DAVID HILL - A PROFILE (2017)

 

DAVID  HILL - A PROFILE

By Trevor Agnew

First published in
Magpies Magazine, May 2017
 Dusted off to celebrate David Hill's 
84th Birthday in June 2026:

 John McIntyre’s recent Newsletter from The Children’s Bookshop at Kilbirnie, mentions “the growing number of children’s authors well past retirement age still pumping out stories.” He notes Jack Lasenby (85), Maurice Gee (85) and Joy Cowley (80) and then points out that “David Hill is in his mid-70s and his recent history-themed fiction is among his very best work.”

 The youngest of that quartet of silver-haired literary lions, David Hill, has no illusions about the public perception of the elderly.  In his novel Sinking (2013) he makes young Conrad say that, “George is really old, about 65, maybe.” That would make George about six years younger than David at the time.

As a society, we tend to undervalue the aged (which was one of the themes of Sinking) but David Hill’s achievements as a writer are remarkable because of the consistently high quality of his written work, whether as journalist, columnist, author, reviewer or playwright.

  By my rough tally, David Hill has written more than fifty books for young adults. He was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature in 2004. He has a cupboard-ful of awards, including the Esther Glen Award (twice), the Gaelyn Gordon Award, the Margaret Mahy Lecture Award, and the Silver Quill award (for See Ya Simon). Coming Back was selected for The White Ravens International Youth Library Stand at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. His novel My Brother’s War won the NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults for Best Young Adult Fiction, while, last year, his picture book First to the Top won the Non-Fiction Award.

 

So his 75^th year, and the 25^th anniversary of his first novel, seemed a good time to ask David Hill to reflect on his long writing career.

 His response was typically generous and funny. “Hi, Trevor, I’ve washed the car and done some of my bloody Income Tax return, so I’ll turn with relief to answering some of your questions.”

 Most authors, when asked the chestnut about ‘where you get your ideas from,’ admit to being influenced by episodes from their childhood and adolescence. Anyone who has read The River Runs or Journey to Tangiwai will realise that Napier and Hawkes Bay occupy an important section of David Hill’s memory banks.

 

“Yes, I was born in Napier, and we lived on the hill in a dilapidated, old, rented house till I was 15. My parents were saving for their own house – that golden vision of the post-World War II years.  I remember the determination of their saving: the vegetable garden; the use of firewood cut with friends so they didn’t have to spend on heaters, and the darning and sewing to avoid buying new clothes. I found them irritating as a teenager; now I recognise and respect them, and they’ve given me wonderful material for stories.”

 Those raised in or around Napier are constantly reminded of the effects of the 1931 Hawkes Bay Earthquake, which severely damaged the area. David, born there in 1942, is no exception.

 “My Mum had indeed been in a farmhouse which was wrecked by the 1931 Hawkes Bay earthquake, and she told me numerous stories about it, which I’ve pillaged subsequently. It also made me realise the potential in other such dramas, so I’ve written quite a lot about river crossings, train wrecks, frightening climbs, and near-drownings. The precariousness of human life is such a powerful source of material.”

   David Hill began school at Napier Central Primary School (which he has immortalised in several articles and stories) followed by Napier Intermediate and Napier Boys’ High School. Peter’s first day at Napier Boys’ High in Journey to Tangiwai reflects David’s memories, “I put on my uniform: light-coloured khaki shorts, roman sandals, NBHS school cap…The older ones all wore their caps pushed back on their heads, so Tom and I did the same.”

 

David Hill agrees that recognition of past events or objects can create a bond between writer and reader, particularly memories of school.

“Funnily enough, these schools I went to come a lot into the adult fiction I write. I’ve done a lot of short stories for radio and magazines, plus various feature articles. Adults (of course) love reading about the times of their youth, so I exploit this.”

  When asked about his youthful self, David Hill is typically self- deprecating and uses such words as small, timid, shy, lazy, and awkward. He even used alliteration when he told an early biographer, Tom Fitzgibbon: “I was short, stout and stammering.” He found that being overlooked was a bonus for his future career.  “I was the kid in class whom people didn’t notice much, which turned out to be brilliant for a writer – I could watch them instead.”

 “I was a socially inept teenager, and that turned out to be SO valuable for me as a writer, because my memories of shyness, awkwardness, and the desperate wish to be cool and popular remain, as do the strategies and lies I used to try and promote myself. Wonderful material.”

 

As well as being an enthusiastic writer from an early age, David Hill was also an enthusiastic reader. Although he is an admirer of the writing of Margaret Mahy, Joy Cowley and Maurice Gee, asking him about other favourite writers is wasted effort.

    “I was an omnivorous and undirected reader for years; I gulped and swallowed and read for entertainment. Realistic adventures appealed most. I’m a real disappointment, in the sense that NO one author inspired me – indeed, I’m hard pressed to remember titles or names. But early on, I got into the HABIT of reading, and it remains a great solace and charge.

I love Virginia Woolf’s description of a group of people arriving at the Pearly Gates. St Peter looks at them, and says, “Oh, you’re readers. Come straight in.”

 At Victoria University in Wellington, David graduated with MA (Hons) and says that, to his surprise, he found that literature was fascinating. And useful.

 “After four years’ study, I was saturated in the cadences, images, vocabulary and topics of great writers. I still draw on them, for a phrase, a rhythm, or an image. It was a wonderful training. So was high school teaching, which I did and enjoyed for 15 years, in various parts of New Zealand, and in the United Kingdom for two years. (I taught Princess Margaret’s two kids!)  The need to communicate in a manner which was acceptable and interesting to teenagers, (along with the classroom events, anecdotes and personalities) still offers material for me to use as a writer.”

