Jennifer Beck’s career as a writer opened out after she published her first book in her late 40s, proving it’s never too late to take a different pathway or learn something new.
Since becoming an author she’s put 50 children’s books to her name and more recently a memoir relevant to her new retirement village life.
Jennifer, a Bruce McLaren Village resident, has used her memoir, Bits of String Too Short to Use (Mary Egan Publishers), to address issues of ageing with which many of her contemporaries will identify.
The memoir was published around the same time they couple moved into the Howick, Auckland village, having lived full lives and with Jennifer having left an indelible mark on New Zealand children’s literature. Many of these are educational reading books, distributed in Aotearoa/New Zealand and internationally, but also include numerous award-winning picture books.
“Even though I didn’t start getting published until I was over 40, in the past 40 years I have had a great deal of enjoyment... it’s been a delight to have been part of the writing world and still doing things,” Jennifer says.
She talked about her life experiences and motivation for writing about them and the memoir in the lead in to International Day for Older Persons on October 1.
"When I turned 80, I wrote about the feeling that you want to be as independent as possible in your older years. It was published a year ago and it's extremely relevant to older people, including being a late starter," she says..
She says the memoir is reflective of both her early years – when she was inspired by her parents into a love of writing and of the more recent challenges such as downsizing..
In the book, Jennifer also reflects on the early years. She started out life in the suburbs of Avondale and Titirangi in Auckland, before the family moved to Waipu in Northland in 1945. Her father was a dairy farmer, but also an intellectual who loved to talk with the local school teachers. Her mother helped run the local library, and both and helped inspired her love of reading and writing.
She was part of a large family, including four siblings. She and her siblings would make up plays and word games, encouraged by their parents. She went to Waipu District High School, followed by Auckland Teachers’ College and became a teacher. She later studied as a mature student at the University of Auckland.
“My parents had a love of books... They grew up in the Depression years, they didn’t have those advantages themselves. But books were part of our life, they were everywhere,” she says.
Children were also a part of her and Peter’s life. The couple had a son and daughter, born in the 1960s, but then decided to expand the family, with two daughters added in the 1980s as the couple were in their 40s. She also got very involved with Playcentre from this time, leading to her interest in children’s books.
After having a school reader accepted by Shortland Publications, her first hard-cover picture book, The Choosing Day, was published in 1988.
Another favourite is The Bantam and the Soldier was published in 1996. The story is about a young soldier rescuing a bantam and gaining eggs, friendship, and hope within the horrors of World War I. It was named the 1997 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards Picture Book Winner, and Book of the Year.
Jennifer credits Auckland-based literary agent Ray Richards and his wife Barbara as having helped kick start her career with The Bantam and the Soldier. Ray also introduced her to skilled illustrators, like Robyn Belton, with whom she collaborated for several other award-winning books, and who became a lifetime friend. "Ray was an inspiration because he continued his love of books and his being an agent until his nineties ... showing that you keep on doing something you love for a long time, as long as you can," she says.
A core theme running through the memoir, is that it is never too late to enjoy new projects.
"I also see life as a collection, a series of stages, events, impressions, decisions and relationships, some retained, and others lost on the way. Just as short bits of string can be joined together to form a chain, so too can a collection of linked memories tell the story of the lifetime," as she reads from the introduction of her book.
Jennifer and her husband Peter moved into the village in July 2023, but she says given both were collectors and living on a lifestyle block on the outskirts of Howick the move to downsize was a real challenge. She loved older kauri furniture pieces, and Peter amassed a huge engineering workshop.
The move to the Bruce McLaren village came after close family members had moved out of in Auckland. Having the support of staff and health facilities if needed has given peace of mind. "For us it's been the feeling that we have independence and a bit of control of our future. We don't need to call on the family if there's a crisis," she says.
The move also meant keeping older connections both within and outside of the village, with some friends also having made the move into Bruce McLaren. Jennifer still belongs to a local book club and community group. “We've wanted to stay in our home district and keep in touch with our friends ... I think that's important.”
Living in a village atmosphere has also proved positive in the sense of village events, new relationships and emerging friendships, she says. These include meeting other book-minded residents, including Celia Martin, another author who entertains residents with amusing stories of retirement village life.