Betty Gilderdale: My LIfe In Two Halves

Betty Gilderdale’s life has indeed been one of two halves: growing up in London, working through the war, studying literature at university, marriage and children, then, in 1967, moving to New Zealand with her husband, Alan, and their three children. It was here that she pursued her interest in teaching, and in 1982, published her ground-breaking work, A Sea Change: 145 Years of New Zealand Junior Fiction. Her story describes a rich life of diverse experiences peopled with colleagues, writers, friends and family. Betty has written and contributed to numerous local and international publications, including the biographies of Lady Barker (author of Station Life in New Zealand) and Margaret Mahy, and for twenty years she had a review column in the New Zealand Herald, which gave her the chance to meet and interview many local and overseas writers. 

But she is perhaps best known in New Zealand as author, with Alan Gilderdale, of the best-selling Little Yellow Digger series and for many years has been a passionate advocate for wonderful stories for New Zealand children. This fact was appropriately recognised when the Children’s Literature Association renamed their Award for Services to Children’s Literature, The Betty Gilderdale Award.