 David Hill was a teacher’s teacher.  As a rural high school teacher in the 1970s and 80s, I took pleasure in reading his book reviews and articles, and using his text books, such as Introducing Maurice Gee and On Poetry.

  “I found great pleasure and emotional satisfaction in teaching high school English. To see kids moved by stories; to watch them silent and enthralled as I told them the story of Beowulf, or to realise the girls were crying at the end of Romeo and Juliet, and the boys were stirred and moved by Wilfred Owen and the great English ballads – terrific. And to watch their pride when THEY had written something and it was heard and admired by the others. Most satisfying.”

  So why did you take the huge step of leaving teaching to become a professional writer?

 “I wanted to write; I’d been doing it in small amounts (poems first; then short stories, articles; a couple of plays) for years, ever since my first years of teaching. I knew that if I didn’t try it fulltime, I’d wonder for the rest of my life what I’d missed. So I took a year off and wrote fulltime. I did two full-length plays for schools, which got published. Performances of them still bring me....$25...$31.50....35 years later!

Then I taught for one more year and we counted our money. Beth, my dear supportive wife had just returned to teaching Latin and Classical Studies part-time, so....so off I went.

What a feckless fool!”

“I’d be VERY apprehensive now but it was a buoyant time then, with a lot of outlets and publishers. Now, with the dwindling markets, I feel great admiration for young writers who commit themselves. “

 “At first I was writing equally for kids and adults. More plays; radio stories; travel pieces; a lot of book reviewing, which I still do, and value greatly – because I get paid for sure.  (And that matters a lot for a fulltime writer. You can spend 10 to 14 months on a book and are always aware it may earn you absolutely nothing.)” I also value the outside writing because it takes my reading outside my comfort zone; I have to read things I might not choose to. And it keeps me in touch with what’s being written.”

 2017 is the 25^th anniversary of the publication of David Hill’s first Young Adult novel. Today See Ya, Simon is an award-laden classic, still in print and available in several languages but the manuscript was initially rejected. All that changed in 1992 when Wellington publisher Ann Mallinson snapped it up.  David acknowledges that a story about a dying boy in a wheelchair might put publishers off but he had strong family reasons for writing it.

 “I began See Ya Simon soon after our teenage daughter’s friend died of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, when Helen was just 15. Suddenly, Helen’s world wasn’t safe any longer. Fear and mortality had stepped right forward. I watched her face the challenge and accept it, and I was so impressed that I began the novel.”

“I realised that there were all sorts of things I could try and write novels about for teenagers and younger kids. My whole writing life changed.”

 Humour is usually a response to serious issues and David Hill certainly hasn’t avoided serious issues in his writing. In See Ya Simon, Nathan’s best friend Simon is 14, witty, intelligent and has less than a year to live. Nathan’s account of Simon’s last months of life is simple and unsentimental but also very funny. Despite, or perhaps because of, Simon’s impending death, See Ya Simon is one of the funniest books ever written about life in New Zealand high schools.

 “Yes, I do use humour, don’t I? Even in the sad stories; even in the war stories. Actually, I use humour ESPECIALLY in those stories; it breaks the tension and provides variety. It’s a risk and I love the excitement of including it. I think we’ve all got this inner dialogue going on in our heads constantly in which we see the idiocy, the comedy, the great/trivial juxtaposition of what we do and what the world is. I very much enjoy trying to include that.”

 You once said that you enjoy writing about teams because they contain different types of people “so there’s always the chance for unexpected, brilliant or disastrous things to happen.” In the 1990s, you wrote several sports novels, including one of my favourites Give It Hoops where a basketball player has only one leg and the team’s tattooed coach is there as part of his community service sentence.

 We also find your characters teaming-up to work for the environment in Comes Naturally And to survive in the bush in Take It Easy. Your latest war novel, Flight Path uses the same idea of teamwork – a bomber crew’s continued survival depends on their co-operation and trust. These novels must have posed research challenges.

  “Indeed, any team, group or crew is a promising area for diversity – and it comes with the problem of trying to make all the members somehow diverse and distinctive. There’s always one or two about whom you find yourself fretting “What can I do to make this one stand out??” I find different hair colours and favourite foods or songs help.  I do like the dynamics among a group; it allows for such a range of moods and registers.”

 I wondered how a writer who produced a steady stream of books, articles, radio talks, reviews, columns, and broadcasts organised his time. All authors are asked about their writing habits but you must be the only one to share your working space with a washing machine.

   “As a teacher, I’d been used to timetables. When I went writing fulltime, it seemed natural to make a timetable and follow it. I still do. I write Monday-to-Friday, 8.30 am to 1 pm (roughly). I do about an hour in the afternoon. (I’ve never been a stay-up-all-night writer.) The days go by; the pages go by. Working to a timetable takes a lot of pressure off me.”

 “I’ve always liked to write where I’m in touch with the rest of the house, but slightly detached. For the last 21 years, I’ve written in a room between the kitchen and the back porch. I share it with the washing machine and hot water cylinder. It’s an open plan sort of (old) cottage, so I can see in all directions and talk to people as they pass through. I like that. I talk to Beth about what I’m writing, how we did at the Pub Quiz and where I put my car keys. I like that, too.”

