Author heads glowing list,
The ONZ is New Zealand's top honour. Ordinary membership is limited to 20 living people at any time.
Author Joy Cowley is ‘‘bewildered’’ and ‘‘delighted’’ at joining the select group of Members of the Order of New Zealand (ONZ).
Her appointment heads the New Year Honours list for 2018. There are also four new dames and three new sirs.
The new Dame Companions of the New Zealand Order of Merit (DNZM) are former Maori Party president Naida Glavish, former Labour Party deputy leader Annette King, fashion designer Denise L’Estrange-Corbet, and former National Party Cabinet minister Georgina te Heuheu.
New Knight Companions of the New Zealand Order of Merit (KNZM) are Ma¯ ori Heritage Council chair John Clarke, former Court of Appeal judge Douglas White, and former All Black Bryan Williams.
Cowley is a prolific writer, best known for her children’s fiction including The Silent One, a story about the friendship between a deaf mute boy and a rare white turtle. It was made into a movie in 1984.
Among her most popular children’s book characters is Mrs Wishy-Washy.
The ONZ is New Zealand’s top honour. Ordinary membership is limited to 20 living people at any time.
Cowley’s appointment takes the number of current ordinary members to 19.
Others include Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Sir Murray Halberg, Helen Clark, Sir Bob Charles, Professor Albert Wendt, and Richie McCaw.
Cowley said her first reaction when approached about the appointment was ‘‘why me?’’.
‘‘I was bewildered by it but also absolutely delighted,’’ she said.
‘‘I have this great love for this country.
‘‘My work over many years has taken me to most of the countries in the world, and it’s always so good to come back home,’’ she said.
‘‘You get out at the airport and you’re among family.
‘‘That’s the feeling I get from this, I guess.
‘‘It’s like being the country’s grandmother.’’
Age 81, she is still writing at her home in Featherston, and in 2017 had several books published,
including books for pre-schoolers and the junior fiction story Helper and Helper.
‘‘I don’t know what I would do with the ideas if I didn’t write them down.
‘‘I’d probably blow up,’’ Cowley said.
‘‘I do have good energy and always have had, and I’ve inherited the Scottish work ethic.
‘‘I always felt uneasy about wasting time.’’
She wasn’t travelling nowadays. ‘‘My husband’s not very well. We just spend as much time as we can during the day together,’’ she said.
Most of her writing is done early in the day, which usually starts at 4.30am with some quiet reflection time.
DAMES AND SIRS
which has become recognised internationally as a leading progressive and philanthropic brand.
In 2015, World became the first fashion brand to be globally endorsed by the United Nations for its Global Goals project t-shirt design. L’Estrange-Corbett appeared in the first Like Minds Like Mine campaign in 2001 promoting anti-discrimination towards mental illness.
Annette King was MP for Rongotai from 1996 until retiring from politics in 2017. Before that she was MP for Horowhenua from
1984 to 1990, and of Miramar from
1993 to 1996. She was deputy leader of the Labour Party and of the Opposition from 2008 to 2011, and from 2014 to March 2017.
Following the 1999 election, she was appointed minister of health, and during her term the current district health board system was established.
Williams was an All Black from 1970 to 1978, as well as playing for Auckland and the Ponsonby club.
Known as BG, the Samoan was on the leading edge of the wave of Polynesian players who have come to play such a key role in the game.
Williams was in brilliant form on the All Blacks 1970 tour to South Africa, scoring 14 tries in 13 matches.
Altogether he played 38 tests for the All Blacks and 132 games for Auckland.
Glavish first hit the headlines in 1984.
She was a telephone operator for the Post Office, and her supervisor told her to stop using the greeting ‘‘kia ora’’.
After a bit of a brouhaha, the matter was put to rest by thenprime minister Sir Rob Muldoon, who returned from overseas and said he couldn’t get excited about a woman who wanted to say kia ora.