Recent necrology, January/February 2012

A list of notable people who have died recently including the “French bombshell”, Mills and Boon’s most prolific author and the Irish actor David Kelly whom you might remember from Waking Ned Devine and other classics.

Our catalogue will help you revisit or get to know the work of all these people.

• Gilbert Adair, 1944-2011
  Critic, screenwriter and fervent Francophile who complained that ‘everyone is now a film buff’
• Kenneth R. Andrews, 1921-2012
  Historian who thought Drake more corsair than hero, but reckoned privateering central to English success
• Eve Arnold, 1913-2012
  Photographer who immortalised Marilyn Monroe but whose subjects transcended mere celebrity
• Martin Barriball, 1929-2012
  Well known NZ photographer
• Maurice Casey, 1923-2012
  Former Court of Appeal judge
• Emmanuel Cooper, 1938-2012
  Distinguished and distinctive British potter whose work mixed purity of form with often luminous colour
• Denise Darcel, 1924-2011
  Actress known as the ‘French Bombshell’ who played the vamp in a series of post-war Hollywood films
• M.R.D. Foot, 1919-2012
  Historian who braved the minefield of official secrets to write the authorised account of SOE
• John Gage, 1938-2012
  Art historian and authority on Turner who transformed the understanding of colour in Western painting
• Reginald Hill, 1936-2012
  Author of cerebral and labyrinthine crime novels best known for his series about Dalziel and Pascoe
• Penny Jordan, 1946-2011
  Mills & Boon’s most prolific novelist who churned out the romances in her socks
• David Kelly, 1929-2012
  Irish stage and screen actor
• Charla Krupp, 1953-2012
  Popular author-commentator
• James Riordan, 1936-2012
  Author of children’s books and formerly a translator in Russia
• Josef Škvorecky
  Czech writer who chose exile in Canada, from where he published the dissident authors of his homeland
• Nicol Williamson, 1938-2011
  Actor whose genius was fettered by a prickly temperament that barred his path to greatness
• Jeffrey Zaslow, 1958-2012
  American author and journalist and a columnist for The Wall Street journal

Growing local: take a leaf from New Zealand books

I have a tiny, tiny garden, most of which is devoted to growing food. However, when we bought our small property, I was determined to have some native plantings as well. Now, nearly five years later, home-grown cabbage trees, pittosporum, kowhai and flaxes fill a corner too shady for vege, and we’ve squeezed a line of corokia in alongside the drive, thanks to the advice of Trees for Canterbury. I was struck (sorry for the pun) by how easy it is to grow many native plants, either from seed or from cuttings, and Growing gardens for free by New Zealand author Geoff Bryant is now my propagation bible.

A healthy population of insects now make their undisturbed homes in my microscopic little patch of native bush and last year, for the first time since I moved in, I saw waxeyes and fantails. (At first all I encountered in the initially lawn-filled garden were sparrows and blackbirds.) It’s such a little planting but I was amazed by how quickly even this had a noticeable effect on my garden’s ecology. Imagine if we all just planted a little corner of natives: we could create a green corridor for so many creatures across out garden city. If you’re keen and seeking like minds, there are many individuals and organisations working towards greening Christchurch/Otautahi, and you can find out about them on CINCH, our community information database.

The library has many good books on planting native plants in your garden – why not celebrate New Zealand book month by leafing (sorry again!) through a few?