 

David Hill can take dull questions about the mechanics of writing and magically transform his answer into something fresh and exciting:

 “I can hardly ever say when an idea “comes from”. I find it’s there; it’s been there for a while. It’s a kernel; now I have to sit down and....what does one do with a kernel? Should I say I develop it?  Grow it?  Bake it? Anyway, I start taking enormous numbers of notes about it: settings, characters, possible events, historical details. I could research for ever. I put the first draft off as long as possible. I begin that draft with great enthusiasm. After five chapters, I know it’s the most boring thing I’ve ever written. I trudge on, doing everything I can to make it move. (My first drafts are still pen on paper, by the way; there IS a link between the nerves of the wrist and the nerves of the frontal cortex, i reckon....) As the final chapters approach, I often get that wonderful feeling of the book picking itself up and heading for the end. I write the final sentence, slash a diagonal line underneath, and shout “Yes!” (I do!) Then I leave it for a couple of weeks, start transferring it to the computer, and I’m editing, editing, editing for the next 4 or 5 months.”

 

You dedicated Flight Path to New Zealand writers, Fleur Beale and Norman Bilbrough, as ‘staunch writing friends.’ I take it their support has been important to you?

 “I never feel confident that a book will be accepted. I’m encouraged and comforted by writing friends, who understand the apprehensions and pleasures. Yes, two whom I particularly value are Fleur Beale and Norman Bilbrough, to whom I can talk about all aspects of the job, and who always say sensible and positive things.

I’ll also mention Elizabeth Smither, NZ poet and novelist, who lives in our town of New Plymouth. Elizabeth has written just two kids’ stories in her illustrious writing life, but it’s grand to have her near. Again, you’re sharing frustrations, concerns, pleasures with a fellow tradesperson. In an essentially solitary occupation (solo violin, please) that’s a wonderful help.”

 Young Adult novels (like young adults) often enter controversial areas. Your treatment of sexual abuse in Kick Back is caring and thought-provoking. You treat such topics as depression and self-harming in Right Where It Hurts. Racial issues and sporting pressures appear in The Name of the Game.  Teenage pregnancy is a major issue in Duet. In my opinion you handled these issues well and offered a range of voices. Yet I believe you have been criticised for placing serious issues before young readers.

 Is this a problem for Young Adult writers?

 “The pleasures of writing for YA or younger readers include the fact that they’re encountering certain ideas or topics or techniques for the first time, so there’s a wonderful freshness to their responses. They’re also severe critics; they don’t have the patience with dull or bad writing that adult readers do. They have a built-in bullshit detector.  You have to be on your toes.

Another issue is that while writers for adults usually are judged on literary grounds only, YA and children’s writers are judged both on literary and ethical grounds. I’ve been accused of being “subversive.....coarse....preaching promiscuity.....using foul language.....mocking decent values”. It startles me; I actually think I’m a wimp as a writer. Note that ALL these accusations come from adults, usually adults with religious, political or social agendas.

 Kids just get on with the book.”

 Your recent historical novels, all with a military theme, are enthralling and thought-provoking. (These are the ones that John McIntyre puts among David Hill’s ‘very best work.’) Brave Company explores New Zealand’s naval contribution to the Korean War. Enemy Camp is about a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Featherston, while Flight Path gives a bomb-aimer’s view of the World War 2 air war over Europe.

My Brother’s War is a vivid portrayal of the philosophical dilemma of war. The routines of imprisonment and punishment for conscientious objectors in the Great War are contrasted with the routines of military training and trench warfare. It is grim stuff, controversial in its day and still powerful.

Last year I was at the funeral of a man who had been imprisoned as a conscientious objector. He had chosen a passage from My Brother’s War as one of the readings. This is the true power of the storyteller – taking people’s experiences and putting them into words that resonate with readers.

 Why have your most recent novels been set in the past?

 “I’m being asked a lot recently about why I’m writing war / historical novels. Simple – I can’t write convincingly about contemporary children’s lives any more. Why not? Technology. It suffuses their lives. It’s not just an add-on, which I could try to research and include very carefully. Cellphones, tablets, all the things whose names I don’t know; they affect almost everything kids do – their movements, language, communication, comprehension, thinking. I don’t know it; it’s a different world.”

 “It would be futile and disrespectful of me to try and show it from an uninformed older person’s limited viewpoint. So I have three choices: I can write fantasy (which I’m no good at). I can put contemporary kids in a situation where the electronics aren’t available (possible). I can write about the past – and that’s what is occupying me very contentedly just now.”

 “Actually, the book I’m working on just now (and I confidently expect it to win me an award as Most Boring YA Novel of the Millennium) is about 130 years of two families in a New Zealand valley. I’ve got about SIX historical periods! I am re-hashing an interminable number of stories from my own childhood. I’m having a great time.”

 Those unaware of the merits of David’s book reviews can find his review of Jennifer Beck’s   picture book Torty and the Soldier on The Sapling website. [www.thesapling.co.nz],

One sentence will do:

“W. H. Auden reckoned that the three rules of good writing were: 'BE BRIEF. BE BLUNT. BE GONE'. Add to those: 'BE WARM. BE MISCHIEVOUS', and you're getting the tone of top-level children's writing and illustrating which distinguishes a work like this.”

 The illustrator of that book, Torty and the Soldier, is Fifi Colston, which allows me to segue to David’s recent flurry of picture books:

 “About 5 years back, Scholastic NZ asked me to write a World War I picture book. They gave me free rein. It was HARD!! I wrote far too much, was far too discursive and tried too many clever tricks. I realised I had to cut and cut and cut, AND leave the pictures to do a lot of the work. Every picture book writer has known this for years; it was a late-life revelation for me.

Then Fifi Colston came up with these beautiful images for The Red Poppy, which made my mouth flop open. The same with young Phoebe Morris’s illustrations for the Famous New Zealanders series (Edmund Hillary in First to the Top; Burt Munro the motorcyclist in Speed King; Jean Batten the aviator – due in August; Peter Blake the yachtsman and environmentalist – due next year.)

