From Tauranga City Library’s archives
In the reference section of Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries, there is a a dedicated collection in honour of esteemed Tauranga writer, Joyce Tarlton West (1908-1985).
While working full-time as an accountant - writing only at night, over a four-decade career, Joyce West produced a series of detective novels (with Mary Scott), articles and poems for periodicals, and eight children's outdoor adventure books which garnered global popularity.
Joyce started writing in her teens and had stories published in the New Zealand Herald and the Weekly News. She wrote her first novel, Sheep Kings, while living at the family farm in Oropi, in 1936. Her 1953 novel, Drover's Road, was rejected by 13 publishers before being accepted by J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd, London. It would go on to be used in New Zealand schools as an English curriculum literary text.
A black-ink illustration on p. 63 of 'Cape Lost' (1963), one of many that are Joyce West's own work.
Much of the inspiration for Joyce's childrens' stories came from her own childhood. She and her siblings did their secondary schooling by correspondence as her parents were both school teachers, who taught at remote schools in Northland, Taupō and the East Coast. Her books have countryside settings, depicting the rural places where she was raised. Joyce told the Bay of Plenty Times, "I specialise in a type of nostalgia writing... I write childrens' books because I had such a pleasant childhood in an environment so differerent from ours today." (1974, p.9).
Joyce West, with her award-winning book, 'The Sea Islanders', and the contract from Walt Disney Productions, 1974. Te Ao Marama - Tauranga City Libraries photo gcc-26441
The Sea Islanders, published in 1970, was a particularly successful work. It featured in the BBC series Jackanory, airing in five parts in September, 1971. Walt Disney Productions bought the rights to the book, though a screen adaption was never made.
A copy of 'The Sea Islanders' translated into Danish, in the Joyce West Collection at the library.
Following Joyce's death in 1985, the library sought to recognise her contribution to children’s literature through the establishment of the Joyce West Collection; a reference collection created to preserve and celebrate excellence in New Zealand children’s literature, and provide a resource for those interested in the field of New Zealand children’s writing in years to come. Initially beginning with a copy of each of Joyce's books, the collection grew through the annual addition of award-winning titles donated by the Bay of Plenty Children’s Literature Association (now Bookrapt), an organisation of which Joyce was a foundation member and patron. With help from the Friends of the the Library, the library continues to expand this collection by adding titles that include New Zealand Book Award winners and noteworthy authors from the Bay of Plenty region and beyond.
A signed copy of 'Drover's Road' with a 'Joyce West Memorial Collection' plate in the front of the book.
References
Bay of Plenty Times. (1974, October 26). Author gets TV showing.
Gilderdale, B. (1982). A sea change: 145 years of New Zealand junior fiction. Longman Paul.
Gilderdale, B. (1991). Introducing twenty-one New Zealand children's writers. Hodder & Staunton.
For more information about these and other items in our collection, visit Pae Korokī or email the Heritage & Research Team: research@tauranga.govt.nz
Written by Michelle Bradbury from the Heritage & Research Team, Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries.
