As we look for new members this month, (join us and go in the draw to win a set of 3 beautiful A3 illustrations) we want to introduce you to our longest-serving member, Helen McConnochie.

Helen joined the then-New Zealand Book Council in its infancy on the first of December 1973, and has been a member ever since. Thank you, Helen, for supporting us for 47 years!

Helen has loved words and books since early childhood and was encouraged to read the classics by her father.

She worked as a teacher and for RNZ (then National Radio) from which she retired in 1991. As a volunteer at Napier's museum, Helen compiled a number of interviews and letters from survivors of the 1931 Napier earthquake and the result was After Words: Interviews and Letters from the Survivors of the 1931 Hawkes Bay Earthquake.

We asked Helen to tell us a bit about her life as a book lover, and this is her response.

I am a bit vague about the start of New Zealand Book Council but recall attending a very interesting series of talks on writing and writers which perhaps coalesced into a more accessible form.

From a very early age my father who often quoted Shakespeare had me repeating words I liked the sound of – possibly in a slightly Scottish accent!

I was encouraged to choose my own books with my father edging me towards ‘the Classics’. Of course, beside Black Beauty and Pollyanna and highly improbable school girl stories, I began to follow my own way with, of course, some ghastly mistakes.

A very good speech teacher gave me a wide selection of verse and selections from plays to learn and enjoy. Then followed years of teaching and part time radio work, which when I ‘filled in’ during an emergency, became a full time position in radio. When I was appointed to ‘Special Projects' in National Radio in Wellington, my first task was as a reader and assessor of scripts. This led to work on 'Talks Production' which was a large part of my work until I retired in 1991.

When I returned to Napier I became a volunteer at what is now MTG Hawke's Bay Tai Ahuriri (our museum). I was asked to explore the possibility of finding and recording interviews with 1931 Napier earthquake survivors for a book about their experiences.

The result was survivors reliving and relating their experiences of that time. For most speakers, it was the first time they had been asked. I compiled and edited the interviews and added some of the bulletins, photos and cartoons of the time and the result became the book After Words.

During the recent lockdown I decided I needed a goal, and looking at my book shelves I realised there were a number of books I’ve never read. I also realised that memory was going to intervene.

The first book I chose was a memoir by T.S. Eliot and it reminded me of a production of Murder in the Cathedral performed in Southwark Cathedral. I was one of the women in the chorus and the whole cast felt that this performance required that extra element of effort.

To bring me back to the present I had my copy of Old Possum's, I found my choice of books seemed to, at first, be in that time. The next choice revealed a surprise: Katherine Mansfield, a selection of stories and prints of New Zealand artists’ paintings contemporary with her.

I read my way through a biography of W.B. Yeats then The Celts - Frank Delany’s book of the BBC series on their origins.

Then another surprise he mentioned - the Scythians, a more ancient people than the Celts. Memory took over again. In New York I was taken to an exhibition of amazing work in metals - mostly gold - by people called Scythians. I had bought a griffin brooch and was left with questions which now were being answered. Scythians were unknown until the 18th century and were nomadic people.

I am continuing my exploration of the books on my shelves.