Friends of the Dorothy Neal White Collection

You are invited to the annual general meeting of the Friends of the Dorothy Neal White Collection. Before the meeting Mary Skarott, Research Librarian Children’s Literature, will show a selection of picture books added to the Dorothy Neal White and the National Children’s Collections in the past year.

As a young boy Arthur Ransome read the works of Robert Louis Stevenson with enthusiasm, and in his mid-20s he was commissioned to write a biography of Stevenson. What happened to that work? In this talk Kirsty Findlay explores how Arthur Ransome's 'Stevenson' was brought to publication one hundred years later than intended.

The Friends of the Dorothy Neal White Collection formed in 1982. To celebrate our 40th year (a little belatedly) you are invited to share an evening of festive food & drink and appropriate celebratory readings by the FDNWC committee.

In this talk, the Director of Katherine Mansfield House & Garden Cherie Jacobson, will introduce the life and work of New Zealand artist Edith Kathleen Bendall (EKB). Today Edith is usually mentioned in the context of her relationship with writer Katherine Mansfield, but in early 20th-century Wellington, Edith was a popular artist and illustrator in her own right.

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You are invited to the annual general meeting of the Friends of the Dorothy Neal White Collection. Before the meeting Mary Skarott, Research Librarian Children’s Literature, will show a selection of hand-coloured books and books with hand-written inscriptions from the Dorothy Neal White Collection.

This talk by PhD candidate Talia Crockett examines a variety of YA novels that explore the diverse traumas of the Holocaust, postcolonial displacement, and parental abuse, while also exploring the evolution of trauma theory and the resulting shifts in YA literature.

Celebrate summertime at the last Friends of the Dorothy Neal White Collection event for 2022. Committee members will read summery pieces from some of their favourite books, old and new. Join the committee for seasonal drinks and nibbles before the readings.

You are invited to the annual general meeting of the Friends of the Dorothy Neal White Collection. Before the meeting Mary Skarott, Research Librarian Children’s Literature, will show a selection of books added to the National Children’s Collection during the past year, focusing mainly on books in translation.

Joyce Lankester Brisley’s Milly-Molly-Mandy stories idealise country living in England in the 1920s. Her Bunchy stories are, by contrast, unnerving fantasies, reflecting Bunchy’s isolation as a lonely orphan. In this talk, Dr Kathryn Walls explores the contrasts in these popular stories.

Dr Nicola Daly will share her experience at the World of Words Center at the University of Arizona in Austin, Texas. The Center aims to build bridges across global cultures through children’s and adolescent literature.

Do you love Swallows and Amazons? Have you ever camped, fished, sailed, been bird spotting, or visited the Lake District in England, the Highlands of Scotland or the Norfolk Broads of East Anglia? Are you a fan of Arthur Ransome? Then this talk is for you.

For the end-of-the year event Fleur Beale, award-winning author and Patron of the Friends of the Dorothy Neal White Collection, will talk about how she became a writer and where the ideas came from for some of her books.

Are you interested in pre-1940 books for children? As part of the annual general meeting of the Friends of the Dorothy Neal White Collection Mary Skarott, Research Librarian, Children’s Literature, will speak about some delightful new additions to our children's collections.

Do you remember Anne of Green Gables? Join literary historian Cheryl Paget on a pilgrimage to Prince Edward Island, Canada, and sites connected with L M Montgomery’s and her famous character.