Poetess

Well, I was born in Holland, and I came here at the age of twelve, and couldn’t speak a word of English.

So how did you go about…

Picking up the language? Well, as you can see, I DID pick it up…

Pretty WELL considering you have become one of the country’s foremost women poets.

It was a country school, and the headmaster wasn’t so VERY busy, he was a good soul, he took my sister and me under his wing and every day he we had an hour's session with him.

With books?

This was the 1950s. There WERE no books for this. He used pictures. He would point to a picture of a bird and say ‘chicken’ and we would repeat ‘chicken’ and then he would ask us ‘In Dutch?’ and we would say ‘kip.’ And here’s what was great about him. HE would repeat, ‘kip.’

Why did he want to learn Dutch?

He was enlightened. I think for no other reason than he wanted to broaden his world.

That was one unusual New Zealander.

Back then, yes.

Quiz Question: Of the seven in the photo, who is Q and who is A?
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