Antarctic Journeys Philippa Werry

Antarctic Journeys (2019)

Philippa Werry

New Holland

Paperback, 104 pages

NZ$25

ISBN  98 1 86966 499 2

Ignore the less than inspiring cover. Antarctic Journeys is a good book, ideal for introducing young readers to the Southern Continent.  Readable and well-illustrated, it conveys the grandeur and isolation of the Antarctic experience.

The theme of journeys works well. Philippa Werry begins with the journeys of the ‘heroic age’ of exploration, including several less well-known figures, such as de Gerlache, Borchgrevink and Shirase. Then she gives a completely different perspective by describing the various roles women have played in Antarctica. As well as scientists, the ‘Today’s Journeys’ segment also includes those who help preserve the historic structures.

“Antarctica is the only continent where the first structures built by humans are still standing.”

The complex issues surrounding visits by tourists and the changing climate are also discussed. Animal journeys introduce the area’s wildlife, ranging in size from krill to whale. Readers will learn about everything from the threat of king crabs to the easiest way to count penguins. (Happy Feet is here too.) Visiting animals include ships’ cats (Mrs Chippy) sledge dogs (Osman) and Scott’s luckless ponies.

I’ve always been fascinated by the South Pole. I grew up close to the spot above Port Chalmers where Kathleen Scott stood to wave farewell to the Terra Nova expedition (now marked by an elegant memorial). At school we often did projects on Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen, although my personal favourite was always Douglas Mawson. I was more deeply moved by the pony shooting sequence in the 1948 film Scott of the Antarctic than by John Mill’s death scene. I stood at Taieri Airport and watched the heavily-laden Operation Deep Freeze Globemasters and Constellations lurch into the air, with their jato (jet-assisted-take-off) bottles roaring. I relished Peter McIntyre’s display of his Antarctic paintings in Dunedin.

Now that I live in Christchurch I have easy access to the Antarctic Centre with its penguins and Canterbury Museum’s Antarctic display with Hillary’s tractor and a shiny-nosed bust of Amundsen.

I was even lucky enough to be shown through the headquarters of Antarctica NZ and see their stores of cold weather gear and the stunning artworks of the creative people who are chosen to visit and reflect on the Southern Continent. There are painters, poets and even dancers. Some of the best quotes in the book come from Margaret ‘Skidoo’ Mahy.

Philippa Werry (who has at least 15 books in print) was certainly an excellent person to send to Antarctica. She has the historian’s eye and the novelist’s ear. She’s also good with a camera. (You can read Philippa Werry’s diary of her time in Antarctica on:  

http://kiwikids2antarctica.blogspot.com/)

Antarctic Journeys not only gave me a fine burst of nostalgia; it also brought me up to date with the daily rounds of the amazing range of people who work there.   It is good on the routines of everyday life at McMurdo Sound and gives a vivid insight into how Antarctica fascinates all those who go there.

It will also fascinate anyone who reads this book.

Trevor Agnew

12 July 2019

Armistice Day: The New Zealand Story Philippa Werry

Armistice Day: The New Zealand Story (2016)

Philippa Werry, New Holland,
Paperback, NZ$25
ISBN:  978 1 86966 441 1

When the Unknown Warrior was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey in 1920, the guests invited to the ceremony included “women who have lost a husband and sons or an only son, women who have lost all or only sons,” war widows, and “20 nurses and 100 men who had been wounded or blinded in the war.” Such a catalogue of heartbreak reflects the way that the Great War affected families all around the world. The day that war came to a halt, November 11^th, has been a day of commemoration ever since.

Just as she has done in her popular accounts of Anzac Day and the Treaty of Waitangi, Philippa Werry has assembled a superb range of insights, memories, documents and illustrations into her account of how we have marked the anniversary ever since that day in 1918 when peace broke out. While civilian crowds danced in the streets from Paris to Wellington, the soldiers at the front greeted the news of the armistice more calmly. “We marched back to our quarters, a rather quiet and subdued body of men. Somehow excited outbursts of feeling seemed out of place,” recalled a Canterbury soldier.

Werry also describes the terrible Influenza Epidemic which swept the world even as the war ended, killing untold millions and adding to the misery. She also gives a good account of the New Zealand troops who formed part of the Allied Occupational Force in the Rhineland, providing pictures and a map. My grandfather was one of them and his visit to Cologne Cathedral was one of the high points of his life. Another high point for him was marrying a Scottish nurse, and Werry provides fascinating details of how the thousands of Kiwi servicemen were sent home through 1919 and 1920, many of them with wives and some with children.

Werry has a flair for answering questions that we should have thought of. How were the disabled servicemen cared for? What became of the enemy prisoners-of-war? When and how did mourning families learn the fate of men missing in action? How were the war cemeteries created and maintained? How was the end of the war celebrated? What sorts of memorials were created?  All these questions are skilfully answered. Werry also outlines of ways that have been found to commemorate the Great War, and the development of peace memorials as well as the peacekeeping role.

 Above all this book connects readers with the ways that Armistice Day has been marked over the years since 1918, offering young readers a wide range of suggestions of activities they can take part in. The Index, Glossary, Timeline, Websites and Further Reading List add to the usefulness of this powerful and moving book.

