Favourite Children's Authors: Margaret Mahy

Margaret Mahy: The Haunting (1982)

My father had a strong interest in local New Zealand children's books. He collected them assiduously, even investing in such oddball series as the "Dr Duffer" books of ex-NZ Prime Minister Sir John Marshall. He was particularly pleased when Betty Gilderdale's history of NZ "junior fiction" appeared in 1982, and even tried sending her a list of titles she'd overlooked in her survey. I'm not sure if she responded or not. Authors aren't always as receptive as they should be to being corrected.

Betty Gilderdale: A Sea Change: 145 Years of New Zealand Junior Fiction (1982)

I, for my part, was way too toplofty back then to bother much with such matters. There were definite exceptions, though. I did follow up on my father's recommendation of Maurice Gee's 1979 children's book Under the Mountain, which I greatly enjoyed. I think I preferred Gee's Halfmen of O trilogy (1982-85), though. It still seems to me a major contribution to the genre.

More to the point, my father also bought a copy of Margaret Mahy's Carnegie Medal-winning YA novel The Haunting when it first came out, and I duly read that as well.

Kathryn Lynskey: Margaret Mahy (2011)

Margaret Mahy never came to our school, or a library near me, so I never got to see her in her rainbow-coloured wig. It's just as well, because I fear it might have put me off. As it was, my only sense of her was what was on the page. I really responded to the sense of supernatural darkness behind The Haunting. In fact, my only criticism was that it was far too short!

Margaret Mahy: The Changeover (1984)

She made up for that in her next novel, though. The Changeover remains one of my favourites among all her books. It didn't surprise me that it, too, won the Carnegie Medal, as it was manifestly better and more powerful than its predecessor.

Yvonne Mackay, dir.: The Haunting of Barney Palmer (1987)

Both books have been filmed. The Haunting for New Zealand TV in 1987; The Changeover more recently, in 2017. Both were a little disappointing. The first because of a limited budget and uninspired direction. The second is a more complex case. Despite a strong cast and good auspices, it somehow managed to fumble the charm and originality of the novel - perhaps because so many films and TV series have plundered not dissimilar territory in the forty years since the first appearance of Mahy's book.

Margaret Mahy: The Changeover (2017)

You'll gather from the bibliography at the foot of this post that YA novels were not the major component in Mahy's output. Her kids' picture books remain her principal claim to fame. She wrote an immense number of them, and they formed an important part of the upbringing of many, many children, both here and abroad.

Oddly enough, we weren't among them. We read a lot of such books as children - Richard Scarry and Maurice Sendak were among my particular favourites, as I recall. But somehow Margaret Mahy's books just passed us by. For me she's a YA Fantasy / SF author to be ranked alongside Maurice Gee and Elizabeth Knox here in New Zealand; and, internationally, with such writers as Joan Aiken, Susan Cooper, and Peter Dickinson - perhaps even Ursula Le Guin.

Margaret Mahy: The Tricksters (1986)

Her next major novel, The Tricksters, is in many ways her masterpiece. No-one's yet ventured to try and film it, and (speaking personally) I hope they never do. It's a multi-layered novel about the nature of human nature - if that phrase makes sense to you.

On the one hand it's a classic Kiwi yarn, set at a beachhouse, with something of the atmosphere of Mansfield's "At the Bay." On the other hand it's a supernatural ghost story, with talismans, split personalities, and constant, complex interplay between the two.

It's hard to describe - but not to appreciate. It might perhaps be a little too strong meat for some children: better just to think of it as one of New Zealand's greatest pieces of speculative fiction, fit for readers of any age.

Margaret Mahy: The Catalogue of the Universe (1985)

Not that there's anything wrong with its predecessor, The Catalogue of the Universe. Despite the SF-sounding title, it's actually a very moving bildungsroman about the ordinary perils of growing up. Mahy shows she's every bit as adept at conveying the pressures of everyday life as she is at grappling with revenants and other ghostly phenomena.

And so it went on. For the next quarter century or so, every few years another thoughtful, well-written YA novel would appear among the blizzard of picture books and personal appearances that dominated Mahy's public life. I make the total 16: 15 of which I own. Precise questions of definition make it difficult to establish just which titles can be said to belong to this category, however. There are certainly other books I could have included (and have duly listed in the bibliography below).

Here's my own attempt at a list:

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1. The Haunting (1982)

2. The Changeover: a Supernatural Romance (1984)

3. The Catalogue of the Universe (1985)

4. Aliens in the Family (1985)

5. The Tricksters (1986)

6. Memory (1987)

7. Dangerous Spaces (1991)

8. Underrunners (1992)

9. The Other Side of Silence (1995)

10. 24 hours (2000)

11. The Riddle of the Frozen Phantom (2001)

12. Alchemy (2002)

13. Maddigan's Fantasia (2005)

14. Kaitangata Twitch (2005)

15. Portable Ghosts (2006)

16. The Magician of Hoad (2008)

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Inevitably, some of them appealed to me more than others. What's really astonishing, though, is the extent to which she avoided sticking to a formula. Granted, most of the books have a central adolescent heroine, but otherwise what really distinguishes them is their immense inventiveness and the boldness with which she sought out new themes.

Dementia, homelessness, abuse and neglect of various kinds stand shoulder to shoulder throughout with the other haunted and abandoned rubble of the New Zealand past.

Margaret Mahy: Maddigan's Quest (2005)

The success of the novel Maddigan's Fantasia - and its TV spinoff Maddigan's Quest - promised for a moment to propel her into the world of such mega-bestsellers as the "Twilight" or "Hunger Games" books. But her next substantive novel, Kaitangata Twitch, returned to the - slightly disguised - Canterbury which was her favourite setting.

