Inspiration - Margaret Mahy

This Inspiration edition profiles NZ’s pre-eminent children's author Margaret Mahy: from her childhood as "Mad Margaret", through her days as an unmarried mother and librarian to an internationally acclaimed writing career. The centrepiece is a specially commissioned – and typically zany – story about a story (complete with talking mail boxes, typewriters and bookshelves) where Mahy goes meta, and explores the role imagination plays in her work. Throughout the Keith Hunter-directed documentary there is vivid evidence of the remarkable bond Mahy shared with her readers.

"Funny that", the writer said. "While the story is still in my head, it goes in every direction, all at once. But on paper it loses all directions but one".

– Margaret Mahy

Key Cast & Crew

Margaret Mahy

Subject

Elizabeth McRae

Narrator

Keith Hunter

Director, Producer

Bridget Mahy

Subject

Penny Mahy

Subject

Jack Welsh

Sound