Trevor Agnew

April 2016

 

    

A Trans-Tasman Picture Book Round-up 2014

A Trans-Tasman Picture Book Round-up 2014

 

By Trevor Agnew

 

Incy Wincy Spider ill by Karen Erasmus (2014) Lothian, NZ$20

Doggy Ditties from A-Z  Jo van Dam, ill. Myles Lawford (2014) Scholastic NZ, $19.50

Pigs Might Fly  Brett Avison, ill. Janine Dawson (2014) Five Mile Press, $24.95

Mrs Mo's Monster by Paul Beavis (2014) Gecko, pb NZ 19.99 [hb NZ$34.99]

Blackie the Fisher cat by Janet Pereira, ill. Gabriella Klepatski, (2014) Craig Potton Publishing, Nelson NZ,  NZ$19.99 [hb NZ$29.99]

Best Mates by Philippa Werry, ill. Bob Kerr (2014) New Holland, NZ$19.99

 Trans-Tasman Picture Book Round-Up

  There have been many good illustrated versions of children’s rhymes published recently. Unfortunately Incy Wincy Spider is not one of them.  The author, who has wisely remained anonymous, has expanded the rhyme so that the luckless spider encounters disaster in every part of the house. Since this is an Australian book, a toilet seat encounter is included. It would all be harmless fun, like Karen Erasmus’s illustrations, but the writer has a tin ear and many of the clunky lines lack the rhythm of the original.  

“The Incy Wincy Spider climbed up the sandcastle wall.
The Kids started to dig and the castle walls did fall.”
This disappointing book is not good enough for children.
 

Jo van Dam’s rhymes in Doggy Ditties from A-Z are much better. Avoiding any suggestion of doggerel, she has created 26 droll verses about various canine breeds from Attenpinscher to Zuchon.  There is even an X for the Xoloitzcuintlil (Mexican Hairless):

“This unusual hairless dog walks round in the nude.
If it were a person, we would think it rather rude.”
The witty rhymes – some of them limericks – also deal with more familiar dogs, including the Boxer, Fox Terrier, Labrador and Great Dane, with a great deal of doggy nibbling, dribbling and digging.
Myles Lawford’s illustrations capture the personalities of the various dogs in his lively colour illustrations.

Pigs Might Fly by Aussie writer Brett Avison (author of A Bigger Digger) carries its plot in its title. When the farm is flooded, most of the animals are driven off to high ground but Ted and Bryn are trapped. They hope to escape in the farm’s microlight aircraft but then find that six piglets and a hen still have to be rescued.  Bryn’s very funny solution provides an amusing ending with a witty pop-up illustration. Avison’s verse has funny rhymes and his tale moves as fast as the flood-waters, while Janine Dawson’s colour pictures capture the droll chaos of the farm evacuation.

Mrs Mo's Monster, written and illustrated by Paul Beavis, a New Zealand website designer, is a marvellous read-aloud book for parents and grandparents. Mrs Mo’s home is rudely invaded by a monster which leaves a trail of destruction.
“I am a monster and what I do
is crunch, munch and chew,”
Mrs Mo subtly diverts the unruly monster into cake-making and preparing a surprise for Mr Mo. Young readers (or listeners) will enjoy the fun, even as the crafty parable gives them a subtle lesson in the importance of manners. Beavis’s illustrations are bold and full of impact, while the text is skilfully designed with dramatic bold lettering for the enjoyably noisy bits.

Blackie the Fisher Cat is a charming illustrated tale by Janet Pereira about Grandpop’s remarkable fishing holiday. As shown in Gabriella Klepatski’s atmospheric colour illustrations, Grandpop takes his caravan to a motor camp on the coast. When he goes out fishing, a stray black cat accompanies him, leading him to the best spot and accepting fish livers as his share of the day’s catch. Grandpop enjoys the cat’s company and is sorry to leave him behind at the motor camp. The cat, however, has a surprise in store for Grandpop. This is a sweet story that independent readers will enjoy.

Like Blackie the Fisher Cat, Philippa Werry’s Best Mates is a New Zealand book. Three boys from the West Coast, Harry Joe and the un-named narrator are the ‘best mates’ of the title, playing together, attending school together and joining the army together in 1914.  Bob Kerr’s meticulously-researched colour illustrations show the three pals embarking for their great adventure, visiting the Pyramids, training in Egypt, then sailing from Lemnos and landing at Gallipoli. “Harry, Joe and I stuck together. We cooked together and ate together. We shared the same trench. Everyone knew we were mates.” In simple unsentimental prose, the story of Gallipoli unfolds with its grim trench warfare, extremes of temperature, privations and illness. Tragedy strikes for the trio, with the death of Harry. “The chaplain had to be quick because of the snipers.” The story continues with the recognition of defeat and the evacuation of the peninsula. “Our feet were muffled in cloths. We didn’t cough or talk or even whisper.” Best Mates doesn’t end with this defeat.  The survivors return to civilian life and raise families but are always wistfully aware of the absence of their ‘best mate.’  Decades later, as old men, they return to Anzac Cove and visit the New Zealand graveyard. ‘He was in a big cemetery with hundreds of other Anzacs…It was still far away but now it felt as if he was among friends.

Bob Kerr’s illustrations are as spare and graceful as Werry’s prose. One double-spread illustration shows soldiers digging two trenches with pick and shovel, rifles close at hand. It is only at second glance that it becomes clear that the soldiers in one trench are Anzacs while in the other they are Turkish. 

Best Mates is a moving picture book, with a fictional tale that rings true, and which brings to life a key event in our national history.
 

Trevor Agnew

Note: This review originally appeared Your Weekend magazine (Fairfax NZ) in such newspapers as The Press and Dominion Post on 23 August 2014