While probably a better book (not to mention a better TV series) than Maddigan's Quest, it lacked the immediate international appeal. In the end, quirkiness and close attention to her own location in space and time - the twin strengths of her work all along - prevailed. Margaret Mahy remains a resolutely New Zealand writer, despite her undoubted success abroad.

In any case, for those of you who've never read them - or who read them at school and have largely forgotten them - I think that this set of books is well worth visiting. In fact, as fashions come and go in the intensely competitive field of children's picture books, I can't help feeling that it's this extraordinary series of well-written, approachable YA novels which will prove her most durable legacy.

I suppose, in the end, only time will tell.

Kaitangata Twitch (2010)

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Christchurch City Libraries: Margaret Mahy (1936-2012)

Margaret Mahy
(1936-2012)

Novels:

The Pirate Uncle (1977)



1. The Pirate Uncle. Illustrated by Mary Dinsdale (1977)
2. The Haunting (1982)
   • The Haunting. London: J. M. Dent, 1982.
3. The Changeover: a Supernatural Romance (1984)
   • The Changeover: A Supernatural Romance. Auckland: Waiatarua Publishing Co., 1984.
4. The Catalogue of the Universe (1985)
   • The Catalogue of the Universe. London & Melbourne: J. M. Dent, 1985.
5. Aliens in the Family (1985)
   • Aliens in the Family. 1985. Auckland: Ashton Scholastic, 1990.
6. The Tricksters (1986)
   • The Tricksters. London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1986.
   • The Tricksters. 1986. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1988.
7. Memory (1987)
   • Memory. 1987. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1989.
8. Dangerous Spaces (1991)
   • Dangerous Spaces. 1991. Harmondsworth: Puffin, 1992.
9. Underrunners (1992)
   • Underrunners. London: Hamish Hamilton Ltd., 1992.
   • Underrunners. 1992. Harmondsworth: Puffin, 1994.
10. The Other Side of Silence (1995)
    • The Other Side of Silence. 1995. Harmondsworth: Puffin, 1997.
11. 24 hours. Illustrated by Margaret K. McElderry (2000)
    • Twenty-Four Hours. London: Collins, 2000.
12. The Riddle of the Frozen Phantom. Illustrated by Chris Mould (2001)
    • The Riddle of the Frozen Phantom. London: Collins, 2001.
13. Alchemy (2002)
    • Alchemy. London: CollinsFlamingo, 2002.
14. Maddigan's Fantasia [aka "Maddigan's Quest"] (2005)
    • Maddigan’s Quest. 2005. Auckland: HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Limited, 2006.
15. Kaitangata Twitch (2005)
    • Kaitangata Twitch. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 2005.
16. Portable Ghosts (2006)
17. The Magician of Hoad (2008)
    • The Magician of Hoad. Auckland: HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Limited, 2008.

Picture Books:

A Lion in the Meadow (1969)



