B.
Margaret Mahy 1936 - 2012
Behind the scenes
Once there were three witches flying over the world and looking down on it from their broomsticks. One had white hair, one had black hair, and one had hair like wild bright flame, and all three had gleaming golden eyes.... They were looking for mischief to do.
That's the first line of the first story ('Teddy and the Witches') from The First Margaret Mahy Storybook, published in 1972 and unforgettably illustrated by Shirley Hughes. It's classic Mahy; mysterious, dangerous and wild, right down to that admirably excessive use of an extra dot in the ellipsis.
Frontispiece, The First Margaret Mahy Storybook (J.M. Dent & Sons, 1972), with illustration by Shirley Hughes.
The book in question was (technically, probably still is) my sister's, though - after coveting it for years - it now rests on my bookshelf. Come to think of it, 'rests' is emphatically the wrong word, since it comes down so regularly to be read to my own children. Possession may be nine tenths of the law, but there's no denying the distinctive inscription, made in typically generous and personalised Mahy fashion on one of the many occasions that she read her books aloud. The same lion can be found in treasured Mahy books all over New Zealand, and likely far further afield, because of all children's stories, hers withstand the tests of time and distance.
This internationally-beloved writer, one of New Zealand's greatest, who died on July 23, leaves behind a remarkable legacy, not only in the stories and characters she created, but in the memories of all those children and parents who read her books.
'Margaret Mahy is a born storyteller', the author's biography on the tattered inside cover of my sister's book begins. I -and all those others lucky enough to have grown up being read to from the likes of A Lion in the Meadow, The Great Tractor Rescue, The Man Whose Mother Was a Pirate and A Summery Saturday Morning (inspired by Mahy's home in Governor's Bay)- can attest to that.