Friends calling for Margaret Mahy's Governors Bay house to be preserved in her memory

May 26, 2021

The home of the prolific author is up for sale, almost nine years after her death.

The Canterbury home of prolific New Zealand author Margaret Mahy is up for sale almost nine years after her death.

Two local writers and long-time friends are calling for the Governors Bay house to be preserved in her memory.

"It’s a remarkable place because it's so imbued with Margaret’s personality," her friend Morrin Rout told 1 NEWS.

Siobhan Collins remembered how Mahy’s house was "so full of books".

It’s no exaggeration, it took 170 metres of shelving to house her vast collection.

Surrounded by books, she raised her children and wrote prolifically, more than 200 in total.

Rout and Collins are now hoping to raise money to buy their famous friend’s house.

They have plans to make it into a writer’s residence, or a museum where children can come and enjoy her books — hoping Mahy’s legacy in Governors Bay will live on.

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