I find it fascinating to have to DISTILL so much into so few words. And I’m sincere when I say that I feel privileged to see my words set against these beautiful, often genuinely magic images.

 Advice to illustrators? I wouldn’t dare. But I know that Phoebe doodles and scribbles and drafts ALL the time. That’s always been my advice re writing – write, write, write; put in the mileage; keep everything. And in the case of illustrators, know the technology.

 FINALLY  

   Because I’ll stop there, if you don’t mind, Trevor. I do like your “What question would you like an interviewer to ask?” I’d like them to ask “Are you happy to be a writer?” I’d reply “Hell, yes’ (You may vary the words, Trevor). “And hugely privileged”.

 "Hope that’s some use. Best of Luck with the article. And, good sir, my thanks to you for all you do for us writers.

   David”

 

 *****************************************

A Selection of Riches

25 Books by David Hill:

See Ya, Simon 1992

Fat, Four-Eyed and Useless, 1997

Give It Hoops, 1997

Boots ‘n’ All, 1997

Time Out, 1999

Afterwards, 2000

The High Wind Blows 2001

The Name of the Game, 2001

The Sleeper Wakes, 2001

Right Where It Hurts, 2002

No Big Deal, 2003

No Safe Harbour, 2003

Journey to Tangiwai, 2003

Coming Back, 2004

Duet, 2007

The River Runs, 2008

Fire on High, 2009

Sinking, 2013

Brave Company, 2013

My Brother’s War, 2012

The Red Poppy, ill Fifi Colston, 2012

Enemy Camp, 2016

First to the Top (Edmund Hillary) ill. Phoebe Morris, 2015

Speed King (Bert Munro) ill. Phoebe Morris, 2016

Flight Path, 2017

Sky High (Jean Batten) ill. Phoebe Morris, 2017

********************* 

Some more recent riches since 2017: 

Finding, 2018

Hero of the Sea (Peter Blake) ill. Phoebe Morris, 2018

Dinosaur Hunter (Joan Wiffen) ill. Phoebe Morris, 2019

Taking the Lead (Jacinda Ardern) ill. Phoebe Morris, 2020

Three Scoops: Stories, 2021

Coast Watcher, 2021

Below, 2023

Mother of the Nation (Whina Cooper) ill. Phoebe Morris, 2025

Giant Heart (Jonah Lomu) ill. Phoebe Morris, 2026

 

 

Enemy Camp  David Hill

 

Enemy Camp

David Hill (2016)
Novel, 260 pages, 
Paperback       
 ISBN 978 0 14 330912 3

Enemy Camp

This novel is set during a tragic and little understood event in New Zealand’s wartime history: the Featherston shooting. It is told in diary form by Ewen MacKenzie, a 12-year-old schoolboy. Ewen’s father, Jack MacKenzie, invalided back from Greece, is one of the New Zealand soldiers guarding Japanese prisoners at the nearby P.O.W. camp, “the first one for Japanese prisoners in the whole British Empire.” Since Ewen is also interested in the day-to-day events (and gossip) around him, we gain a good picture of wartime civilian New Zealand: the blackout precautions, the Home Guard exercises, conscientious objectors, the arrival of US soldiers, casualty lists, school air-raid drills and other ways that war changed people’s lives. “Dad has turned our whole front and back section into a vegetable garden, because so many things are hard to get in the shops.”

 

When his teacher makes him start his writing in October 1942, Ewen duly notes the irritations of wartime shortages; in fact, his diary is an Army notebook obtained from his father. “Mr White says we we’re living at a special time in a special place, and someday we’ll feel glad we recorded it.” We learn that Ewen’s friend Barry has a stutter and that Barry’s brother Clarry (10) is recovering from polio and needs metal leg-braces and crutches to walk. Ewen’s journal records stages in Clarry’s struggle to walk normally, Barry’s battle with his stutter and Ewen’s own changing attitude to girls in general (and Susan Procter in particular).

 

Ewen and Barry regularly cycle out to the camp, towing Clarry in an improvised trolley. At first, the Japanese prisoners, seen through the barbed wire, seem unimpressive. “The first four hundred were mainly workers who had been building airfields…Dad says there were architects and engineers and even teachers among them. They’ve been no trouble.”

 

Using his position as a guard, Jack introduces the three boys to the English-speaking Lieutenant Itoh, whose own son is the same age as Clarry. It is arranged that Itoh will give them language lessons. “Good for both sides,” says Jack. (Always a shrewd observer, Ewen notes that it is the men who have seen war service, like his father and Mr White, who are less judgemental about the enemy prisoners.)

Communication and understanding (or the lack of it) is the key theme in the story. Ewen, initially sceptical, finds himself intrigued by what he learns from the lessons with Itoh. From Mrs Procter who has lived in Japan, the boys (and the reader) learn about the Japanese military concepts which are creating disputes among the prisoners. Itoh (loosely based on the real Lieutenant Adachi) is moved by Clarry’s courage as he struggles to walk unaided.

 

Tensions rise as new prisoners arrive in the camp. “The Japs are ashamed of being prisoners and not dying in battle; the guards are feeling they’re being sneered at and ignored by people who should be obeying them,” is Ewen’s summation.

 

Finally the three boys literally walk into the final deadly confrontation, providing the reader with a vivid account of the tragedy and its effects.

 

Enemy Camp is not a re-hash of newspaper clippings; rather it is a well-constructed historical novel, recreating some of the attitudes and actions of the period, with a wide range of interesting characters, each with their own motivation. The various points-of-view are well presented, and readers will gain a good understanding of the issues involved.

