On Arabella Slapcabbage's patch

Waikato Times

Dame Lynley Dodd puts her children's picture books through as many as 25 drafts before each gloriously madcap tale is published. Denise Irvine meets the writer-artist loved by generations of children.

It's probably not surprising that the girl whose father nicknamed her Arabella Slapcabbage went on to invent a cast of wonderful fictional characters such as Hairy Maclary, Zachary Quack, Schnitzel von Krumm, Slinky Malinki and Scarface Claw.

The madcap names roll effortlessly around the tongue, the familiarity increasing with each reading, and the riotous adventures of Hairy & Co are imprinted on the memories of countless parents and kids.

The works of Dame Lynley Dodd (the former Arabella Slapcabbage) have become a literary phenomenon in New Zealand and overseas. She is the author of 32 children's picture books, with sales of more than nine million worldwide.

Dame Lynley has earned many accolades, and a new one is about to be bestowed upon her – an honorary doctorate from Waikato University.

It will be presented at a ceremony on Wednesday at Mills Reef Winery, Bethlehem, and Dame Lynley is delighted to accept. "It is most unlikely. I never expected it. It is both humbling and deeply gratifying to receive such a vote of confidence."

Dame Lynley has had a lot going on lately, and it's keeping her from the upstairs office in her rural Tauranga home where she writes and illustrates her books. She's worried that she's got behind on her latest Slinky Malinki adventure.

Dame Lynley is intrigued by aspiring writers who think they might toss a book off in a couple of days: "I meet people who say they've written something at the weekend and they'd like to get it published. I sometimes do up to 25 drafts. I have to work at it, and at it, and at it, before I even feel vaguely confident of showing it."

She may not meet her tally of a book a year this time, but she's got good excuses for her publishers. As well as the doctorate, with associated activities, she has recently accepted the title of Dame, and there has been some fuss attached to that, too. "I'm finding it (the title) hard to get used to," she grins, inviting us to call her Lynley during this interview.

She joined 72 others accepting titular honours at a redesignation ceremony in Wellington in August, after the National Government reintroduced titles (scrapped by Labour) for those awarded the Principal and Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

Dame Lynley says it was a difficult decision to take a title, and "one or two niggly people made an issue of it in the press". Her view is that the time to refuse would have been when the original honour was offered.

ON TUESDAY morning, she entertains in a big, comfortable window seat with views to the lushly planted property where she and husband Tony, a retired engineer, have lived since 1991. There are extensive lawns (Dame Lynley mows them with a ride-on), and a mix of exotic and native trees. They are visited by kereru, tui and other native birds, and they once found a kaka feasting in their persimmon tree.

Dame Lynley says that a noisy tui is currently singing them a very boring morning song, and it's time she taught it something better. The image of such a singing lesson could almost be a plot for a new book. Perhaps Dame Lynley has already thought of this, because she sees storylines everywhere.

In her office, she has a plain, serviceable "Ideas" book started in the 1970s. It's here that she jots down ideas, sketches and lists of fantastical words that might be useful for stories.

For example, tradesmen installing a rangehood in the Dodds' kitchen poked flexible ducting pipe through a hole in the ceiling, and it reminded Dame Lynley of an elephant's trunk.

She wondered what would happen if you had an elephant in the ceiling, and it got too big for its surroundings? So "The Elephant in the Attic" has been inscribed in the Ideas book, along with a little sketch of a length of ducting pipe poking through a hole.

This idea has not, so far, been used. Nor has the hilarious sketch of the Dodds' Burmese cat – the smooth and slinky Suu Kyi – wearing Dame Lynley's knickers on her head. They had slipped off a heated towel rail in the bathroom and the baffled cat sat for a moment with them on her head.

But another idea, based on a photograph Dame Lynley took when she was 13, became the catalyst for the book Schnitzel von Krumm, Dogs Never Climb Trees, published in 2002.

The vintage photo shows a determined dachshund climbing a tree, chasing a cat perched on a higher branch. The dachshund was Sweetie, the mother of Dame Lynley's childhood dachshund, Shaun. Years later, the unlikely escapade was turned into a rollicking yarn about Schnitzel von Krumm (with a very low tum).

Carefully tucked into the Ideas book is a literary treasure, a rudimentary sketch of a scruffy wee terrier, underneath it the words: "One morning at nine/on the way to the park/went Hairy Maclary/from Donaldson's Dairy."

