One of our best known authors Margaret Mahy died yesterday of cancer in Christchurch. She was 76.  This is a shock and a great loss to lovers of literature. I had expected her to be around for a long time, writing more books and enjoying her life in Governor's Bay. Tributes are coming from all over the world. She was highly intelligent, had a great sense of fun and made the world a magical place. She was awarded the Order of New Zealand in1993. Margaret Mahy won the Carnegie medal in1982 and 1984 being the first writer outside of  Britain to receive this award. She was awarded the Hans Christian Anderson award for her work in 2006. Margaret Mahy wrote for children and young adults. The Lion in the Meadow was the book that launched her career, a story about a young boy who sees a yellow whiskery lion in the backyard but his mother doesn't believe him. A Margaret Mahy Treasury was published last year containing 11 of her best known stories.

Frankfurt Book Fair

My book Katherine Mansfield in Picton (Cape Catley 2000) has been selected to be on display at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October this year. The New Zealand Society of Authors (PEN NZ Inc) selected 40 books that had been self published or where the rights had reverted back to the author (like mine), as the book was now out of print and the publisher did not intend to republish it. The NZSA stand will be in Hall 8, Stand M950 and you are welcome to visit the stand if you are in Frankfurt and talk to someone from NZSA Head Office.
   The book traces the connection the Beauchamp family had to Picton and the Marlborough Sounds and shows the influence of the region on her writing both her stories and letters. It contains historic photographs of Picton and the Beauchamp family and a Family Tree. The book also includes the short story, 'The Voyage', that is based on a ferry crossing from Wellington to Picton. My favourite image shows Katherine Mansfield as a young woman standing on the deck of a ship in a harbour. I saw this image on television one night when TV1 had a series of 'Millennium Moments'. It took ages to locate it and I finally tracked it down (via email), in the Queen's University Archives in Ontario, Canada in the Alpers' Collection.
   I wanted to use a photograph of Katherine Mansfield in a deck chair (taken in France) as it seemed to fit the more casual life style evocative of Picton and the Sounds but I already had a large number of images in the book and the 'daisy' image on the cover was more widely known. I hope one day it will be converted to an ebook and maybe it could be aded then along with the three versions of her story 'The New Baby' that appeared in the Notebooks.
   Also I read very interesting news today that four more stories have been found. See the link I posted today on Twitter.