 

Note: A History Study Resource based on the 1943 Featherston incident is at http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/classroom/incident-at-featherston

Another YA novel, Dreams of Warriors, by Susan Brocker (2010) also deals with this topic. The similar Cowra breakout took place in NSW over a year later in August 1944.

 

 Trevor Agnew 
19 Feb 2016

 

 DAVID HILL

Flight Path David Hill

Flight Path
David Hill
Puffin NZ$20
Reviewed by Trevor Agnew

 

Some of David Hill’s best writing has been seen in his recent military history series of YA novels.  Brave Company (2013) showed young readers what navy life in a war zone was like and taught a lesson about real courage. Enemy Camp (2016) cast light on a little-known tragedy in New Zealand’s history, where misunderstandings and conflicting cultural attitudes in a prisoner-of-war camp had fatal results. The strongest of these novels, My Brother’s War (2012) vividly reflected the split in New Zealand society created by the controversy over conscientious objectors in the Great War.

With the Navy, the Home Front and the Army taken care of, that only leaves the Air Force.

In Flight Path, Hill has taken one of the war’s most long-running controversies – the role of Bomber Command.
Like many New Zealanders joining the RAF, Jack Sinclair has done his flight training in Canada and he arrives in Britain as preparations begin for D-Day. He and his fellow Lancaster crewmen are amazingly young – Jack is only 18 and the oldest is 21. They are also a cosmopolitan bunch, with an English pilot, a Free Polish co-pilot, an Australian radio operator and three New Zealanders (including twins from Christchurch) manning the guns and doing the navigation. Jack is the bomb-aimer, which means he has a bird’s eye view of the destruction 489 Squadron sows nightly over occupied Europe. Here, their plane takes part in a raid on the battleship Tirpitz: “Flak curved upwards out of the whiteness. Ahead of them, the left wing of a Wellington disintegrated.  The bomber staggered, then cartwheeled down, smashing into the fjord’s rocky sides. Flames from ruptured fuel tanks hurtled towards the water in a fiery sheet. No parachutes; no survivors.”
His experiences and the scenes he witnesses force Jack to think hard about the conflict and the deaths that constantly surround them. The novel provides a good range of attitudes to the war and its effect on people. There is a gentle romantic thread as jack learns about girls. Jack also learns a lot about how people behave (and misbehave) under stress. Booze and the black market become facts of life.
Then there is the mental strain of mission after mission.  A temporary replacement gunner cracks under the stress. “Colin stood, head down, still shaking.” Colin is dishonourably discharged. Nightmares of being trapped in a burning plane begin to haunt Jack.
Hill has researched well and raises his narrative far above the old war-comic level. There are moments of bravery – Jack booting at a stuck bomb-load to clear the bomb bay – but he merely reflects, “We have jobs and we have to do what we’re told in those jobs…”
Another strong feature of this story is the trust the flight crew have in each other; they rely on the combination of all their specialist skills to survive. (Hill has always excelled at stories about team-work.)
The concluding chapters, where death seems likely are particularly exciting and contain an unexpected insight into wartime attitudes. Flight Path is a well-written and exciting story with a strong message.
- Trevor Agnew

March 2017

NZ Young People’s Books: Best of 2012

By Trevor Agnew 

Published in Your Weekend Magazine, (The Press, Christchurch, New Zealand, Nov 2012)  

Best Books for Kiwi Youngsters: 2012

Publishing trends 2012
 

By Trevor Agnew   

2012’s most heart-warming publishing event was the return of a once famous imprint. Whitcoulls, under its new ownership, has returned to publishing with a magnificent hardback anthology of New Zealand stories and poems, Read Me Another One, Please! selected by Belynda Smith. Authors include Margaret Mahy, Roger Hall, Joy Cowley and Bill Nagelkerke. The best story is Granny Alex, by Tessa Duder, where a young woman swimmer, training for the Olympics, is encouraged by her grandmother. Satisfyingly, Tessa Duder’s beloved classic Alex (1987) is being re-issued by Whitcoulls Classics.

The darkest aspect of 2012 was undoubtedly the death of Margaret Mahy, a brilliant writer, whose high level of creative genius remains unequalled. Margaret’s unique way with language can be sampled in the new paperback edition of her collected verse, The Word Witch, which has a CD of her reading a dozen of the poems.  

Meanwhile Margaret’s prolific output means that her titles continue to appear posthumously. Footsteps in the Fog is an atmospheric celebration of the senses, with a blind girl leading her siblings to safety through dense fog. Mr Whistler is a gleeful picture book about an absent-minded

dancer who mislays his train ticket and has to undress on the station platform to find it (much to the joy of young readers). Both these books are illustrated by Gavin Bishop. It has been an excellent year for Bishop, whose Counting the Stars: Four Maori Myths has just appeared in paperback, while his 1999 masterpiece, The House that Jack Built, has been re-issued in a sumptuous hardback, a reminder of just how important good illustration and book design are.

 In November 2012, the German firm, Bertelsmann, owner of Random House, took over the British firm Pearson, owner of the various Penguin imprints. The promise is that Random House and Penguin will retain their distinct editorial identities. The concern, however, is that as the big firms swallow each other up, fewer books for young people will be produced. Ray Turton, editor of Magpies magazine, which reviews Australian and New Zealand books for young people, feels that over recent years “big publishers don’t know where their industry is going. They’ve been running round like hens with their heads cut off.” Turton warns that large corporations will always concentrate on mass-market books with larger print runs. “Everyone wants the next Hunger Games or Harry Potter.”

