the light out of life (and she was only 37 when she wrote it).

One of the most moving parts of the tribute was hearing Margaret’s lovely granddaughters speak, sharing memories as well as snippets of Margaret’s words. Imagine having  a Nana like that, outdoing all the kids in her partying prowess, dancing the can can in the school car park.

Friend, neighbour and author Rosie Belton conveyed beautifully Margaret’s love of her environment in Governors Bay. She spoke of how the earthquakes affected the community. Apparently none of Margaret’s books fell off her bookshelf as they were so tightly packed. Rosie also mentioned the prescience of Kaitangata Twitch with its allusion to the harbour twitching and shrugging the people off its back. Margaret thought it required a certain fatalism to manage in the quaking times.

Lorain Day, Margaret’s editor for ten years, spoke of her work with Margaret. The words that were most important to Margaret were “real” and “true”. She was delighted with hearing a child say “That was a very Margaret Mahy word”. Lorain finished with the lines:

Do you know about the Word Witch? Has she cast her spell over you? She can lasso with a limerick, haunt with a haiku and wrap you tight in a rhyme, quick as lightning. Her cauldron is a dictionary, her wand a mighty pen, and she stirs her words at midnight, making tempting treats for children, to please and tease and tantalise them with imaginary treasures and delectable dreams. She weaves words into adventures, sets verses wildly dancing, makes similes sing and stamp their feet and poems purr like pussycats who’ve eaten all the cream. Her name is Margaret Mahy. These are her spells.

Gavin Bishop, who has illustrated Margaret’s upcoming book Mr Whistler, was dubbed by Margaret “A Sicilian in a Savile Row suit”. He read a piece from The Pirates’ Mixed-Up Voyage and had the crowd roaring. The idea of a pirate teashop suddenly loose on the seven seas, and the crew having to learn to read at a literary academy was silly. Brilliantly silly.

We got to see a neat video version of Down the back of the chair with Margaret reading to her twin granddaughters.

A children’s choir sang a medley of Margaret’s words.

Our own librarians Sue Colyer and Louise Easter spoke of working with Margaret. Sue said:

and the mother never ever made up a story again – This last line of A lion in the meadow  – must be one of the most ironic endings in children’s literature  for Margaret was a mother who made up stories for the rest of her life …  However today we want to talk briefly about her library career. I worked with Margaret at the School Library Service office in Christchurch, in the 1970s where she was in charge of services to primary schools throughout Canterbury …

During this time Margaret was becoming established as a published author, writing by night, shooting over the hills from Governors Bay in her mini to work at the library by day and bringing up Bridget and  Penny, who were always welcome visitors to the library.  Despite this she was always fun, immensely cheerful and greatly loved by her colleagues; morning and afternoon tea conversations were a delight.

Louise said:

I discovered this wonderful librarian who would take it as part of her duties to enliven that first hour of the day which was spent shelving the returned books. Margaret would sing sea shanties often with a little sailor’s hornpipe to set the scene and recite long ballads and poems – the Rime of the Ancient Mariner being one of the shorter ones.

She would encourage us to talk about the books we were reading and to develop a critical analysis of children’s literature and it was really through her that I developed my own passion for children’s literature.

Talking to colleagues, who worked with her over the years, all remember with great fondness her sense of fun and mischievousness, her generosity with her time and advice as well as her encyclopaedic knowledge of all manner of things. She would often surprise one with discussions on scientific topics she had read about in the New Scientist. She continued to enliven staff morning and afternoon teas and a colleague remembers her leaping onto a table and reciting Chaucer in Old English to illustrate a point.

Margaret left the Library in 1980 to write full time but continued to come back to the Library for special events generously sharing her time always interested in what was happening to people and especially what we were reading.

In all the lovely tributes were common threads:

• Margaret was humble, always had time for people. And kids and dogs were always her special friends.
• She loved to read, and had an insatiable need to write. Margaret would often be up to dawn writing.
• Her imagination and flair with language were boundless.
• She had a strong enduring love for her family.
• We were so lucky to have had her. Really lucky.

Haere ra Margaret.

• TV3′s coverage of the service
• TVNZ’s coverage

 

Haere ra Margaret Mahy

Just spotted in Central Library Tuam – Louise Easter and Sue Colyer in their rainbow wigs. They will be speaking at Margaret Mahy’s memorial service at the Geo Dome in Hagley Park at 2pm today (Wednesday 1 August).

Arohanui.

 

Walking in Margaret Mahy’s wig

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.

 

Although the label on the hair shampoo said Paris…

After being unable to choose just one favourite New Zealand writer, I’ve been pondering my favourite New Zealand book, somehow a slightly easier task as one book immediately came to mind.

The changeover by Margaret Mahy is the one. I first came across it while working at home machining sheepskin slippers; Sharon Crosbie and the National Programme kept me sane.

One day the regular morning reading began with the lines “Although the label on the hair shampoo said Paris…” and I was hooked. I can’t remember who the reader was, but The changeover set me off on one of the best journeys I have ever taken with an author.

So of course I went to the library,  got it out, read it, loved it even more, bought my own copy, studied it at University without coming to loathe it, and still think about it sometimes.

Although I have read all of Margaret Mahy’s books now, The changeover is still my favourite, I’m not sure why. It might be the steadfast love Laura Chant shows for her little brother Jacko, it might be the romance with Sorensen (Sorry – best name ever, probably a blessing I did not have a son) Carlisle, it might be the way the adults are real too, not just the teenagers.

What’s your favourite New Zealand book ?

 

Dance and sing with The Moon and Farmer McPhee

To celebrate the release of Margaret Mahy and David Elliot’s beautiful new book,  The Moon and Farmer McPhee, we are having a special farm themed Storytime this Thursday, 25 November at Central Library from 10:30-11am.

Come along for stories, rhymes, music and a chance to win a copy of the book.