18. The Wind Beneath the Stars [School Journal, 3: 3]. Illustrated by Jill McDonald (1966)
19. A Lion in the Meadow. Illustrated by Jenny Williams (1969)
    • A Lion in the Meadow. Rev. ed. Illustrated by Jenny Williams (1986)
20. The Dragon of an Ordinary Family. Illustrated by Helen Oxenbury (1969)
    • The Dragon of an Ordinary Family. Rev. ed. Illustrated by Helen Oxenbury (1991)
21. Pillycock's Shop. Illustrated by Carol Barker (1969)
22. The Procession. Illustrated by Charles Mozley (1969)
23. Mrs Discombobulous. Illustrated by Jan Brychta (1969)
24. The Little Witch. Illustrated by Charles Mozley (1970)
25. Sailor Jack and the 20 Orphans. Illustrated by Robert Bartelt (1970)
26. The Princess and the Clown. Illustrated by Carol Barker (1971)
27. The Boy with Two Shadows. Illustrated by Jenny Williams (1971)
    • The Boy with Two Shadows. Rev. ed. Illustrated by Jenny Williams (1987)
28. Seventeen Kings and 42 Elephants. Illustrated by Charles Mozley (1972)
    • 17 Kings and 42 Elephants. Rev. ed. Illustrated by Patricia MacCarthy (1987)
29. The Man Whose Mother was a Pirate. Illustrated by Brian Froud (1972)
    • The Man Whose Mother Was a Pirate. Rev. ed. Illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain (1985)
30. The First Margaret Mahy Story Book [aka "Wonderful Me!" (2000)]. Illustrated by Shirley Hughes (1972)
31. The Railway Engine and the Hairy Brigands. Illustrated by Brian Froud (1973)
32. The Second Margaret Mahy Story Book [aka "Wait for Me!", 2003]. Illustrated by Shirley Hughes (1973)
33. The Bus Under the Leaves. Illustrated by Margery Gill (1974)
34. Clancy's Cabin. Illustrated by Trevor Stubley (1974)
35. Rooms for Rent [aka "Rooms to Let"]. Illustrated by Jenny Williams (1974)
36. The Rare Spotted Birthday Party. Illustrated by Belinda Lyon (1974)
37. The Witch in the Cherry Tree. Illustrated by Jenny Williams (1974)
38. Stepmother. Illustrated by Terry Burton (1974)
39. Ultra-violet Catastrophe or, The Unexpected Walk with Great-Uncle Magnus Pringle. Illustrated by Brian Froud (1975)
40. Leaf Magic. Illustrated by Jenny Williams (1975)
41. The Third Margaret Mahy Story Book [aka 'Watch Me!', 2004]. Illustrated by Shirley Hughes (1975)
42. The Great Millionaire Kidnap. Illustrated by Jan Brychta (1975)
43. The Boy Who Was Followed Home. Illustrated by Steven Kellogg (1975)
44. New Zealand: Yesterday and Today. Illustrated by Franklin Watts (1975)
45. The Wind Between the Stars. Illustrated by Brian Froud (1976)
46. David's Witch Doctor. Illustrated by Jim Russell (1976)
47. A Lion in the Meadow and Five Other Favourites. Illustrated by Jenny Williams, Robert Bartelt, Jan Brychta, Charles Mozley, Brian Froud & Molly Lovejoy (1976)
    • The Little Witch and Five Other Favourites. Illustrated by Jenny Williams et al. (1987)
48. Look under 'V'. Illustrated by Deirdre Gardiner (1977)
49. The Great Piratical Rumbustification & The Librarian and the Robbers. Illustrated by Quentin Blake (1978)
50. Dry Days for Climbing George. Illustrated by Judith Trevalyn (1978)
51. Nonstop Nonsense. Illustrated by Quentin Blake (1979)
52. Raging Robots and Unruly Uncles. Illustrated by Peter Stevenson (1981)
53. The Chewing-gum Rescue and Other Stories. Illustrated by Jan Ormerod (1982)
54. Brrm Brrm!. Illustrated by Bob Kirk (1982)
55. The Crocodile's Christmas Jandals. Illustrated by Deirdre Gardiner (1982)
56. [with Joy Cowley & June Melser] Roly-Poly. Illustrated by Deirdre Gardiner (1982)
57. [with Joy Cowley & June Melser] Cooking Pot. Illustrated by Deirdre Gardiner (1982)
58. [with Joy Cowley & June Melser] Fast and Funny. Illustrated by Lynette Vondrusha (1982)
59. [with Joy Cowley & June Melser] Sing to the Moon. Illustrated by Isabel Lowe (1982)
60. [with Joy Cowley & June Melser] Tiddalik. Illustrated by Philip Webb (1982)
61. The Pirates' Mixed-up Voyage: Dark Doings in the Thousand Islands. Illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain (1983)
62. A Crocodile in the Library. Illustrated by Deirdre Gardiner (1982)
63. Mrs Bubble's Baby. Illustrated by Diane Perham (1982)
64. The Bubbling Crocodile. Illustrated by Deirdre Gardiner (1982)
65. Shopping with a Crocodile. Illustrated by Deirdre Gardiner (1982)
66. The Birthday Burglar & A Very Wicked Headmistress. Illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain (1984)
67. Leaf Magic and Five Other Favourites. Illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain (1984)
68. Fantail, Fantail. Illustrated by Bruce Phillips (1984)
69. Going to the Beach. Illustrated by Dick Frizzell (1984)
70. The Great Grumbler and the Wonder Tree. Illustrated by Diane Perham (1984)
71. The Dragon's Birthday. Illustrated by Philip Webb (1984)
72. The Spider in the Shower. Illustrated by Rodney McRae (1984)
73. Ups and Downs and Other Stories. Illustrated by Philip Webb (1984)
74. Wibble Wobble and Other Stories (1984)
75. Jam: A True Story. Illustrated by Helen Craig (1985)
76. Horrakopotchin. Illustrated by Fiona Kelly (1985)
77. The Adventures of a Kite. Illustrated by David Cowe (1985)
78. The Cake. Illustrated by David Cowe (1985)
79. The Catten. Illustrated by Jo Davies (1985)
80. Clever Hamburger. Illustrated by Rodney McRae (1985)
81. A Very Happy Birthday. Illustrated by Elizabeth Fuller (1985)
82. The Earthquake. Illustrated by Dianne Perham (1985)
83. Sophie's Singing Mother. Illustrated by Jo Davies (1985)
84. Out in the Big Wild World. Illustrated by Rodney McRae (1985)
85. Rain. Illustrated by Elizabeth Fuller (1985)
86. My Wonderful Aunt. 4 vols. Illustrated by Deirdre Gardiner (1986)
87. The Downhill Crocodile Whizz and Other Stories. Illustrated by Ian Newsham (1986)
88. Mahy Magic: A Collection of the Most Magical Stories from the Margaret Mahy Story Books [aka "The Boy Who Bounced and Other Magic Tales"]. Illustrated by Shirley Hughes (1986)
89. Arguments. Illustrated by Kevin Hawley (1986)
90. Beautiful Pig (1986)
91. The Fight on the Hill. Illustrated by Jan va der Voo (1986)
92. An Elephant in the House. Illustrated by Elizabeth Fuller (1986)
93. Jacko, the Junk Shop Man. Illustrated by Jo Davies (1986)
94. The Long Grass of Tumbledown Road. Illustrated by Elizabeth Fuller (1986)
95. The Mouse Wedding. Illustrated by Elizabeth Fuller (1986)
96. Mr Rooster's Dilemma [aka "How Mr Rooster Didn't Get Married"]. Illustrated by Elizabeth Fuller (1986)
97. The Robber Pig and Green Eggs. Illustrated by Rodney McRae (1986)
98. The Robber Pig and the Ginger Beer. Illustrated by Rodney McRae (1986)
99. Squeak in the Gate. Illustrated by Jo Davies (1986)
100. Tinny Tiny Tinker. Illustrated by David Cowe (1986)
101. Baby's Breakfast. Illustrated by Madeline Beasley (1986)
102. Feeling Funny. Illustrated by Rodney McRae (1986)
103. The Garden Party. Illustrated by Rodney McRae (1986)
104. Mr Rumfit. Illustrated by Nick Price (1986)
105. Muppy's Ball. Illustrated by Jan van der Voo (1986)
106. The New House Villain. Illustrated by Elizabeth Fuller (1986)
107. A Pet to the Vet. Illustrated by Philip Webb (1986)
