THEY’RE LEGENDS
TWO FORMIDABLE WOMEN MADE THE WEEKLY WHAT IT IS TODAY
We honour two formidable women who made the Weekly their own – Jean Wishart and Tui Flower – who both passed away in the last year.
One was a publishing legend with an incredible knack for understanding exactly what readers wanted; the other was a cooking doyenne who encouraged several generations into the kitchen.
Jean Wishart and Tui Flower changed people’s lives and played a crucial part in making New Zealand Woman’s Weekly a huge success during their many years at the magazine. Sadly, we lost them both in the last 12 months.
Jean died in November last year, aged 96. During her incredible 32 years as the editor of the Weekly, she took it from a modest newsprint journal in 1952 through to a thick, glossy publication which sold around 250,000 copies every week by the time she retired in 1984.
An astute businesswoman with an acute news sense, Jean had enormous respect for her readers and took note of what they wanted to read. She was not afraid to move with the times, and when the women’s rights movement took off in the 1970s, she covered contentious subjects such as rape, child molestation and abortion.
But she took care to make any changes slowly, in response to readers’ wishes. It was her aim to produce a magazine “chock full of goodies” that informed as well as entertained.
Readers saw her as “dear Jean”, a trusted friend, although to her staff she was always Miss Wishart. Former editor Jenny Lynch, who worked with Jean for many years, described her as “nothing short of a marvel”.
“Jean never preached or imposed her views,” wrote Jenny in a touching tribute to her former boss, but her pleasant face with a brief letter at the front of the magazine somehow set the tone for the pages that followed.
“In person, she was ladylike, immaculately groomed and beautifully spoken, with a reserve that may have been based on shyness but which masked a lively sense of fun.”
Jenny said Jean always kept her cool, even under the most stressful circumstances – such as when the magazine’s long lead-in times meant a celebrity couple announced the end of their marriage just as the Weekly came out with a story about how happy they were.
“Her composure never faltered. Whatever the crisis, I never heard her utter a rude word. She was unflappable.”
One of Jean’s innovations was the Test Kitchen in 1965. In what turned out to be a smart move, she appointed former cooking teacher turned home economist Tui Flower to head the team, testing recipes for readers.
For the next 19 years, Tui set about teaching New Zealanders to cook better, producing recipes that were delicious and often quite revolutionary.
She copped flak for including “foreign muck”, such as garlic and olive oil, in her dishes and for adding wine to her cooking, but it wasn’t long before many households around the country were following in her footsteps.
As well as inspiring people through the Weekly, Tui was also in charge of the cooking pages of The Auckland Star newspaper, wrote numerous cookbooks and was the first president of the New Zealand Guild of Food Writers.
She was a mentor to many local food writers, including Allyson Gofton.
After her death at 91 in August, tributes from people in the cooking industry described her as a national treasure and
compared her to US cooking legend Julia Child.
Robyn Martin, who was Tui’s protégé and successor in the
Test Kitchen, delivered a heartfelt eulogy in which she described
Tui as a formidable character who demanded high standards, good organisation and attention to detail. “What she lacked in height, she made up for in feist,” recalled Robyn. But beneath that sometimes tough exterior was a “tender, kind, generous and loving woman” who was a great listener and wise giver of advice.
“She never wanted to have her name in lights,” said Robyn. “When asked what she would like to be remembered for, she said that it would be that she helped a few people.”
Tui and Jean left a lasting legacy for New Zealand, thanks to their talent and hard work, and their contributions to the Woman’s Weekly is remembered with great fondness.