Tag: obituaries

Ans Westra, 1936 – 2023

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Self Portrait by Ans Westra, [c.1963], ATL Ref AWM-0705-F
We are greatly saddened to hear of the passing of one of New Zealand’s best-known and loved photographers, Ans Westra. Born in Leiden, Netherlands, Ans migrated to New Zealand in 1957 aged 21 and briefly lived in Auckland before moving to Wellington the following year. She quickly settled into her adopted city and set about capturing local communities, street fashion and generational shifts as the baby boomers came of age. Wielding a medium-format Rolleiflex camera held at her waist, for many years she was a regular sight at parades, concerts and school fairs; her lens always focused on the people who were attending rather than the event itself. She also travelled across the country and paid special attention to photographing Māori communities who until then had been largely ignored by contemporary photographers.

Ans Westra was a regular visitor to the former Wellington Central Library and became friendly with a number of staff in the old New Zealand Room. When tasked with establishing a photograph collection in the 1970s, the Local History Librarian Hilda McDonnell recognised the quality and breadth of Westra’s photographs and acquired several hundred images.  Hand-printed by Ans in her own darkroom, these photographs capture the people and streets of Wellington with a rare degree of intimacy.


Photograph by Ans Westra, 1976. Wellington City Recollect Ref AW-992-8

With permission from her family and agent {Suite} Gallery, we digitised our collection of her photographs and these are now available to view on our heritage platform, Wellington City Recollect. Browse them online via the button below:

Ans Westra Collection – Wellington City Recollect

Our thoughts are with Ans’ family during this difficult time.

Raymond Briggs, author of “The Snowman”, has died

Neil

Raymond Briggs, one of the world’s most unique and beloved author/illustrators has died, aged 88.

The Snowman, by Raymond BriggsAn iconic children’s author, he is perhaps best known for his hugely popular books of the 1970s, including Father Christmas, Fungus the Bogeyman, and especially The Snowman (1978). Although he was already well established as a children’s author at the time it was made, it was the 1982 multi-award winning animated adaptation of The Snowman that really propelled Briggs and his work into the wider public consciousness.

Born in Wimbledon in 1934, Briggs was evacuated as a child from London during the second world war. After doing his national service, he studied painting at University College London, which he briefly pursued as a career, before becoming a professional illustrator.

In 1966, he won the first of many major awards — the Kate Greenaway Medal, for illustrating  The Mother Goose Treasury. His 1970s work appealed to children, teenagers, and adults alike, whilst later works took on a more serious political aspect, with works such as When The Wind Blows (about nuclear destruction) and The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman (about the Falklands War).

In many of his works, Briggs liked to include autobiographical elements with poignant, humanist portrayals, such as Ethel and Ernest (about his parents). His last work — the brutally honest  illustrated memoir Time for Lights Out.

Taken as a whole the body of his works is remarkable funny, sad, political and sometimes deeply personal.  He always adapted his illustration style in a chameleon type way, to precisely suit the mood and tone of each work. In short, he created books that matter and will continue to matter as time passes and surely that is the ultimate point of great books, or indeed great art.


The snowman / Briggs, Raymond
“When his snowman comes to life, a little boy invites him home and in return is taken on a flight high above the countryside.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Father Christmas / Briggs, Raymond
“Strip pictures, with an occasional full-page spread, and words in comic-style balloons show domestic activities as well as the working life of a slightly reluctant Father Christmas.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Father Christmas goes on holiday / Briggs, Raymond
“Follows Father Christmas on a search for the ideal holiday spot.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Fungus the bogeyman / Briggs, Raymond
“Everyday life in Bogeydom is examined as Fungus the Bogeyman describes the skills of scaring people in the nighttime and living underground amidst slime and grime in the daytime.” (Adapted from Catalogue). We also have the award winning film available on DVD.

Ug : boy genius of the stone age and his search for soft trousers / Briggs, Raymond
“Ug, an inventive and inquisitive Stone Age boy, is misunderstood by his family and friends when he tries to improve their living conditions.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