108. The Pop Group. Illustrated by Madeline Beasley (1986)
109. The Man Who Enjoyed Grumbling. Illustrated by Wendy Hodder (1986)
110. Tai Taylor is Born. Illustrated by Nick Price (1986)
111. Tai Taylor Goes to School. Illustrated by Nick Price (1986)
112. Tai Taylor and His Education. Illustrated by Nick Price (1986)
113. Tai Taylor and the Sweet Annie. Illustrated by Nick Price (1986)
114. The Terrible Topsy-Turvey, Tissy-Tossy Tangle. Illustrated by Vickie Smillie-McItoull (1986)
115. The Tree Doctor. Illustrated by Wendy Hodder (1986)
116. Trouble on the Bus. Illustrated by Wendy Hodder (1986)
117. The Trouble with Heathrow. Illustrated by Rodney McRae (1986)
118. The Funny Funny Clown Face. Illustrated by Miranda Whitford (1986)
119. [with others] The Three Wishes. Illustrated by Rodney McRae et al. (1986)
120. The Horrible Story and Others [aka "Chocolate Porridge and Other Stories", 1989]. Illustrated by Shirley Hughes (1987)
121. The Haunting of Miss Cardamom. Illustrated by Korky Paul (1987)
122. Guinea Pig Grass. Illustrated by Kelvin Hawley (1987)
123. Iris La Bonga and the Helpful Taxi Driver. Illustrated by Vickie Smillie-McItoull (1987)
124. The Man Who Walked on His Hands. Illustrated by Martin Bailey (1987)
125. No Dinner for Sally. Illustrated by John Tarlton (1987)
126. The Mad Puppet. Illustrated by Jon Davis (1987)
127. The Girl Who Washed in Moonlight. Illustrated by Robyn Belton (1987)
128. The King's Jokes. Illustrated by Val Biro (1987)
129. The Door in the Air and Other Stories. Illustrated by Diana Catchpole (1988)
     • The Door in the Air and Other Stories. Illustrated by Diana Catchpole. 1988. Harmondsworth: Puffin, 1990.
130. When the King Rides By. Illustrated by Bettina Ogden (1988)
131. The Baby-sitter. Illustrated by Bryan Pollard (1988)
132. As Luck Would Have It. Illustrated by Deirdre Gardiner (1988)
133. A Not-so-quiet Evening. Illustrated by Glenda Jones (1988)
134. Sarah, the Bear and the Kangaroo. Illustrated by Elizabeth Fuller (1988)
135. The Blood-and-thunder Adventure on Hurricane Peak. Illustrated by Wendy Smith (1989)
136. The Great White Man-Eating Shark: A Cautionary Tale. Illustrated by Jonathan Allen (1989)
137. The Tin Can Band and Other Poems. Illustrated by Honey de Lacey (1989)
138. Trouble in the Supermarket. Illustrated by Trish Hill (1989)
139. The Seven Chinese Brothers. Illustrated by Jean and Mou-sien Tseng (1990)
140. Making friends. Illustrated by Wendy Smith (1990)
141. The Pumpkin Man and the Crafty Creeper. Illustrated by Helen Craig (1990)
142. Crocodile Crocodlie. Illustrated by Celia Canning (1991)
143. The Litte Round Husband. Illustrated by Val Biro (1991)
144. White Elephants. Illustrated by John Bendell-Brunello (1991)
145. The Solar System [aka "What is the Solar System", 1999]. Illustrated by Jeff Fowler (1991)
146. Bubble Trouble and Other Poems and Stories. Illustrated by Tony Ross (1991)
147. Keeping House. Illustrated by Wendy Smith (1991)
148. The Queen's Goat. Illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark (1991)
149. The Dentist's Promise. Illustrated by Wendy Smith (1991)
150. A Tall Story and Other Tales. Illustrated by Jan Nesbitt (1991)
151. Giant Soup (1991)
152. The Horrendous Hullabaloo. Illustrated by Patricia MacCarthy (1992)
153. The Girl With the Green Ear: Stories about Magic in Nature. Illustrated by Shirley Hughes (1992)
154. The Fiddle and the Gun: A Margaret Mahy Collection. Illustrated by Elizabeth Fuller et al. (1992)
155. [with Jean Fritz, Katherine Paterson and others] The World in Fourteen Ninety-Two. Illustrated by Stefano Vitale (1992)
156. Cousins Quarter series. Illustrated by John Farman:
     1. The Good Fortunes Gang (1993)
     2. A Fortunate Name (1993)
     3. A Fortune Branches Out (1994)
     4. Tangled Fortunes (1994)
157. The Three-legged Cat. Illustrated by Jonathan Allen (1993)
158. A Busy Day for a Good Grandmother. Illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain (1993)
159. Tick Tock Tales: Stories to Read Around the Clock. Illustrated by Wendy Smith (1993)
160. The Greatest Show Off Earth. Illustrated by Wendy Smith (1994)
161. The Rattlebang Picnic. Illustrated by Steven Kellogg (1994)
162. The Christmas Tree Tangle. Illustrated by Anthony Kerins (1994)
163. The Dragon's Telephone. Illustrated by Christine Ross (1994)
164. Shock Forest and Other Stories. White Wolves Series (1994)
165. Mr Mossop's Table. Various illustrators (1994)
166. The Big Black Bulging Bump. Illustrated by Robert Staermose (1995)
167. Tingleberries, Tuckertubs and Telephones: a Tale of Love and Ice-cream. Illustrated by Robert Staermose (1995)
168. Cobwebs, Elephants and Stars. Illustrated by Val Biro (1995)
169. The Greatest Binnie in the World. Illustrated by Michael Martchenko (1995)
170. The Five Sisters. Illustrated by Patricia MacCarthy (1996)
171. Boom, Baby, Boom, Boom!. Illustrated by Patricia MacCarthy (1996)
172. Beaten by a Balloon. Illustrated by Jonathan Allen (1996)
173. Operation Terror. Illustrated by Ron Tiner (1997)
174. The Horribly Haunted School. Illustrated by Robert Staermose (1997)
175. A Summery Saturday Morning. Illustrated by Selina Young (1998)
176. [with Susan Cooper, Uri Orlev and others] Don't read this! and Other Tales of the Unnatural. Illustrated by Thé Tjong-Khing (1998)
177. Off to the Shop. Photographs by Mary Walker (2002)
178. A Villain's Night Out. Illustrated by Harry Horse (1999)
179. Simply Delicious!. Illustrated by Jonathan Allen (1999)
180. Down in the Dump with Dinsmore. Illustrated by Stephen Axelsen (1999)
181. Down the Dragon's Tongue. Illustrated by Patricia MacCarthy (2000)
182. [with others] Storylines: The Anthology. Ed. Tessa Duder (2000)
183. Mischief and Mayhem: Two Margaret Mahy Fantasies. Illustrated by Helen Bacon (2001)
184. Dashing Dog. Illustrated by Sarah Garland (2002)
185. The Great Car Clean-out. Illustrated by Philip Webb (2002)
186. The Gargling Gorilla. Illustrated by Tony Ross (2003)
187. [with others] Kids Night In! Ed. Jessiac Adams, Juliet Partridge & Nick Earls (2003)
188. Me and My Dog. Illustrated by Philip Webb (2002)
189. Zerelda's Horses. Illustrated by Gabriella Klepatski (2005)
190. Down the Back of the Chair. Illustrated by Polly Dunbar (2006)
191. Family Surprises. Illustrated by Lyn Kriegler (2006)
192. Bubble Trouble. Illustrated by Polly Dunbar (2008)
193. Awesome Aotearoa: Margaret Mahy's History of New Zealand. Illustrated by Trace Hodgson (2009)
194. The Dark Blue 100-ride Bus Ticket (2009)
195. The Word Witch: the Magical Verse of Margaret Mahy. Ed. Tessa Duder. Illustrated by David Elliot (2009)
196. Organ Music (2010)
197. The Moon and Farmer McPhee. Illustrated by David Elliot (2010)
198. The Margaret Mahy Treasury: Eleven Favourite Stories from the Marvellous Margaret Mahy (2011)
199. Footsteps Through the Fog. Illustrated by Gavin Bishop (2012)
200. The Green Bath. Illustrated by Steven Kellogg (2013)
201. Tale of a tail. Illustrated by Tony Ross (2014)

