Monday 21st November at Turnbull
House, Wellington
This award honours Betty Gilderdale, a
lifelong advocate and supporter of children’s literature, and is for
outstanding long-term service to the genre of books for children and young
adults. Previous winners have included Dorothy Butler, Elsie Locke, Graham
Beattie, Ray Richards, Dame Katerina Te Heikoko Mataira and Dr Glyn Strange.
The recipients for 2011are John and Ruth McIntyre, owners of The Children’s Bookshop
in Kilbirnie, Wellington.
The award ceremony featured a wide range of
family and friends, writers, reviewers, booksellers, publishers and enthusiasts
for children’s books. Maureen Crisp, Convenor of the WCBA (Wellington
Children’s Book Association), read out congratulatory messages from others who
were unable to be there, including Barbara and Chris Else, Sheila Sinclair
(from The Children’s Bookshop in Christchurch), Lincoln Gould (CEO
Booksellers), Kate De Goldi, Mandy Hager, Johanna Knox – and Betty Gilderdale
herself.
As part of the award presentation, the
recipient delivers a speech, known as the Spring Lecture. John and Ruth gave
their speech together, describing how they had started out in business 20 years
ago, so green that they had to phone the publishers to ask what the margin on
books was, so inexperienced that (as they later heard) the local reps were
betting on how long they would last, and so hardworking that their children
“only realised the working week wasn’t 50 hours when they got jobs of their
own.”
John said
they were astonished to win the award, having had “absolutely no idea” that
they had been nominated for it – “and we usually pride ourselves on knowing
what’s going on!” He and Ruth paid tribute to their family, their staff, school
librarians and those from the National Library, and their colleagues in other
indie bookshops around the country who sponsor events, support local authors
and provide an intellectual and cultural hub in the community.
They also
mentioned their loyal customers, who made a point of buying each new Harry
Potter volume from them despite cost cutting from the major chains, and
continue to show their support in the face of competition from offshore
websites.
John’s
description of their role as “just retailers” (“all we’ve ever aimed for is to
be considered good booksellers – or maybe really
good booksellers) was countered by Libby Limbrick of the Storylines Children’s
Literature Trust, who praised them as “booksellers with passion and heart.”
- Philippa Werry
