Deborah Shepard interviewing painter
Jacqueline Fahey for Her Life's Work: Conversations with Five New Zealand Women, 2009. |
Her Life’s Work presents the extraordinary life stories of five New Zealand women - Jacqueline Fahey, Merimeri Penfold, Anne Salmond, Gaylene Preston and Margaret Mahy. As artists, writers, teachers, film-makers and thinkers each has carved out an impressive career, balancing society’s gender expectations with the pursuit of a meaningful identity through creative work. In a series of in-depth interviews with writer Deborah Shepard, the women speak candidly about their lives, loves and work, and the various influences that spurred or stalled their creative careers.
From the people who sustained them to their education and training opportunities; from the importance of professional recognition to the influence of feminism; from the experience of motherhood and domesticity to the impact of intimate relationships on their creativity, Her Life’s Work explores how these women have managed the juggling act their lives demand. Born between 1920 and 1947, each of the women experienced immense changes in New Zealand society through the second half of the 20th century. The interviews touch on how major events and challenges - the Land March in 1975, the rise of feminism in the 1970s, the occupation of Bastion Point, the Springbok tour of New Zealand - affected their lives. Including new photographs by the ‘sixth woman’ of the group, Marti Friedlander, and an insightful introduction, Her Life’s Work is a compelling portrait of women’s lives - showing that it is possible to lead a life rich in family experience while maintaining work as a central passion. |
Reviews of Her Life's Work
Women’s Studies Journal - Deborah Taylor
"As a social history of New Zealand women in the 20th century this book is to be treasured as it covers a wide range of issues and in great detail with many references to events and personalities who have helped shape this country. As a testament to the women’s lives, there is a sense of privilege to having been admitted to tender, sad, angry and frustrating aspects of these eminent women’s lives as they struggled to pursue their careers and passions. Within their stories their good humour, dignity and warm humanity abounds, despite the difficulties the women all faced as they pursued academic, artistic and humanitarian concerns throughout their lives. Their stories as told through Deborah Shepard are an inspiration to us to keep on pursuing women’s rights in a world which believes the battle has been won."
Media and Culture Reviews Australia - Susan Currie
"It is a tribute to the author that the interview format works to well in this book. The questions chart similar territory with each of the subjects and it is therefore possible to compare and contrast the subject’s responses. However the reader is not aware of the template in a distracting way. The questions are challenging and penetrating, appropriate to the individual circumstances of the subject and Deborah is comfortable detouring down a more productive path if necessary. I found each of the interviews utterly engrossing and finished the book wanting more… This a fascinating book and a motivating one... It also provides a clear argument that nurturing work is of benefit not only to the individual involved but also to society at large."
Nelson Mail - Jessica Le Bas
"There has been a revolution in women’s lives,’ says Shepard in her introduction. She is a fluent and accessible writer, with a stream of impressive accolades to her own name. The preface gives an overview of feminism and social change in the last century, the times that coincided with these women’s lives. The book is set out not unlike the Paris Review Interviews with questions and answers, and with the interviewer adding detail intermittently, like a narrator… I couldn’t put it down. Don’t for a moment think this is an academic rage about feminism. Far from it – it’s about ordinary lives made spectacular by courage and creativity and passion. Her Life’s Work makes it comfortably into my top five non-fiction reads this year."
Otago Daily Times - Bryan James
"The number of New Zealand women acknowledged for achievement in the professions and politics has been rightly celebrated in the community in recent years, but those working in creative endeavours have not been similarly applauded. That’s why Her Life’s Work: Conversations with Five New Zealand Women by Deborah Shepardis of some importance. Dr Shepard interviewed Gaylene Preston, Merimeri Penfold, Margaret Mahy, Jacqueline Fahey and Anne Salmond about their work, their lives as women through a turbulent period in the modern history of women, their challenges to be heard or noticed and the emotional and practical demands made upon them in their combined roles as artists, wives and mothers… I would suggest to parents of teenage girls of high-school age who may be troubled about their guidance and mentoring that this would make a fine Christmas present. Reading these accounts of determination and persistence might just spark a greater self-belief."
Wanganui Chronicle - Karen Wrigglesworth
"Deborah Shepard proves an able and empathetic interviewer and writer."
Local Matters - Valda Paddison
"Deborah Shepard is an experienced writer and biographer and her carefully chosen questions elicit thoughtful and detailed responses from the women whose individual voices are clearly ‘heard’. "
Arts on Sunday, RNZ National - Lynn Freeman
"It reads like a social history . . . because it spans so much of our history."
"As a social history of New Zealand women in the 20th century this book is to be treasured as it covers a wide range of issues and in great detail with many references to events and personalities who have helped shape this country. As a testament to the women’s lives, there is a sense of privilege to having been admitted to tender, sad, angry and frustrating aspects of these eminent women’s lives as they struggled to pursue their careers and passions. Within their stories their good humour, dignity and warm humanity abounds, despite the difficulties the women all faced as they pursued academic, artistic and humanitarian concerns throughout their lives. Their stories as told through Deborah Shepard are an inspiration to us to keep on pursuing women’s rights in a world which believes the battle has been won."
Media and Culture Reviews Australia - Susan Currie
"It is a tribute to the author that the interview format works to well in this book. The questions chart similar territory with each of the subjects and it is therefore possible to compare and contrast the subject’s responses. However the reader is not aware of the template in a distracting way. The questions are challenging and penetrating, appropriate to the individual circumstances of the subject and Deborah is comfortable detouring down a more productive path if necessary. I found each of the interviews utterly engrossing and finished the book wanting more… This a fascinating book and a motivating one... It also provides a clear argument that nurturing work is of benefit not only to the individual involved but also to society at large."
Nelson Mail - Jessica Le Bas
"There has been a revolution in women’s lives,’ says Shepard in her introduction. She is a fluent and accessible writer, with a stream of impressive accolades to her own name. The preface gives an overview of feminism and social change in the last century, the times that coincided with these women’s lives. The book is set out not unlike the Paris Review Interviews with questions and answers, and with the interviewer adding detail intermittently, like a narrator… I couldn’t put it down. Don’t for a moment think this is an academic rage about feminism. Far from it – it’s about ordinary lives made spectacular by courage and creativity and passion. Her Life’s Work makes it comfortably into my top five non-fiction reads this year."
Otago Daily Times - Bryan James
"The number of New Zealand women acknowledged for achievement in the professions and politics has been rightly celebrated in the community in recent years, but those working in creative endeavours have not been similarly applauded. That’s why Her Life’s Work: Conversations with Five New Zealand Women by Deborah Shepardis of some importance. Dr Shepard interviewed Gaylene Preston, Merimeri Penfold, Margaret Mahy, Jacqueline Fahey and Anne Salmond about their work, their lives as women through a turbulent period in the modern history of women, their challenges to be heard or noticed and the emotional and practical demands made upon them in their combined roles as artists, wives and mothers… I would suggest to parents of teenage girls of high-school age who may be troubled about their guidance and mentoring that this would make a fine Christmas present. Reading these accounts of determination and persistence might just spark a greater self-belief."
Wanganui Chronicle - Karen Wrigglesworth
"Deborah Shepard proves an able and empathetic interviewer and writer."
Local Matters - Valda Paddison
"Deborah Shepard is an experienced writer and biographer and her carefully chosen questions elicit thoughtful and detailed responses from the women whose individual voices are clearly ‘heard’. "
Arts on Sunday, RNZ National - Lynn Freeman
"It reads like a social history . . . because it spans so much of our history."