Remembering
Margaret Mahy was the title of a symposium held in Wellington on 22 September,
bringing together a roomful of academics, writers and readers to talk
about and celebrate Margaret’s stories, poems, novels and film scripts.
Tessa Duder set the scene with
a summary of Margaret’s life and achievements, from the early years
when she would often stay up writing until nearly dawn. Later in the day
she was sometimes known to fall asleep over her library filing
cards, and thoughtful colleagues would quietly re-check her filing in the
afternoon.
Kay
Hancock gave a fascinating glimpse of some of the many titles Margaret
wrote for the Ready to Read series,
and Dr Vivien Van Rij followed this with a talk on her work for the School Journal. As a contributor to
both series, I loved these two talks and the way they
highlighted Margaret’s fabulous work in this area. Books such as Fantail,
fantail or The
bubbling crocodile would be
a delight for any child to read, with their mix of charm, humour,
clever rhythm and rhyme, rich language, appealing
characters and warm family situations. I especially liked the
cheerful, impulsive Crocodile who is enchanted by the foamy soap bubbles: “The
Crocodile is a great lover of beauty,” wrote Margaret.
Dave
Gibson, from Gibson Group, said
that working with Margaret was one of the fondest memories
of his professional life. He kept us entertained
with film clips from Cuckoo Land (featuring
the singing, dancing IRD men and the wonderful Library
Recovery team), as well as slightly spooked with The haunting of Barney Palmer and the rather creepy Typhon’s People (here on NZ On Screen: http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/the-haunting-of-barney-palmer-1986
and http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/typhons-people-1993)
Harry
Ricketts then introduced two writers who each spoke from a
personal perspective: Eirlys Hunter as a parent who had read and reread
Margaret’s picture books to her children, and James Norcliffe as a near
neighbour and grateful recipient – as many other writers were -
of Margaret’s legendary kindness and generosity.
After
lunch, a number of other speakers focused on Margaret’s writing process
and her YA novels. Finally Dr
Anna Jackson introduced Elizabeth Knox, who ended the day
in style with a fine address on The other side of silence.
Thanks to the English
Department at Victoria University for organising such a great event.
Philippa Werry
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