Pictures: Stephen Barker.
For many people, Mother’s Day can be bittersweet, whether they’re missing their own mothers or struggling to start a family, and bestselling author Catherine Chidgey is able to empathise with both those situations.
“Trying to conceive was all-consuming for a while,” Catherine says of that difficult time in her life. “I tried to write, but it wasn’t happening, so I feel for anyone struggling with any form of infertility.”
After many years of disappointments, Catherine and her husband Alan Bekhuis’ dream of becoming parents finally became a reality, thanks to the generosity of a surrogate who helped them have their beloved daughter Alice, who’s soon to turn 10.
“Alice has totally changed our lives for the better. We’ll always be grateful to our surrogate Leila for giving us such an incredible gift,” says Catherine. She is also mum to three snow-coloured felines. “Having Alice also meant we could stop collecting pure white, odd-eyed cats, which we somehow started amassing when we couldn’t have children!”
When Woman’s Day caught up with Catherine, she and Alan, both 55, along with bright-as-a-button Alice, had just moved house from riverside Nga‒ruawahia to leafy Cambridge, swapping one Waikato hamlet for another.
“We built our Ngāruawāhia house in 2010, so it was pre-Alice. But the old place was getting too small for our tween, who is a force of nature,” says Catherine. “I also needed somewhere quieter to write, and here we have a rural outlook that’s just seven minutes to Alice’s new school and the centre of town.”
Alice then dives in to share some of her favourite things about the place.
“I have a spa pool right outside my bedroom window,” she says. Her eyes shine as she extols the virtues of her new neighbourhood. “There’s the cutest mini horse over the road I feed apples to. There’s even a dog who comes to say hello and I’m going to ask if I can walk it. And I really like my new school!”
Originally from Fiordland, engineer Alan also appreciates the new digs, partly because there’s room for a workshop and a ride-on mower. What’s more, the move has been a catalyst for shucking some possessions.
Catherine, whose books have won fans and awards both here and abroad for close to three decades, explains, “I have so many books and I’m an antiques hound, so we’ve had a ginormous declutter, which has been really cleansing,”
With her ninth novel, The Book of Guilt, about to be released, Catherine credits her mother for inspiring her love of reading and writing.
“Mum introduced me and my sister to the magic of stories,” Catherine says of her treasured mother, who passed away three years ago. “She read to us every night and took us to Naenae Library, where I’d get stacks of books.
“I was also sick for long periods when I was young, so I missed lots of school. During that time, Mum, who was a librarian at our primary school, played Scrabble with me, and bought me books of crosswords and puzzles.
“Dad also loved language. He would’ve liked to have been a writer or a journalist, but after the war, his father said he had to be a builder like his brother,” tells Catherine. She adds that her father died of asbestos-related mesothelioma in 1995, when she was just 25.
“I’m so glad Dad was alive to see me accepted into the creative writing programme at Victoria,” adds Catherine. She recalls the fiction course that guided her critically acclaimed first novel, In A Fishbone Church, which was in part about her father’s illness and the power of grief.
“That was back when people sent letters and the envelope arrived after Dad had been diagnosed. I’d moved back home, and I was literally jumping up and down. He knew what a big deal it was.”
Catherine’s mother was also deeply proud of her younger daughter.
“Mum kept scrapbooks of all my newspaper clippings, the reviews and interviews,” recalls Catherine. “When she developed dementia, she clung to my books as talismans. In A Fishbone Church was always beside her bed. Because it was partly autobiographical, she’d dip in and out of it, which was very touching.”
Astonishingly, The Book Of Guilt is Catherine’s third book in three years. The prolific author tells Woman’s Day how she works at such a cracking pace, while also finding time for family. Of the impressive professional juggling act, she explains, “My life is Alan and Alice, then it’s writing and teaching. I have no social life, but I love what I do.
“I used to start each day by going to my desk at about 6am, but the last few years, I’ve worked in bed, which seems to suit me. It’s certainly less painful than trudging to the office. Then I take Alice to school and go to the University of Waikato for the day to teach, then I write again in the evenings and weekends.”
Clearly Catherine works incredibly hard, but she’s quick to credit Alan for making it possible.
“I’m really lucky to have a husband who does his bit,” she says. “Obviously, husbands should do their bit, but Alice hasn’t stopped moving since the day she was born. Alan is a wonderful, hands-on dad. Their relationship is lovely and I know my dad would have loved them.”
As for Alan – who studied anthropology and classics at Otago and now works for a company that makes ambulances – he’s content providing Catherine with the space she needs to write.
“I was a stay-at-home dad for the first five years of Alice’s life. Before Alice, I did all sorts,” reveals Alan. “I worked in museums, I was a projectionist in cinemas, I made photographic equipment, then I retrained at 49 as an engineer.” With a laugh, he adds, “Basically, I’m a book widower!”
When Alice is asked if she might follow in her mum’s footsteps, she wonders if she’d rather be a gamer. “But if I do write a book, it’ll be about a dog-napper. One where a very important dog gets kidnapped and there’s this humongous investigation!” she declares.
Cat lover Catherine says with a sigh, “Alice is desperate for a dog, but our cats would hate it. Especially Moby, who’s very neurotic.”
“What about a timeshare dog?” suggests a diplomatic Alan. Then, Alice hits on the idea of being a neighbourhood dog walker and sets to work to create a flyer.
When the conversation turns to talk of Mother’s Day, Alan admits that because Catherine goes big on gifts, it isn’t easy to compete. “Although we did find these magpie bookends for her recent birthday,” he says proudly. Then, he points to the beautiful cast-iron ornaments, a nod to the narrator of Catherine’s 2022 best-seller The Axeman’s Carnival.
Alice looks up from her crafting. “I’ll make Mum a spa day, with a back rub, and I’ll paint her nails,” she offers.
It’s obvious from Catherine’s warm smile that the idea would be perfect.
Catherine Chidgey will appear at the Auckland Writers Festival on 17 and 18 May.
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