The Puddleman / Briggs, Raymond
“Tom refers to his grandfather as ‘Collar’ because he drags him around on a lead. One day, Tom decides that he will take Collar on a walk to see the puddles he has named after the members of the family, but the puddles are not there. Collar insists that this is because it hasn’t rained, but Tom believes that it’s just because they haven’t been put in yet. He wanders off, leaving Collar talking to Mrs Whitebobblehat, and comes across just the person he needs.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Time for lights out / Briggs, Raymond
“In his customary pose as the grumpiest of grumpy old men, Raymond Briggs contemplates old age and death… and doesn’t like them much. Illustrated with Briggs’s inimitable pencil drawings, Time for Lights Out is a collection of short pieces, some funny, some melancholy, some remembering his wife who died young, others about the joy of grandchildren, of walking the dog… He looks back at his schooldays and his time as an evacuee during the war, and remembers his parents and the house in which he grew up. But most, like this one, are about his home in Sussex.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Notes from the sofa / Briggs, Raymond
“In ‘Notes from the Sofa’, Raymond Briggs traces the course of his life in a series of wonderfully observed vignettes that take him from the awkwardness and embarrassment of growing up to the vicissitudes and frustrations of growing old.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Gentleman Jim / Briggs, Raymond
“Jim is the story of Jim Bloggs, an imaginative toilet cleaner who, dissatisfied with his station in life, devotes his time to envisioning a world beyond it. His walls are lined with books like Out in the Silver West, The Boys’ Book of Pirates, and Executive Opportunities, which provide fodder for his ruminations on career change. Encouraged by his wife, who is also eager to incorporate more adventure into her life, Jim sets out to bring these dreams to fruition by accumulating various accoutrements, only to discover that the life of an executive, an artist, or a cowboy is more complicated and costly than it appears.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Tribute to Sondheim

Susannah

“Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.” – Stephen Sondheim

Sadly, there have been a number of notable deaths of well-known figures this year, but among the most significant was the passing of musical theatre titan, Stephen Sondheim. Passing at the age of 91 at the end of November, Sondheim redefined musical theatre over his more than sixty year career. He notably collaborated on West Side Story with another renowned composer, Leonard Bernstein, and was mentored by Oscar Hammerstein II, of the famous musical theatre duo, Rogers and Hammerstein. Sondheim began his musical theatre career as a lyricist, before going on to both write and compose. Some of his most notable works are: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979), and Into the Woods (1987). See below for some of our holdings both by and about Stephen Sondheim.

The story so far… / Sondheim, Stephen
“Stephen Sondheim: The Story So Far is a four-CD box set of 82 recordings of music by the Broadway songwriter, with a running time just under five hours. It is far from the first compilation of Sondheim’s work, or even the first box set, but it follows a pattern in such compilations and in box sets in general, in that the selection seems aimed at two different classes of potential purchasers, those general fans looking for a single omnibus collection of the best or most popular of an artist’s efforts, and the aficionados primarily interested in rarities”. ~ William Ruhlmann” (Abridged from the catalogue)

Stephen Sondheim : a life / Secrest, Meryle
“”In the first full-scale life of the most important composer-lyricist at work in musical theatre today, Meryle Secrest draws on her extended conversations with Stephen Sondheim as well as on her interviews with his friends, family, collaborators, and lovers to bring us not only the artist – as a master of modernist compositional style – but also the private man.” “We see Sondheim at work with composers, producers, directors, co-writers, actors, the greats of his time and ours, among them Leonard Bernstein, Ethel Merman, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein, Jerome Robbins, Zero Mostel, Bernadette Peters, and Lee Remick (with whom it was said he was in love, and she with him), as Secrest vividly re-creates the energy, the passion, the despair, the excitement, the genius, that went into the making of show after Sondheim show.”–BOOK JACKET. Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved” (Catalogue)

Sondheim’s Broadway musicals / Banfield, Stephen
“The first in-depth look at the work and career of one of the most important figures in the history of musical theater.” (Catalogue)

 

 

 

Finishing the hat : the collected lyrics of Stephen Sondheim with attendant comments, principles, heresies, grudges, whines and anecdotes / Sondheim, Stephen
“The winner of seven Tonys, seven Grammys, an Oscar, and a Pulitzer Prize, Stephen Sondheim has become synonymous with the best in musical theatre. Now, in Finishing the Hat, he has not only collected his lyrics for the first time, he’s giving readers a rare, personal look into his extraordinary shows and life. Along with the lyrics, both published and unpublished, for all of his productions from 1954 to 1981 – including West Side Story, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, and Sweeney Todd, which have starred some of the most famous and talented actors in the world from Johnny Depp and Catherine Zeta Jones, to Judi Dench and Alan Rickman, Finishing the Hat is a celebration of the act of creation. Sondheim discusses his relationship with his mentor, Oscar Hammerstein II, and his collaborations with legends Leonard Bernstein, Richard Rodgers, Angela Lansbury, and countless others.  (Abridged from the catalogue)

Look, I made a hat : collected lyrics (1981-2011) with attendant comments, amplifications, dogmas, harangues, digressions, anecdotes and miscellany / Sondheim, Stephen
“Filled with behind-the-scenes photographs and illustrations from original manuscripts, and with the same elegant design as the earlier book, ‘Look, I Made A Hat’ will be devoured by Sondheim’s passionate fans today and for years to come.” (Catalogue)

 

The Stephen Sondheim collection : 52 selections from 17 musicals or film scores / Sondheim, Stephen
“Standards Piano/Vocal/Guitar” (Catalogue)

 

 

 

The Stephen Sondheim collection. Volume 2, 40 songs from 14 shows and films / Sondheim, Stephen
“Standards Piano/Vocal/Guitar” (Catalogue)

 

 

 

Sweeney Todd : the demon barber of Fleet Street / Sondheim, Stephen
“Musical Theatre Vocal Solo” (Catalogue)

 

Celia Lashlie, a legacy for social justice

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Celia Lashlie, who was well known as a researcher and social commentator, died on the 16th February 2015 after a short illness. Celia’s work in social justice started in the probation service. In December 1985 she started as the first woman to work as a prison officer in a male prison in New Zealand and worked for the Prison Service for 15 years. Her last role for the Prison Service was at the Christchurch Women’s Prison as a manager. She left that position in September 1999.

