An interview with Joan de Hamel

Press, 5 July 1977, Page 14

An interview with Joan de Hamel

Tikumu: — Mrs de Hamel, I understand that you were involved in the televising of your book, “X Marks the Spot.” Could you tell us something about this involvement? Mrs de Hamel: Involved? I was certainly involved, and in more than one sense. You can’t help being involved when your work is being pulled to pieces, scrutinised, and every detail questioned. I was positively grilled by Murray Hutchinson, the producer-director. . . Why did I call the uncle “Cop” and make him sound like a policeman? Well, because he had a heliCOPter, actually, but all right, all right, call him Mr Coppard if you must. . .

And while we’re on helicopters, how about those technical details, the collective lever, the cyclic stick? Was I sure? Yes, I was sure. I’d tracked down a reliable chopper pilot and heard it all firsthand. Murray nodded, unimpressed. Next day, a chopper pilot arrived by appointment to assist in the enquiries. “No,” he said. “Impossible. It’s against

regulations to carry four people in a chopper with three seats.” Murray looked at me reproachfully. “It’s the combined weight,” I cried. “Three children weigh the same as two adults,” I suggested. “Exceptionally light children,” I begged. A check with the small print in the regulations. That was correct. And so it went on. I really had turned all possible stones and, after that c r o s s-examination, I always will before going into print.

As for being involved with work on the actual film — I helped with the adaptation and the re-or-ganising that has to be done to change a written plot into something with visual impact. Eventually I wrote the actual “words” of the script, but during filming and editing everyone had a go at these, ad libbing, altering, and cutting. The whole thing was very much a team affair.

On location, my only possible use was to identify birds. I became convinced that no-one else would have noticed a moa if one had strolled past. In desperation I persuaded

Greg Dwyer (Peter) to learn the birds that -would need to be filmed. He agreed with alacrity — and gave me his French homework to do in fair exchange.

So I was involved as a writer and a naturalist, but not with the actual filming or production. Tikumu:— Can you tell us one of your most interesting experiences? Mrs de Hamel:— My first expedition into deep bush — real, unmapped rain forest, with no tracks and millions of sandflies, was certainly an interesting experience. More than that, it had terrific impact and gave me the “shock of discovery” from which the idea of writing “ X Marks the Spot” emerged.

We went in behind the Keppler Mountains, my husband and I. Soon, I learned what it’s like to be so tired that you drop your .pack and then are incapable of picking it up again; and so hungry that you’d willingly eat raw deer steak. I walked in the traditional circle when I was lost and literally found my own foot-prints, like Man Friday’s, in the sand

by the creek; and was hauled in, like a giant salmon, by my husband after I’d been swept away downstream just above a waterfall.

We laugh about it all now. Things you laugh about most afterwards are often nightmares while they are happening. Tikumu:— I think, from reading your book, that you must have a deep interest in the bush. Can you tell us a little about this interest? Mrs de Hamel:— I was taught the hows and whys and wherefores of natural history as a very small child, and asking questions becomes a habit which you never lose. Coming to New Zealand presented a whole new series of puzzles. Nowhere are there more hows and whys to be asked —• and sometimes answered — than in the bush. . .

What is a tui singing when it opens and shuts its bill, making sounds too high for humans to hear? Why do blue duck converse in duets? Why do lancewoods, for instance, have completely differently shaped leaves when they are young from when they are fully

As well as the sheer interest of the birds and botany, there is the emotional impact of the bush: to me it’s a primeval, unexplored underworld — immense, lonely, beautiful, and dangerous.

Tikumu:— What can children do to help preserve our bush? Mrs de Hamel:—l wish everyone would take their interest in the bush further than just becoming efficient trampers and survivors. Bashing though at high speed with your eyes on the ground, chopping down trees for fire-wood, and dumping rubbish is not the idea or the ideal. You have to learn to see what you are looking at and listen to what is going on all around. The more you ask questions and learn, the more you value the bush and the more you realise what might be lost through not caring. The film version of “X Marks the Spot” presses this point.

Tikumu:— Are there particular writers who have influenced your work? Mrs de Hamel:— I read a lot of current literature and I don’t think anyone

can help being influenced by what they read. Surely everyone is influenced by the adjectives of Dylan Thomas, the style of Patrick White, the sensitivity of Saul Bellow? You are influenced, however, by people whom you could not hope to, or even want to. emulate. Some authors are

“Awful Warnings” on how not to write and how children do not behave. I enjoy, and try to write, books that have an authentic setting and accuracy in detail as a bonus over and above the mainline story.

Tikumu:— If you had a quiet holiday in the bush, and could take a selection of books from a wellstocked children’s library, what would some of the titles be?

Mrs de Hamel:— I cannot imagine a “quiet holiday” in the bush, or even wanting to read there, since in daylight you are active — or busy swatting sandflies — and at dusk you go to sleep with no bedside light. I might take as reference books a couple of paperbacks, say, “How to Survive” by B. Hildreth, and the Auckland Museum Handbook called “Native Animals of N.Z.” by A. W. B. Powell. At home I do enjoy reading children’s books by, for instance, Mary Norton. Lucy Boston. Peter Dickinson, Philippa Pearce. Among my friends are Church Cat and Mv Naughty Little Sister, as

well as Pooh and Paddington and other celebrities. From the New Zealand scene I have a special regard for “Young Jane” by Eileen Soper. Tikumu:— What advice would you give to a child who wants to be a writer? Mrs de Hamel:— Firstly, if you want to write, you must read, thousands and thousand of books and never stop. Secondly, you must write, thousands and thousands of words, and eventually they will be worth re-reading. And all the rest of the time you must look . . . and listen. . . and remember. . . Tikumu:— What advice would you give to a child who wants to be a television actor? Mrs de Hamel:— I only know that the three children in the “X Marks the Spot” film were chosen from a large number of applicants, and they are all intelligent, adaptable, and extremely hard-wor-king. They had to cope with long hours of often boring and repetitive work to perfectionist standards. Some of the tears and tempers that were filmed were genuine reactions of despair, and not sheer acting ability. In other words, acting for television is not a laugh and a bit of a joke, nor a glamour occupation. It is

serious and vocational. Tikumu:— What do you most enjoy doing in your spare time?

Mrs de Hamel:— I like “Reading” and “Riting,” but not “Rithmetic.” Also I like drawing, watching birds and being with children: and doing difficult crosswords, studying the history of art, hunting up obscure references in libraries, snipping, sticking, and making things. I even like knitting. I didn’t much like answering these questions. . .