24 Facts About Margaret Mahy

Margaret Mahy was a New Zealand author of children's and young adult books.

Margaret Mahy wrote more than 100 picture books, 40 novels and 20 collections of short stories.

Margaret Mahy's novels have been translated into Te Reo Maori, German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Italian, Japanese, Catalan and Afrikaans.

Margaret Mahy's father, Francis George Mahy, was a bridge builder and often told his children adventure stories which later influenced Mahy's writing.

Margaret Mahy's first published story was "Harry is Bad", written at age seven.

Margaret Mahy went to the local high school, where she was acknowledged as a talented swimmer.

From around 1965, Margaret Mahy lived at Governors Bay on the Banks Peninsula, Canterbury, in the South Island of New Zealand.

Margaret Mahy was a solo mother and raised two daughters there.

At age 62, Margaret Mahy had her right shoulder tattooed with the picture of a skull with a rose in its teeth.

Margaret Mahy was writing about a person being tattooed and considered the tattoo research to enable her to describe the experience convincingly.

In 2007, Margaret Mahy adopted a cavoodle puppy she named Honey, because of her colour.

Margaret Mahy died at the Nurse Maude Hospice in St Albans, Christchurch on 23 July 2012, aged 76.

Margaret Mahy had been diagnosed with an inoperable cancerous jaw tumour in April 2012 and had been moved to a hospice about nine days before her death.

Margaret Mahy worked as a librarian in Petone, the School Library Service in Christchurch, and in 1976 was appointed Children's Librarian at Canterbury Public Library.

Margaret Mahy wrote several fantasy novels, including The Haunting and The Changeover.

Margaret Mahy went on to win numerous book awards and honours for her contributions to New Zealand and to children's literature.

On 6 February 1993, Margaret Mahy was appointed a Member of the Order of New Zealand, for her contributions to children's literature.

Margaret Mahy's language is rich in poetic imagery, magic, and supernatural elements.

Margaret Mahy's oeuvre provides a vast, numinous, but intensely personal metaphorical arena for the expression and experience of childhood and adolescence.

Margaret Mahy's works are known to children and young adults all over the world.

Margaret Mahy won the Carnegie Medal in 1982 for The Haunting.

The Margaret Mahy Award, named for Mahy, is presented annually to "a person who has made a significant contribution to the broad field of children's literature and literacy".

Margaret Mahy is one of three authors to win it twice.

Margaret Mahy wrote more than 100 picture books, 40 novels and 20 collections of short stories published between 1969 and 2014.