Photography: Ebony Lamb
AAt 36, Claire Mabey found herself asking a question that was impossible to ignore: if she kept living the way she was, would she ever write a book?
For years, she had been building a career in the arts, travelling the world, running literary festivals and working around the clock. But after the traumatic, premature birth of her son Charlie, time in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU)and an autoimmune condition diagnosis, Claire knew it was time to finally slow down.
“When I had our son, I never stopped working and pretty quickly hit the wall, especially because the birth wasn’t easy and having a premature baby wasn’t easy,” remembers Claire.
Now an award-winning children’s author, Claire says she tried to conceive naturally for a year before seeking help from Fertility Associates.
“It turned out I wasn’t really ovulating, so they gave me a drug to make me ovulate,” explains Claire, who has adenomyosis, a condition where the tissue that lines the inside of the uterus grows into the muscle wall of the uterus.
“We were extremely lucky I got pregnant right away after that.”
During her pregnancy, she and her musician partner Andy were working for the Auckland Writers Festival. Returning home to Wellington at 34 weeks pregnant, Claire expected to have at least six more weeks to prepare for motherhood. But two days later, while at the ballet with a friend, she went into labour.
It was a surreal time
Her midwife quickly realised Claire’s blood pressure “was off the charts”. Her liver and kidneys were also in distress – all symptoms of preeclampsia, which can be life-threatening to both mother and baby.
“It was really hectic from then on in,” shares Claire.
Difficult positioning of her son’s head meant the use of forceps to assist with the delivery. She remembers the days after Charlie’s birth as “surreal”.
“We had this tiny baby in NICU, and I was having to pump colostrum into little vials and walk with my epic birth injuries and catheter from the birth ward to deliver it. It felt like science fiction, like in a movie.”
When Claire was discharged after a week, she was devastated to be away from Charlie, now eight.
“I hated being separated. It was absolutely horrific.”
A lactation specialist intervened, advocating for Claire to have a room on the ward so she could stay with her son. Two weeks later, they went home together. Throughout it all, Claire, who co-founded festival LitCrawl Wellington with Andy, kept working.
“I was on autopilot anyway, and it helped me feel normal and have a connection to the outside world,” she explains.
“It was a year later when everything hit me at once.”
Her sister has Hashimoto’s, an autoimmune condition affecting the thyroid, and Claire suspected she did as well, but says her doctor was reluctant to test her.
“I had to really advocate for myself,” she recalls.
“When I did get tested, it came back strongly positive.”
I finally found my calling
Dealing with the diagnosis and new motherhood, Claire simply couldn’t continue as she was.
“I could feel my brakes going on almost involuntarily,” says Claire, who stepped away from her intense workload to finally try her hand at writing.
“Slowly I turned my ship around.”
Now, she is the 2026 recipient of the prestigious Lynley Dodd Children’s Writers Award.
“It was so out of the blue for me, such a massive surprise, I burst into tears,” says Claire, who admits confidence in her new career has not come easily.
“I have a critical inner voice, so it’s a huge vote of confidence in what I’m doing.”
Her latest picture book, Cass and the Beast, is about a girl who refuses to accept the stories her town tells about a mysterious beast. Underneath the tale of bravery is a deeply personal connection to Claire’s late Aunty Margaret, who died of cancer at 11.
“I never met her, but I’ve always grown up with stories about brave little girls because of my aunty,” she shares.
“She was part of the family lore.”
Cass is also in part Claire.
“She is quiet and introverted but very fierce in her mind, and that is what I was like – a quiet child with ferocious thoughts and emotions.”
Reflecting on all she has achieved and experienced, Claire hopes it will set the example for her son that it’s never too late to embrace creativity and indulge your imagination.
“Growing up, I didn’t know many creative adults and for a long time, I didn’t know how to be one,” admits Claire.
Now she can’t picture life any other way.
“I’d like to write more books,” she smiles.
“I feel now I’ve started, I won’t be able to stop.”
Cass and the Beast (Gecko Press).