New Zealand has a proud tradition of small publishing firms producing high quality books for the young.  In its thirty years of existence, the tiny Wellington publishing firm of Mallinson Rendell produced only about seven titles a year, but the remarkable quality of publisher Anne Mallinson’s judgement was reflected in book prizes and export orders.  When Mallinson Rendel closed its doors in 2009, its titles were purchased by Penguin. Lynley Dodd’s menagerie of cats and dogs thus migrated to Puffin, which has just issued the witty Slinky Malinki, Early Bird. Yet, even though the future of Hairy Maclary and his friends is now assured, would such a long-running series have been brought into existence and nurtured without the support of a visionary like Anne Mallinson?

Longacre Press, the small Dunedin publisher co-founded by Paula Boock, was another small firm that punched above its weight. Taken over by Random House in 2009, Longacre still appears as an imprint on novels like James Norcliffe’s The Magic Flute, a fantasy that pitches modern Kiwi kids into Arcadia. Another Longacre title is Kate De Goldi’s The ACB with Honora Lee, the superbly-presented story of a girl coming to terms with her grandmother’s dementia.

The good news is that new ‘little’ publishers keep popping up.  Several well-designed picture books have come from the Duck Creek Press, a branch of David Ling Publishing, including the stylish That Dog at the Beach by Janene Cooper and Evie Kemp (a sequel to their award-winning A Dog Like That).

Another recent arrival, Dreamboat Press, is a husband and wife operation, based on Waiheke Island. Mark and Rowan Sommerset have only produced five picture books so far but have already won awards. Their latest, I Love Lemonade, has the slightly naughty flavour that young readers adore.

All publishers need a point of difference to survive.  Wellington’s Gecko Press has concentrated on providing English language translations of award-winning foreign titles, both non-fiction, such as the French Small and Tall Tales of Extinct Animals, by Hélène Rajcak, and fiction, such as the hilarious Swedish illustrated story The Best Singer in the World by Ulf Nilsson.

 Huia Publishers focuses on Māori titles, and their young people’s books this year include such lively war biographies as Born to Fly (about Johnny Pohe) and Victory at Point 209 (Moana Ngarimu), both illustrated by Andrew Burdan in war-comic style.  Huia also a shrewdly reversed Gecko’s technique, by producing Te Haere ki te Rapu Pea, a Maori language version of Michael Rosen’s 1989 classic, We’re All Going on a Bear Hunt, evocatively illustrated by Helen Oxenbury.

Some publishers find that series help ensuring repeat custom. Little girls adore Elizabeth Pulford’s Littlest Angel series, where Lily Gets in a Pink Pickle is the sixth volume. Kyle Mewburn’s cheerfully anachronistic Dinosaur Rescue series reached Number 7 with Scuto-Stickysaurus. Meanwhile Chris Gurney’s up-dated fairy tale, The Frog Footy Player is the 14^th in the Kiwi Corkers series.

Some publishers give books special features to encourage buyers. Jenny Cooper’s splendid picture book, Do Your Ears Hang Low?, includes a CD of the Topp Twins performing the song (as a sequel to the same team’s 2011 version of There’s a Hole in My Bucket). Pio Terei is the vocalist on the CD which comes with Stevie Mahardika’s If You’re a Kiwi and You Know It. Several books now offer stuffed toys, like Craig Smith’s Willbee the Bumblebee. The Wonky Donkey meanwhile goes one better; as well as a stuffed toy, it now offers a miracle of paper engineering, The House that Wonky Built. Junior engineers who enjoy the classic, The Little Yellow Digger by Betty and Alan Gilderdale, can now own a trace ‘n’ race excavator toy version, which comes complete with the book. There’s even The Little Yellow Digger Activity Book.

As the publishing market-place shrinks, many frustrated, would-be writers try printing and selling their own books. Some of their efforts are dire but a few are excellent, like Brent Leslie’s self-published Jock Logan and the Sea Devil, a vivid account of a lad’s seagoing encounter with Count von Luckner.  Craig (Wonky Donkey) Smith created his own company in Queenstown to publish Kaha the Kea, illustrated by Bruce Potter. Like many other publishers, Craig feels the need to bring electronic media and the printed page together. Thus purchasers of Kaha the Kea can also enjoy an animated version on their iPad or computer.

And which of this year’s books will the young readers of 2062 be reading with pleasure?  My pick is David Hill’s best novel yet, a powerful story of dissent and its consequences, My Brother’s War.  The year’s best picture book also deals with the First World War: Glyn Harper’s handsome and moving Le Quesnoy: the story of the town that New Zealand saved, illustrated by Jenny Cooper.

Trevor Agnew

November 2012  

Book list: The Best of 2012:

Le Quesnoy: the story of the town that New Zealand saved, Glyn Harper, ill Jenny Cooper, Scholastic, NZ$20

My Brother’s War, David Hill, Puffin, pb, NZ$19.99
 

The Top Two Dozen of 2012:

Slinky Malinki, Early Bird, Lynley Dodd, Puffin, hb, NZ$24.99

Mr Whistler, Margaret Mahy, ill Gavin Bishop, Gecko, hb, NZ$34.99

Kaha the Kea, Craig Smith, ill Bruce Potter, Craig Smith Publishing, pb, NZ$26

If You’re a Kiwi and You Know It, Stevie Mahardika, Scholastic, pb, NZ$21

The Little Yellow Digger Activity Book, Scholastic, pb, NZ$10

Do Your Ears Hang Low?, ill Jenny Cooper, Scholastic, pb, NZ$26

That Dog at the Beach, Janene Cooper, ill Evie Kemp, Duck Creek Press, hb, NZ$29.99

