Name: Marlene Bennetts
Date of birth: 9 March 1938
Place of birth: Westport
Now living in: Christchurch
- What is your favourite food?
- Fresh fish, and cheesecake dessert.
- Do you have a nickname and if so what is it?
- Bridget and Girlie
- What was your most embarrassing moment?
- On my first day at school, discovering my (softly) boiled egg had burst and run through everything in the school bag mother had made from a sugarsack bag.
- How do you relax?
- By reading, doing jigsaws, and going for walks in the bush or by the sea.
- Who inspired you when you were little?
- My father who always told me that, "There's no such word in the dictionary as can't".
- What were you like at school?
- Above average and into most sports - hockey, netball, athletics, swimming, horse-riding and tennis.
- What was your favourite/most hated subject at school?
- History and Geography were my favourites - essay writing and comprehension I loathed!!
- What was the book you most loved as a child?
- Peter Pan
- Which person from the past would you most like to meet?
- Emily Dickinson - the poet.
- Who is your favourite author/children's author?
- Adult author: Georgette Heyer
Children's author: Joy Cowley - Why did you want to be a writer?
- So I could write some of the stories told me by my great-grandparents & grandparents of when they came from other countries to colonise New Zealand in the early days.
- Do you have a special place where you write your books?
- Yes. I have a special room and a special sheepskin mat I like to put my bare feet on as I write on the computer.
- What's the best thing and worst thing about being a writer?
- The best thing is the people and children I meet and how I'm always learning something with each new work I write. The worst thing I dislike is having to rewrite and rewrite.
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If you weren't a writer, what would you like to be? - I would like to be a water-colour artist or a pianist.
- What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
- Read a lot and write, write, write… especially about things that interest you or that you know about. The only way to be a writer is to do it.
Marlene Bennetts was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature in the 2003 Queens Birthday Honours.
- Read a short story online by Marlene J. Bennetts
- Read some books written by Marlene Bennetts
- More information about Marlene Bennetts