“Knitted Up Again”: Remembering Margaret Mahy

This article takes the ironic reading of writers offered by Roland Barthes in “The Writer on Holiday” and argues that while Margaret Mahy fulfils some of the former’s claims vis à vis hagiography, in other respects her demotic voice and attention to the nuances of a lively, local landscape were made potent through a relentless creative process. In examining the risks inherent in that process I read Mahy’s poetry and several of her lesser known stories alongside writers with a similar respect for creativity. The article concludes with the assessment that Mahy was able to re-cast her experiences in the light of traditional literary tropes, thus making both terms fresh and surprising.