Christchurch Writers' Trail

The Canterbury Branch of the New Zealand Society of Authors has, with generous support from The Community Trust, laid 32 plaques in various parts of Christchurch.

The Canterbury Settlement, right from 1850, was notable for its exalted ideals. The settlement's early colonists lugged ashore libraries, musical instruments, paints, easels and plans for a grammar school and University.

A surprising number of these pioneers were competent writers. The published memoirs, letters, journals and poetry left by Charlotte Godley, Edward and Crosbie Ward, James FitzGerald, Henry Sewell, Sarah Courage and many others established a robust literary tradition in Canterbury, particularly in poetry and non-fiction.

From the 1930s to the early 1950s, during Denis Glover's association with The Caxton Press, Christchurch was a focal point of New Zealand's artistic life.

Some of the authors chosen for the walk are Denis Glover, Allen Curnow, Ngaio Marsh, William Pember Reeves, Lady Butler, Blanche Baughn, Mary Ursula Bethell, Monte Holcroft, Sue McCauley, Keri Hulme, Margaret Mahy and Steven Eldred-Grigg.

Those authors chosen for the walk all have a close connection with Christchurch, and their plaques have been placed on sites of personal significance.

Gordon Ogilvie was asked by the Christchurch branch of the NZSA, to take over from the scheme's founder, Eric Beardsley, the task of editing the latest booklet and organising the latest round of plaques for the Christchurch Writers’ Walk. He contributed this account:

The latest ten to be "plaqued" are Arnold Wall (English scholar, poet, essayist, botanist and broadcaster), Esther Glen (children's page editor and pioneer children's author), D'Arcy Cresswell (poet, journalist, dramatist, autobiographer), Alan Mulgan (editor, literary critic, novelist and all-round "man of letters"), John Schroder (essayist, editor, literary critic, broadcaster), Dorothy Eden (prolific short story writer and author of 40 romantic/historical novels), Elsie Locke (children's author, historical novelist, pamphleteer, autobiographer) and Alan Grant (journalist, television script writer and one of New Zealand's most brilliant comic satirists).

Two living writers to be honoured are Gavin Bishop, the award-winning children's writer and picture book illustrator with nearly 30 books to his credit, translated into six languages; andFiona Farrell, one of New Zealand's most versatile and prolific writers, who came to Christchurch in 1992 as writer-in-residence at Canterbury University and has since lived on Banks Peninsula where she continues to write fiction, poetry, plays, articles and children's stories.

These authors, poets and dramatists have over this last century and a half helped to teach us -- in Allen Curnow’s memorable line -- to "learn the trick of standing upright here." Dr Samuel Johnson remarked in the preface to his famous dictionary of 1775 that the chief glory of any nation resides in its literature. It is hoped that these plaques and the new explanatory booklet will help perpetuate the work and reputation of at least a few of our city’s most notable writers.