Memories of childhood

Press, 10 December 1988, Page 27

Memories of childhood

Through the Looking Glass: Recollections of Childhood from 20 Prominent New Zealanders. Selected by Michael Gifkins. Century Hutchinson, 1988. 190 pp. $29.95. (Reviewed by Kay Forrester) Michael Gifkins begins his introduction to the book with the adage that the child is father to the man. This he sets out to explore through the memories of 20 New Zealanders who went on to become public figures or well-known in their field. The 20 tell the story of their own childhoods. Gifkins explains his selection as being those who he approached who were able and/or willing to recall the days of their youth. The writing styles vary greatly, but each of the stories is interesting — and honestly told. In some the dominant image is a feature that was prominent during the writer’s childhood. For Christchurch’s Mayor, Sir Hamish Hay, it was the Second World War; for the author Lauris Edmond, it was the Napier earthquake; for singer Shona Laing, it was the bodies from the Wahine washing ashore.

In other recollections it is the funny incidents that are retold. Bob Jones shot himself in the foot and his family’ could not stop laughing; Sir Peter Elworthy dug up dog bones to feed his smaller twin brothers. For Shonagh Koea, journalist and writer, it is a case of looking through the glass darkly. She remembers daily contemplating suicide in a home of savage shouting, spite, and grime. The book is a pot-pourri of memories, fond and otherwise. It works because each of the writers knows his or her subject well. It will be read as a curiosity because people always like to see the face behind the public face. Black-and-white photographs from several family albums (no prizes for guessing who the round-faced boy in Peter Lange’s grandmother’s birthday photograph is) add to the interest. All the contributor’s royalties go to the I.H.C. Society. Among the other contributors are the writers Alistair Campbell, Maurice Gee, and Witi Ihimaera, the rugby player David Kirk, the politicians Sir John Marshall and Jenny Kirk, and the potter Peter Lange.