Non-fiction:

A Dissolving Ghost (2000)



202. Surprising Moments. Inaugural Margaret Mahy Award Lecture (1991)
203. My Mysterious World. Photographs by David Alexander (1995)
204. Questions Kids Ask Margaret Mahy (1996)
205. A Dissolving Ghost: Essays and More (2000)
     • A Dissolving Ghost: Essays and More. Wellington: Victoria University Press, 2000.

Theatre:

The Library at the End of the World (1990)



206. [libretto] The Library at the End of the World. Music by Dorothy Buchanan (1990)

Television:

Typhon's People (1993)



207. [writer] Woolly Valley (1982)
208. [writer] Cuckoo Land (1986)
209. [writer] The Haunting of Barney Palmer, dir. Yvonne Mackay [based on Margaret Mahy's The Haunting (1984)] - Alexis Banas, Ned Beatty & Eleanor Gibson - (NZ, 1987)
210. [original author] Aliens in the Family (1987)
211. [original author] Dramarama: "The Horrible Story" (1987)
212. [original author] Playbus: "The Princess and the Clown" & "Thunderstorms and Rainbows" (1988)
213. [writer] Strangers (1989)
214. [writer] Typhon's People (1993)
215. [original author] The Magical World of Margaret Mahy (1994)
216. [subject] Made in New Zealand – Margaret Mahy (2004 )
217. [writer] Maddigan's Quest (2005)
218. [subject] A Tall Long Faced Tale (2008)
219. [original author] Kaitangata Twitch (2010)

Cinema:

The Changeover (2017)



220. The Changeover, dir. & writ. Miranda Harcourt & Stuart McKenzie [based on Margaret Mahy's The Changeover (1984)] - with Timothy Spall, Melanie Lynskey, Lucy Lawless, Nicholas Galitzine & Erana James - (NZ, 2017)

Secondary:

Margaret Mahy: A Writer’s Life (2005)



221. Duder, Tessa. Margaret Mahy: A Writer’s Life: A Literary Portrait of New Zealand’s Best-Loved Children’s Author. Auckland: HarperCollins, 2005.
222. Mahy, Bridget. "The bridge builder: my mother Margaret Mahy." The Spinoff (28/6/2025)

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Christchurch City Libraries: The Margaret Mahy Collection

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Islomanes (3): Elizabeth Knox's Mortal Fire

Elizabeth Knox: Mortal Fire (2013)

People often accuse me of taking a perverse angle on the texts I write about. I recall composing an essay on Angela Carter's wonderful novel The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman which was devoted almost entirely to the question of whether or not the book was set in South America.

Angela Carter: The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman (1972)

This essay (eventually) formed part of my Doctoral thesis, and I recall my supervisor, Colin Manlove, saying two things in response to it:

1. What a wonderful book!
2. What a bizarre and reductionist approach to take to it!

In a sense I agreed with him, but given the thesis was about the various imaginative spins European writers had put on their own pet images of an increasingly imaginary continent they called 'South America,' the emphasis did seem an inevitable one. And it did allow me, contextually, to say a lot of other things about the novel as well.