She was well known for her talks on raising teenage boys, and on social justice issues and authored three books that are available here at Wellington City Libraries; The Journey to Prison: Who goes and why, He’ll Be Ok, Growing Gorgeous Boys into Good Men and The Power of Mothers: Releasing Our Children.  In September 2004, she completed the ‘Good Man’ project. The project aimed to create a working definition of what makes a good man in the 21st century.

Up until her illness she was working on projects linked to improving the lives of at-risk children and empowering families to find their own solutions to the challenges they face. Celia and her family hoped that this work would continue with public support and will be a testament to her great contribution to social justice and improving the lives of at-risk families, aiding the reduction of crime and poverty in this country and driven by her belief that “every child is born pure and filled with their own particular brand of magic”.

Celia had two children and three grandchildren.

Syndetics book coverThe journey to prison : who goes and why / Celia Lashlie.
‘There is a blond, angelic-faced five year old sitting in a classroom in New Zealand and he is coming to prison…on his way, he will probably kill someone.’ With these words Celia Lashlie caused a media storm that propeeled her into the headlines for weeks during 2001. Now she tells the story from her point of view, then goes on to look at the whole question of the origins issue of crime in New Zealand, the way we punish offenders, the effectiveness of prison (for both men and women), parental responsibility, the role of drugs, where education comes in and the role of state institutions. Underpinning her argument is the need for the community as a whole to take responsibility for the incidence of crime in our society. With her background as a prison officer in male prisons and manager of a female prison, Celia Lashlie is uniquely placed to offer both real facts and wise insights that will inform the often unenlightened debate about crime and punishment in New Zealand. (Abridged from back cover)

Syndetics book cover He’ll be OK : growing gorgeous boys into good men / Celia Lashlie.
“Adolescent boys – they seem to disappear into another world where they barely communicate and where fast cars, alcohol and drugs are constant temptations.  Will they survive to become good men?  How can parents and schools understand them and help them through this difficult and dangerous time?  Celia Lashlie has some of the answers.  After years of working in the prison service she knows what can happen when boys make the wrong choices.  She also knows what it is like to be a parent – she raised a son on her own and feared for his survival.  During the recent Good Man Project she talked to 180 classes of boys throughout New Zealand, and what she found was surprising, amusing , and in some cases, frightening.  In this funny, honest, no-nonsense book Celia Lashlie reveals what goes on inside the world of boys, and that it is an entirely different world from that of girls.  With clarity and insight she offers parents – especially mothers – practical and reassuring advice on raising their boys to become  good, loving, articulate men.”  (Abridged from back cover)

Syndetics book coverThe power of mothers : releasing our children / Celia Lashlie.
“A hard-hitting look at crime and criminal families and the women with the power to change things – if we let them. The Power of Mothers is a wake up call to voter and politician, parent and grandparent, social agency and lobby group alike. We must do more than build prisons to hold the children we fail – and we must start now.” (Abridged from back cover)

Author Doris Lessing Dies

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Syndetics book cover
The much acclaimed British novelist, poet, playwright, short story writer and biographer, Doris Lessing has died aged 94 years. Born in Persia (present day Iran), she spent her formative and young adult life in Southern Rhodesia (present day Zimbabwe), before moving to England in 1949. Author of over 50 novels she was awarded The David Cohen Prize for lifetime’s achievement in British Literature in 2001 and The Nobel prize in Literature in 2007. The Grass is Singing was her first novel, published in 1950. Her best known novels were, The Golden Notebook published in 1962 and The Good Terrorist, published in 1985. Her last novel, Alfred and Emily, semi-biographical fiction was published in 2008.

Popular author Tom Clancy has died

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Syndetics book coverThe very popular American thriller author Tom Clancy has died aged 66. Born in Baltimore, where spent his life. After graduating in 1969 and before embarking on a literary career he ran an independent insurance agency. His first novel, The Hunt for the Red October, was published in 1984 and set a new genre of detailed military science and espionage storylines. A prolific writer, he was only one of three authors to have sold 2,000,000 copies of a title on first printing in the 1990’s and that was for his fifth novel, titled Clear and Present Danger. Some of his novels were adapted to film. He was also the co-founder of the video game developer Red Storm Entertainment; over fifty video games were released based on his novels and characters.