Te Haere ki te Rapu Pea, Michael Rosen, ill Helen Oxenbury, Huia Publishers, pb, NZ$20

 I Love Lemonade, Mark & Rowan Sommerset, Dreamboat Press, hb, NZ$29.99

The House that Wonky Built, ill Katz Cowley, Scholastic, hb, NZ$29

The Best Singer in the World, Ulf Nilsson, ill Eva Eriksson, Gecko, hb, NZ$34.99; pb, NZ$19.99

The Littlest Angel 6: Lily Gets in a Pink Pickle, Elizabth Pulford, Scholastic pb, NZ$12

Dinosaur Rescue 7: Scuto-Stickysaurus, Kyle Mewburn, Scholastic, pb, NZ$12

The Frog Footy Player, Chris Gurney, ill John Bennett, Scholastic, hb, NZ$18.50

Footsteps Through the Fog, Margaret Mahy, ill Gavin Bishop, Puffin, pb, NZ$20

Small and Tall Tales of Extinct Animals, Hélène Rajcak & Damien Laverdunt, Gecko, hb, NZ$37

The Word Witch, Margaret Mahy, ill. David Elliot, HarperCollins, pb, NZ$40

Read Me Another One, Please! selected by Belynda Smith & Dorothy Dudek Vinicombe, Whitcoulls, hb, NZ$29.99

Born to Fly, Julian Arahanga, ill Andrew Burdan, Huia, pb, NZ$25

Victory at Point 209, Kawata Teepa, ill Andrew Burdan, Huia, pb, NZ$25

Jock Logan and the Sea Devil, Brent Leslie, Brent Leslie Books, pb, NZ$20

The ACB with Honora Lee, Kate De Goldi, Longacre [Random House], hb, $34.99

Alex, Tessa Duder, Whitcoulls Classic, pb, NZ$19.99

The Magic Flute, James Norcliffe, Longacre [Random House], pb, NZ$19.99

South Island Children’s Librarians’ Conference, Day One

South Island Children’s Librarians’ Conference 2008: Some Highlights
By Trevor Agnew

The South Island Children’s Librarians’ Conference, held in Christchurch on the 17th and 18th March 2008, was packed with interesting speakers, and had a record attendance. This personal summary is merely a taster, intended to persuade people to make plans to attend the 2009 Conference in Wanaka. Its view of events is selective rather than all-encompassing.

The night before the conference, an informal gathering was held at the Dux de Lux restaurant where a happy juxtaposition saw the librarians sitting next to a table of book-crossing enthusiasts – people who give books away as a hobby. A large number of books changed hands swiftly.

Day 1. Monday 17th March 2008:
Carolyn Robertson opened the conference and Louise Easter (Convenor) introduced the programme.

Black Juice to Tender Morsels:
Margo Lanagan, award winning Australian writer, read her story ‘Ferryman’ and told us how she got the idea from an eight year old child’s story about his dad working on a ferry, then added her own twist with Acheron. Also working as a technical writer – her latest opus is ‘Voucher Retrieval Manual,’ Lanagan told how she began by writing six ‘Bantam Wildflower’ romances – one a month. She then wrote two ‘real’ novels for kids, The Best Thing and Touching Earth Lightly, which were more controversial and are now, she proudly informed us, among the books most stolen from Australian libraries.
When she tried writing fantasy, Lanagan dug herself into a hole, but she had success writing short stories for young adults, later collected as Black Juice. She wrote these during the 40 minute train ride to and from work. Her stories have been short-listed for Hugo and Nebula Awards, but short stories don’t sell as well as novels. She has a rented room upstairs in a block of flats which she uses just for writing. She does all her writing by hand. Word processing is done at home, transcribing ideas from a green notebook.
Lanagan read from Tender Morsels and described some ideas: a future world where the news media are churches and make saints. Felt bells to use in libraries. What if the Virgin Mary had other plans?
Her rant: Young Adult fiction should not be didactic. A good novel shows you ‘that the world is wider and deeper than you imagined.’ Lack of authenticity of emotions can be detected. Honesty is important.

The Magic and Mystery of Manga:
Tim Driver who sells comics, manga (specialised Japanese comics) and anime (animated films) from his shop Comic Compulsion, talked about comics and their appeal.
Jared Lane, who illustrates comics talked about the difficult history of comics in New Zealand and why it is a flourishing international industry in many forms.

Social Networking:
A panel of very self-possessed and confident teenagers (Y10 and Y11) talked about their use of MySpace, Bebo and blogging. They were lively, very funny and sometimes alarming. Blogging is old hat, while Bebo and Facebook are all-important along with texting.