Elizabeth Knox: Black Oxen (2001)

Elizabeth Knox has already written her own Latin American epos, Black Oxen. In this post, though, I'll be continuing my reflections on Southland, her close-cousin-to-New-Zealand, albeit in a parallel time-line, mainly because she wrote another book set there, Mortal Fire, a few years after completing the Dreamhunter Duet.

I began my previous post on the subject with a quote, as follows:

Southland is a landmass without a native people, so there are not songs or legends for us to consult.

This statement is not so much contradicted, as supplemented, towards the end of this new excursion to Southland, Mortal Fire:

'University isn't for us, eh.'
Jonno said ... 'If I get the job I'll be the first person from my family to go north in five hundred years.'
Jonno's 'five hundred years' made Canny forgive his 'not for us' remark. 'I love it that you can say that,' she said.
'You know, we all read your brother's book.'
'Your family?'
'Nope. All of us.'
He meant the Faesu, the people of the archipelago, Southland's first people, who had twice settled, and twice abandoned, the mainland. [412]

The 'book' mentioned here is by Canny's brother Sholto - a restatement of his undergraduate essay about Southland, which I quote from further down. For the moment, though, let's just look at Knox's map of that 'mainland' again:

Elizabeth Knox: Southland (2013)

It seems, then, that Southland did once have an indigenous race, who 'twice settled, and twice abandoned' their lands. Why, one is tempted to ask? To clear them for white settlement?

Quite a few new parts of Southland's history are filled in in this new book, in various not too unsubtle versions of the old 'So tell me Professor, what did happen in the ...?' 'Well, my boy, I'm glad you asked me that. It was in the early -- hundreds that ...' trope so beloved of genre novelists generally.

Here's one example:

Ghislain took a breath and began: 'The Zarenes were one of the five Elprun families who ended their long wandering in Southland. The island of Elprus was destroyed by a volcanic eruption in - do you know this?'
'1715.'
'And the people of Elprus arrived in Southland?'
'1730. I'm good at dates. Sholto is always telling me snootily that history isn't all dates.'
'No, it's currants and raisins too.' [270]

Mortal Fire is yet another of Knox's magical tales, based on yet another of the five Elprun families who caused all the trouble in Dreamhunter. Then it was the Haims; this time it's the Zarenes. The common feature in their magic, though, is the fact that it all stems in one way or another from the powerful supernatural forces unleashed by the raising of Lazarus in the New Testament.

Christ's raising of Lazarus (12th-13th century CE)

I was actually asked to review Knox's book when it first came out, in 2013. It was frustrating to have so little space to discuss it, so I had to content myself with a few generalities on that occasion, but I do hope that I was able to make it clear just how much I admired the skill with which she managed her narrative, as well-populated with ideas as it was with people:

There was a time when I used to wait eagerly for each new Young Adult novel by Margaret Mahy. Starting with The Haunting in 1982, she had an extraordinary run of success in this very exigent genre. Come to think of it, there was a time before that when I used to read Maurice Gee’s Halfmen of O series with something of the same feelings of fascination and awe.

I don’t know what Elizabeth Knox’s future plans include (perhaps she doesn’t either), but I have to say that I would be very sorry indeed if she stopped publishing teenage fantasy novels such as Mortal Fire (and its predecessors, the Dreamhunter Duet, also set in her imaginary republic of Southland). I don’t think it’s any exaggeration to say that her books are every bit as good as Mahy’s and Gee’s, but with an extra edge and sophistication belonging solely to her.

That’s not to say that Mortal Fire is easy to read. In fact, there were moments in the first couple of chapters where I found it quite hard to assimilate the sheer weight of information she throws at her reader. Once the story really gets going, though, with Canny Mochrie and her step-brother Sholto’s arrival in the Zarene valley, any such obstacles melt away. This is not a book which could ever be exhausted on one run-through, though.

For myself, I like a bit of a tussle with ethical responsibilities in the dreamworlds of fantasy, and Mortal Fire does not disappoint in this respect. It’s hard to imagine any other New Zealand writer so adroitly mixing a plotline based on the Pike River Mine disaster into the rest of her narrative (though I suppose one might have anticipated it from her use of the Cave Creek disaster in her previous adult fantasy novel Daylight).

Southland is a useful palimpsest for Knox: a new land which can be overlaid with just enough of the actual history of New Zealand to make it relevant to the specific aspects of our culture she wants to examine, but which is also “fictional” enough to combine them with the powerful symbolic realms of magic which interest her just as much.

She does, after all, at the end of the day, have the central duty of constructing an interesting story. And this one adds race and class prejudice to the starker issues of crime and punishment from the Dreamhunter Duet. It’s worth emphasising, though, that this novel can be read and enjoyed without any knowledge of the earlier books. It is, after all, set fifty years after the events in those stories, referred to only in passing towards the end of Mortal Fire.

- Jack Ross: "Wearing their ethics on their sleeves." NZ Books: A Quarterly Review vol. 23, no. 3, issue 103 (Spring 2013): 16-17.

NZ Books 103 (Spring 2013)

I'm sorry that it's taken me this long to get round to saying some more about that 'useful palimpsest' - Knox's choice of:

a new land which can be overlaid with just enough of the actual history of New Zealand to make it relevant to the specific aspects of our culture she wants to examine, but which is also 'fictional' enough to combine them with the powerful symbolic realms of magic which interest her just as much.

