Mona Randall book
Mona Randall of Parapara reckons that at 86 years of age she must be one of the oldest authors in the country to publish their first book.
On Tuesday 14 December at the Takaka Memorial Library she will launch The Geriatric Garden and Other Poems, a collection of 42 of her best written over the last six years. Mona organised the 75-page, A5-size book into five sections and had it edited by Carol Don Ercolano of Nelson. It was self-published under the name Boulder Press, and printed by The Copy Press in Stoke.
“It’s been a huge amount of work formatting and getting it all ready for printing, but the whole process from start to finish was immensely satisfying at the same time,” said Mona. “Some of poems have a humorous bent, and they’re all suitable for children to read as well.”
Subjects range from windy washdays to pumpkin patches, Cecil the Snail to paua, and errant shopping trolleys to the introduction of didymo.
Mona says she has always been a traditional word lover, prolific family history writer, and ardent writer of letters and newsletters. Her move into short stories and poetry has been relatively recent but highly successful. She’s clocked up multiple wins at Bay Lit, Golden Bay’s annual writing competition, and has had numerous poems published in a string of New Zealand poetry anthologies. Three of her poems that feature in her new book – The Geriatric Garden, The Discordant Bellbird and The Troublesome Trundler – have also recently featured in the TDC seniors’ magazine Mudcakes and Roses. She has been an active member of a local writer’s group for over a decade, and regularly travels over the Hill to participate in meetings as an active member of the Top of the South Branch of the NZ Society of Authors.
Mona (nee Bell) was born in the Buller town of Millerton in 1924, but spent much of her childhood in Southland. When she was about 10, her submitted poems were accepted for the weekly Children’s Page of the Southland Times, earning her around 1s/6d a week pocket money in the process, roughly six times what her “hard-up” parents could ever afford to give her. She recalls: “It surprised me even back then how easy and reliable it was to earn money just churning out catchy poetry that people wanted to read, certainly easier than what other kids were having to do for their after school and holiday jobs.”
She credits her English teacher and Senior Mistress at Gore High School for encouraging her to write. “It’s not her fault, though, that it’s taken me more years than I care to remember to follow all her advice. But it was her belief in my ability that stimulated my involvement in writing following my retirement.”
Mona and her husband Clem moved here from Christchurch in 1978 to build a house on their 10.5 hectares of bush-clad hillside at Milnthorpe. Anyone who has known Mona through her community involvement since will know that this exceptional woman has talent in spades. It’s something she has never hesitated to share, as a regular performer at the Mussel Inn’s Live Poets’ nights, a unrestrained theatre buff, actress, producer, musical director, gifted pianist, chorister, passionate gardener and (as expected) a fine, story-telling granny, great granny and great-great-granny. Her own four children are now aged between 57 and 65.
Mona’s is a life lived, and still being lived, to the full.
The Geriatric Garden and Other Poems launch is at the library this Tuesday 14 December at 11am. Everyone is most welcome. The book will also be available from the author (ph 524 8384) and from Take Note, for $20.
Gerard Hindmarsh
