Helen Beaglehole

Helen Elizabeth Beaglehole (née Bisley; born 27 November 1946) is a New Zealand writer, editor and historian. She is known for her children's books including Two Tigers (1993) and War Zones (2005), and her historical books about New Zealand's lighthouses and rural fire-fighting. Quotes I don’t think I have one - I like a lot, and we cook a lot with Asian spices like lemon grass and fish sauce. What is your favourite food? I have a twin sister whose name is Anne, and as we live in the same city I’m constantly getting mistaken for her, and people are always asking ‘Are you Helen or Anne?’ And I’m so bored with the question, and I’m not listening, and I say ‘Anne’ without thinking. And then I realise and is it better to say, I’m sorry, I made a mistake! or to try to brazen it out, hoping no-one will realise? What was your most embarrassing moment? I read a tremendous amount. But I also ride a mountain bike round the Wellington hills and on bike tours, and sail and tramp. How do you relax? I really like learning, and I liked learning when I was small. I guess I was one of those model pupils - except in one subject - see below. Book Cover of Strange CompanyWhat were you like at school? Can’t bring it down to one. Which part of childhood, anyway? When you were little and my mother used to read Beatrix Potter and the Winnie the Pooh books? Or when I was older and used to sneak read Enid Blyton (my mother didn’t approve of those!) No, better to say I read a vast amount, and on all sorts of subjects, and I loved historical fiction, and The Wind in the Willows, The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring (and the rest of the Trilogy), Drovers Road, the Narnia books, Kate Seredy books about Hungary before the First World War, Patricia Lynch books set in Ireland - all sorts. What was the book you most loved as a child? I started writing as a child, and then it got lost, and it was only when I began reading to my own children that I thought ‘I could do as well as this person’. Now one of the great rewards of writing is having characters constantly in your head, and seeing the world through their eyes and thinking about how they might respond to things that happen to them, and being aware of yourself in them. Why did you want to be a writer? Writing is not about inspiration! In the main it’s about hard work and frustration and rewriting and rewriting. But there are moments. The best are when you’re writing and suddenly, words seem to flow from your fingertips and ideas happen that you haven’t had to work for and you don’t know where they came from. What’s the best thing and worst thing about being a writer? The worst is when you can’t think where to go in your writing, and an idea won’t get written. What’s the best thing and worst thing about being a writer? Write! (See the first sentence above - ‘best and worst thing about being a writer’) What advice would you give to aspiring writers? External links Category: living people Category:Women authors from New Zealand Category:Editors from New Zealand Category:Historians from New Zealand Category:Non-fiction authors from New Zealand Category:Children's authors Category:1946 births Category:Women born in the 1940s