One advantage of the wait, however, is that she's now made her own statement about the novel, on her author's website, which is also where I borrowed the map of Southland (above) from:

Grant Maiden: Elizabeth Knox

David Larsen, interviewing me for The Listener, wanted to know why I’d set the book in 1959. It’s a big decision with a huge input into the flavour of the book, but it was one I came to kind of expediently – although very happily. I’d decided one of the defining characteristics of my protagonist, Canny, was that she had a mother who was a heroine. And that Sisema was the kind of heroine who becomes more celebrated as time goes on, because her story is one that her Nation’s identity is forming around. I decided that this would work best if Sisema was a war hero. That immediately led me to World War Two and a Pacific island occupied by Japan. I’m not going to tell Sisema’s war story here, but this decision gave me a possible date for Canny’s birth. I wanted to write about a sixteen-year-old, and my addition gave me the year 1959. To my amused exasperation one mostly very positive review on Goodreads worries that Canny sounds “young for her age compared to US teenagers I know”. Perhaps – the reviewer writes – that’s because she comes from this New Zealand-like place and maybe teens grow up slower there. And I’m reading this and going like, “Um – it’s 1959.”

Beekeeping. I wanted to set my story in a pastoral paradise. The Zarene Valley is kind of based on valleys now beneath Lake Dunstan. Those now-drowned valleys circa 1981, when I was down there with my sister and some friends (touring about in a 1957 Plymouth station wagon). Back then there were no vineyards, and more kiwi holidaymakers than tourists. 1981 is pretty much equidistant from 1959 and 2013, but it was more like 1959. Also I felt that I was in some ways writing the book for my editor, Frances Foster. I was thinking of her as a first reader. And I remembered how, when I met Frances at the Disney Convention Centre in 2008, when I was there for the American Library Association Conference, she told me about being a child visiting her grandparents’ farm in Anaheim, back before Disneyland bought up all the land. I remember her description of the pastoral paradise now under the theme park and hotels and highways. So – old Anaheim, and the apricot orchards under Lake Dunstan, are what made the Zarene Valley.

- Elizabeth Knox: "Letting in the Ghosts: Why certain things are in Mortal Fire." Elizabeth Knox: Author's Website (c. June 2013)

Lake Dunstan (2018)

I think that I might have guessed that detail about the lost orchards around Cromwell, along with that still contentious dam on the Clutha river, but for the most part I'm struck by how sedulously she sticks to personal details, and how little she gives away about the larger questions behind the novel ...

Why, for instance, has Southland now been supplied with a native race, and even an island protectorates off in the Pacific?

Cyrus said to Sholto, 'But she's not your sister, is she?'
'She's my stepsister.'
Canny's mother is Sisema Afa,' Susan said. 'The war hero.'
'So she's not a Southlander?'
The young man looked irritated. 'The Shackles are a protectorate of Southland.'
Cyrus thought, 'Any minute now he'll accuse me of bigotry.'
'Shackle islanders have citizenship,' Sholto went on, then added, 'whether you like it or not.'
Cyrus laughed. 'I didn't mean any offense. I was only curious. I hope my amateur curiosity is acceptable to you, as opposed to your professional one.' [213]

Margaret Mahy: Kaitangata Twitch (2005)

It's interesting, too, that Knox should choose to employ a brown-skinned rather than a white-skinned heroine this time - a little like the TV producers of Margaret Mahy's Kaitangata Twist, who changed its originally white heroine for a Māori Meredith instead.

Margaret Mahy: Kaitangata Twitch (2010)

That may sound like mere tokenism, but I have to say that the substitution immediately made better sense of Mahy's story - and it's now hard to imagine the narrative any other way. The TV Meredith's motivation is far easier to understand than that of her novelistic counterpart.

Is the same true of Knox's narrative? It's hard to say. I do feel that she must have feared some co-option of her stories by 'Celtic New Zealand' fanatics if she didn't acknowledge this gap in the first two novels - so seized the opportunity to elaborate creatively on the larger Oceanic context of her imaginary island in this way. After all, any version of New Zealand without Māori is a little difficult to justify ...

'Yes,' Sholto said. He knew that the [Lazuli] dam was first planned in the mid-1920s. If it had been built it would have flooded the Zarene Valley and drowned all the orchards. The plans were shelved after the stock market crash, resurrected in 1938, and shelved again when Southland went to war in 1941. [179]

Why, too, did Southland go to war in 1941 rather than in 1939? The rest of the dates here sound reasonably compatible with those in our own 'real' world. Presumably it must have been because Southland is a republic, not a monarchy, and therefore affiliates more naturally with the United States than the United Kingdom.

Calvary was the only sizable town on the Shackle Island chain ... The Shackle Islands produced sugar and, lately, copper. The islands were peopled by their original inhabitants, the Ma'eu; by the descendants of cane cutters brought to the island by blackbirders in the late eighteenth century; and by the descendants of colonial settlers, most of whom had originally come from Southland. [49]

The Pacific paradise of the Shackle Islands has experienced far less of a 'fatal impact' than the real Polynesian islands on which it's presumably based, but I suppose the essence of a parallel time-stream is that you can alter the dates of events, and thus alter their consequences.