Not Just Books for Boys:
This session was a marvellously entertaining discussion between David Hill (chair), Brian Falkner and Vince Ford.
Brian Falkner described his early writing efforts, producing film scripts which didn’t sell before he sold a YA novel about football to Mallinson Rendel [Henry and the Flea]. David Hill recalled Ann Mallinson ringing him and saying, ‘We have a great new, young writer!’ Hill’s response was, ‘Oh no!’
Vince Ford described a keenly entrepreneurial student in his wife’s school at Raetihi who inspired his first two novels, 2MUCH4U and SOMUCH2DO. All the writers agreed that stories matter. Falkner gets as many letters from girls as from boys. Ford said, ‘In my head I’ve got an 11 year old boy who would rather be doing other things. I have to write to interest him, so I put in interchanges and dialogue.’
Hill spoke of boys’ deep involvement with their stories, ‘Boys, when they do become involved with reading stories become very possessive of their books.’ Falkner told of a former non-reader who got into Henry and the Flea, and wouldn’t give the library copy back. Falkner noticed that all his characters ‘have a strong moral compass,’ something he hadn’t spotted until he re-read the books. Ford said he tries not to moralise but he is aware of a character’s need for a background, including a morality (but without the writer moralising).
Both Ford and Falkner felt they had avoided trends and PC pressures. “In terms of trends, I’m lucky to live in Gisborne,” said Ford, who feels that writing in isolation means he is not affected by ‘cliques of writers.’
How do you write? Hill asked the pair.
‘I’m not a note-taker,” said Ford, who carries his ideas in his head until the most important ones percolate to the top. Then he writes down rough plot and character files, so that he knows the characters’ backgrounds and how their strengths will appear in the plot, or interact with other characters. He works on a computer, producing a first draft that is close to a final version. He checks carefully and works through, polishing.
Falkner carries a (tiny) notebook and also uses a computer. Henry and the Flea went through four revisions, so a first draft is only a start.
Falkner read movingly from Strawberry Lou, a new work in progress. Some eyes were being wiped afterwards, leading Hill to comment, “I really don’t know if it is professional to make your audience cry when you read them a story.”
Ford dedicated the story he read, about a white heading dog rescued from drowning, to Bill Nagelkerke. He provided marvellous voice characterisation, bringing two dogs in a conversation to life. “I enjoy writing dialogue and hearing voices,” said Ford, looking upwards.
David Hill revealed that his next novel has a snake-bite in it. Brian Falkner’s Tomorrow Code will be published in the United States in October: “The end of the world started quietly enough for Tane and Rebecca.” Vince Ford demonstrated a remarkable spear-throwing device, which I won’t describe because it is a crucial feature in his Chronicles of Stone trilogy, which begins with Scorched Bone due out in April 2008.

Perfecting the Partnership:
The relationship between words and image in the works of Helen Taylor and Ben Brown. The talented husband and wife team, Helen Taylor and Ben Brown, provided an interesting slide show of their work, while they talked about their joint career in children’s literature. Referring to their earlier work, such as The Cat With No Tail, Who is Brian Bear? and The Bouncing Ball, Brian Brown declared that, “Self-publishing is the most noble and honourable way of going broke that I know.”
Helen Taylor described how, when they were living rent-free on Ben’s father’s farm in Nelson, local artist Tracey Duncan was helpful and “very inspiring.” “Do what you’re good at,” said their bank manager. Their best-selling book so far had been The Penguin Who Wanted to Fly, so they looked hard at birds. At that time, they were surrounded by pukeko in their valley, so their next book was about pukeko. It was rejected several times but they took up some of the advice they were given and Thief of Colours was duly published. It has led to a popular series.
Ben gloated about the fact that, as the writer, he never has to work to a deadline. By the time a manuscript goes into the publishing process, he is off on a new project. Helen, however, has to create her illustrations to a deadline – in one case only six weeks!
“Sometimes I chuckle at what I’m writing,” says Ben, because I know Helen will have trouble illustrating it – like ‘strands of sky’.” They both laugh.
“Thanks,” says Helen. She thinks that the most irritating aspect of illustrating a book is when a designer gets involved. She sometimes has problems with them.
“Illustrators are very fussy,” interjects Ben.
“It’s very personal to me,” says Helen, so when a designer enlarges or reduces something, or even moves it to another page, I have to protect it.” She showed examples of her original sketches and finished paintings.
“You want to see Helen go to war over a book cover,” warned Ben.
She talked about the suggested changes to the cover of Fiftyfive Feathers, which showed a kakapo spreading its wings and a rear view of a Pukeko. The publisher’s reps all said that the pukeko’s bottom was too big. “In the finish they blew it up so that the pukeko’s bottom was even bigger!” said Helen, sounding slightly exasperated.
In her illustration work, she always takes care to leave appropriate spaces for the writing but is aware that the publisher must decide. However, “the longer you are in the business, the more say you get.”
Helen’s conclusion about writing was that “The books that Ben loves the most are the ones that sell the fewest copies.”

Community Through Youth:
Corrina Meikle, Community Manager of Glen Innes Library gave a good introduction to improving community involvement in library services.

An Author Visits: engaging children with books during school visits:
Dennis Hamley, a visiting British writer, author of Alan’s People, gave a witty address about author’s visits to schools. He compared Christchurch to Edinburgh and Philadelphia for “the delightful village atmosphere of compressed intellectual and artistic activity.”

Hamley said that it was important for children to know that books are written by people, ordinary people with special talents. “Even if it’s crap, I know what the author went through to write it,” said Hamley, adding, “I don’t usually call it crap when I’m speaking to them of course.” Hamley had been surprised to find a quotation by himself on the internet: “Things aren’t untrue just because they never happened.” It came from Hare’s Choice and Hamley had forgotten writing it.

The author who visits schools cannot expect anything from the visit, he warned. One child, unaware that he was the author, said, “This is the most boring book I have ever read in my life.” Hamley smiled ruefully. “They may hate your book. You have to accept this.” He talked about children’s questions. “They ask how old you are, how many books you have written and how much money you earn. They’re always shocked at how little it is.” When they ask Dennis Hamley where he gets his ideas from, he tells them about Robert Leeson’s method of drafting, “How do I know what I think until I see what I say.”

He concluded by reading a very funny story of two boys playing aeroplanes in World War 2, with Michael always making Freddie play the German.

Following drinks and nibbles at the Christchurch City Library’s staffroom, we had a splendid Conference Dinner at the Copthorne Hotel.

Day 2 follows.