Dame Lynley laughs as she shows the drawing on a scrap of lined paper, now carefully covered in plastic. "It's quite precious."

She's a keen observer of animal behaviour, and terriers have caught her attention because they are "incredibly cheeky, they'll take on anything, they're not squashable". Hairy Maclary is a mixture of terriers she has known, an imaginary dog.

Years ago she did that little drawing of him, and stuck it in her Ideas book.

DAME LYNLEY never for a moment imagined this modest sketch – and her singular skills with art and language – would lead to a career as a blockbuster children's book author.

She was born in 1941 and grew up in the forestry village of Iwitahi on the Napier-Taupo Rd, where her father was a manager for the New Zealand Forest Service. Dame Lynley attended the one-room Iwitahi School, then Tauranga College.

From there she headed to Auckland University's Elam School of Fine Arts, and her only salaried job has been as an art teacher. She married Englishman Tony Dodd, and they have two adult children, Matthew and Elizabeth, and grandchildren Ella, 6, and Julia, 4. (Ella and Julia, she mentions, "take it for granted that Nana writes books".)

The family lived in Lower Hutt, and it was there that Dame Lynley did the illustrations for My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes, published in 1973, with the script written by her husband's cousin Eve Sutton, who suggested the collaboration. The story was based on the adventures of the Dodds' family cat, Wooskit, who liked to climb in and out of cupboards and boxes.

Dame Lynley recalls Eve telling her the book would be published: "There's nothing like that first acceptance. I could almost hear Eve singing on the telephone. I was hanging out the washing at the time."

Dame Lynley's young children were into picture books, she became interested, and had lots more ideas. Next came The Nickle Nackle Tree in 1976, which she wrote and illustrated herself.

The process has continued. "I'd never wanted to write, but I've always been hooked on language. I'm very conscious of the sound of language and my father and I used to make up silly words when I was young."

Some stories, Dame Lynley says, "I could hear singing in my head". The key, she believes, is to make it sound effortless, "like you haven't had to think about it at all".

Sometimes words get into her head at 1am, and they're still playing at 4am. At that stage she might get up and write things down, and the next day she might wonder: "why did I think it was such a beautiful idea?"

She treasures a piece of advice from one of her heroes, the legendary, zany children's writer Dr Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) whom she met in Wellington when she and Eve Sutton won the prestigious Esther Glen Award in 1975 for My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes.

Dr Seuss spoke at the ceremony; "he was extraordinary, just how I expected him to be, slightly loony, full of madcap humour. He had everyone yelling with laughter".

That night, Dr Seuss cautioned the fledgling New Zealand author to "never get wedded to a good line".

Dame Lynley says the advice has stood her in good stead; the line (or piece of artwork) that you love the best can turn out to be a clunker, getting in the way of a good result.

"You have to be strong enough to let it go."

Dame Lynley clearly has that strength, as she shows the 17 drafts of her most recent Hairy Maclary book (Hairy Maclary, Shoo). The storyline is neatly plotted on A3 paper, each draft building and improving on the last, until she is satisfied with the result.

She starts with the storyline, planning the first and last bits, "so you know where you're heading". She sketches as she writes so the words and illustrations work in harmony, and when the book is finished she paints the pictures as full-size watercolours. It takes about six months to write and illustrate a book, and then there is the time needed for publishing and printing.

Dame Lynley says among the highlights of her career are the many letters she gets from children. She answers them all, and says such feedback keeps her going.

WAIKATO UNIVERSITY has certainly provided plenty of good feedback, as it announced Dame Lynley's honorary doctorate last week.

Vice-chancellor Professor Roy Crawford says her work is a joy to read, the stories filled with "humour and joy, with a level of chaos that children can easily relate to. Dame Lynley Dodd has made a huge contribution to New Zealand literature, and continues to do so".

Crawford says it is an honour to present the award to someone who is a household name: "I suspect any home that has children living in it, or visiting, will have one of Dame Lynley's books."

Hamilton City Libraries have 51 different titles by Dame Lynley, and order eight to 10 copies of each new book. This week, libraries' collections leader Jeff Downs says, about 95 per cent of her books are on loan. "It shows how popular she is, she's right up there."

In her Tauranga office, Dame Lynley – the former Arabella Slapcabbage – flicks through her Ideas book, and rolls around words such as "flibbertigibbet", "hooha" and "kazoo". She's clearly got more stories to tell. She smiles: "I'm really just indulging myself."