Elizabeth Knox: Dreamhunter (2005)

Perhaps the most vital change is expressed by Canny's would-be-historian brother Sholto, in his own overarching theory of Southland:

'He was a dreamhunter!' said Sholto.
'Ranger,' said the barber. 'He was making photographic landmark maps for the Dream Regulatory Body.'
The silence of loss came into the room.
As an undergraduate Sholto had once tried to write an essay about this. The Professor said that it was very interesting, but was Sholto trying to invent a new kind of history? One without historical references and facts? Sholto's essay argued something like this: Southland was a big country, with a population that was sufficiently large but not too large; with industry and a wealth of minerals, with scientifically developed agriculture, good roads, and rail, three deepwater harbors, some fine universities - so why wasn't it more of a player on the world stage? Sholto's answer to his essay's question was that Southlanders were in a sense a sad and defeated people. They were people who had once lived in a beautiful house, which had burned down ... Southlanders had had something irreplaceable - the Place, a mysterious territory where some could go and catch dreams that they could perform for others - they had that miraculous thing, and they lost it.
[183-84]

Michael Grimshaw: Believing in 'New Zealand': The South Island Myth revisited (2016)

Am I wrong to hear in this thesis of Sholto's about the 'silence of loss' in Southland culture a distant echo of such portentous 'whither Aotearoa?' essays as Monte Holcroft's The Waiting Hills (1943) or even, perhaps more plausibly, Bill Pearson's classic 'Fretful Sleepers' (1952)?

Paul Millar: No Fretful Sleeper (2010)

Some sense of isolation is inevitable, some detachment and discrimination, but that is the occupational hazard of every artists and especially of the novelist who must always be, so long as there are conflicts within his society, something of a spy in enemy territory. The thing to avoid is developing one’s isolation because that way lies desiccation, etiolation, clique-writing that will get yellow in manuscript and deserve to. Emigration is no solution, even for the novelist or dramatist to whom ideas are more important than sense-impressions. There is stimulation at first, a sense of expansion – but in England the artist’s loneliness that we have known longer is beginning to be felt, and publishing, because of rearmament and American stockpiling of paper, is getting costly and difficult, and liberties of thought are slipping away too. But after the stimulation you will dry up: you can neither feel completely at home in your adopted country, not enough to write deeply of it, nor can you write of your own country except through a mist of nostalgia and unappeased resentments. We New Zealanders have far less in common with the English middle classes than we may think and at best they will patronize us and emasculate us. We could no more lose our national habits if we were to try, than we could, if we wanted to, disguise our kiwi twang. Our accent stands out a mile and the time will come when so does the accent of our literature, but not before we have a social system that makes possible the meaningful liberation of the talents and energies of the common people. Until then there is hard work to be done, there are quiet mortifications to be suffered, humiliations and misunderstandings to be put up with, and yet one will meet a lot of cheerfulness to ease the effort.

Bill Pearson: Fretful Sleepers and Other Essays (1974)

We're doomed to be Kiwis, in other words - so we'd better get used to it, and try to do a good job.

To conclude, then, what is Elizabeth Knox's 'Southland' trilogy really about? Many things, certainly - state oppression; the responsibilities underlying fantasy, the free flow of the imagination; class; families, magic; bees; ice-cream ... There are lovely evocations of her mirror versions of actual New Zealand cities - Castlereagh / Wellington, for instance:

Castlereagh was all hills, ridges around the harbor, and steep-sided valleys where the desirable houses were built up high to catch either the morning or the afternoon sun. Much of the inner city dated from the time when cars were rare, so roads were narrow and steep and many lacked footpaths. Instead there were dozens of ... official and unofficial shortcuts, steps and paths, some with safety rails, some without. The citizens of Castlereagh had strong hearts and big calf muscles. [34]

Predictably, Founderston / Auckland is rather further from the reality of our own garish Big Smoke.

Unlike Elizabeth Knox, Austin Tappan Wright did not live to write any sequels to his own vision of Islandia in the mid-1900s. This deficiency was partially made up for, however, by the editor of his novel, Mark Saxton:

There are also three sequels/prequels ... Reviewers describe these books as entertaining and self-contained. The prequels concern events that are mentioned briefly in the original novel, and are likely based on Wright's unpublished notes. All three books were published with the permission of Wright's estate. Sylvia Wright, Wright's daughter and the executrix of the estate, died shortly before the third Saxton book was completed, and there have been no additional books since.

• The Islar, Islandia Today - A Narrative of Lang III. Published in 1969, this book is set in the then-present day. The plot concerns a coup attempt in Islandia that occurs while the national government is debating whether to join the United Nations. The protagonist, as indicated in the title, is John Lang's grandson.
• The Two Kingdoms, published in 1979, is a prequel set in the 14th century. The plot concerns the events surrounding the reign of the only female ruler in Islandian history, and the dynastic change that ensued from this.
• Havoc in Islandia, published in 1982, is yet another prequel, set in the 12th century. The Roman Catholic Church attempts to overthrow the government of Islandia, and, having failed, is itself expelled from the country (parallel to the expulsion of Christians from Japan).

Athanasius Kircher: Mundus Subterraneus (1669))

It must be very difficult to leave behind any imaginary kingdom so fully formed as these two are (as Plato must have discovered, when he kept on returning to his original inspiration in the successive, not really fully consistent, dialogues Timaeus, Critias and the unfinished Hermocrates).

J. R. R Tolkien, too, at one point in his unending struggles with the unfinished (unfinishable?) Silmarilion, started to draft a sequel to the Lord of the Rings where the rebellious youth of Gondor had developed a fashion of dressing up as Orcs and fetishising the vanished Dark Lord, rather like the skinheads and Neo-Nazis of his own time.

Elizabeth Knox: The Absolute Book (2019)

I haven't been privileged (this time) to see an advance copy of Knox's new novel, The Absolute Book, due out from VUP in September this year, but judging from the blurb description of it as:

a book of journeys and returns, set in London, Norfolk, and the Wye Valley; in Auckland, New Zealand; in the Island of Apples and Summer Road of the Sidhe; at Hell’s Gate; in the Tacit with its tombs; and in the hospitals and train stations of Purgatory.

it's pretty safe to say that she's managed to break free of her own island paradise - for now, at least - though possibly at the expense of an even more perilous sojourn in the Forbidden Realms of Faerie.

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