Heaven Lies About Us...
HILDHOOD reminiscences, as a commentator in the BBC Listener says, are fragile and precarious things to entrust to the unmerciful microphone. The listener feels like an unintentional eavesdropper, entranced but highly uncomfortable. I felt this when listening to Edith Howes telling us from 4YA about her young days. The effect on a child’s imagination of a field of flowering grasses is awkwardly apprehended by means of radio, and I breathed rather a sigh of relief when the speaker approached more concrete facts and told us a few of the vicissitudes of authorship. Anyone who aspires to literary fame, but dreads the prevalence of re-
jection slips in the mail, may take fresh courage from the fact that Miss Howes sent her most popular book on the long journey to England and back three times before a publisher took it. Which shows, among other things, the fallibility of publishers; for surely, to anyone with half ah eye for the children’s market, it must have been obvious that Miss Howes’ books‘would be a success. Books like The Cradle Ship and The Sun’s Babies contain that nice admixture of fact and fantasy which appeals to children of all ages; and they will continue to be bought and given to children long after many more "modern" children’s books have had their day and fallen into the publishers’ Remainder Lists.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19461018.2.23.7
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 382, 18 October 1946, Page 12
Word count
Tapeke kupu
229Heaven Lies About Us... New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 382, 18 October 1946, Page 12
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Material in this publication is protected by copyright.
Are Media Limited has granted permission to the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa to develop and maintain this content online. You can search, browse, print and download for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Are Media Limited for any other use.
Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.