Former Weekly contributor and travel writer Ann Gluckman has more than a few strings to her bow. Born in 1927, she’s written several books, and was the first woman in New Zealand to be appointed principal of a state co-ed secondary school and on the Medical Ethical Committee at Auckland’s Middlemore Hospital. We caught up with Ann, 95, over a cuppa at her Remuera retirement village apartment.
Did your mum buy the Weekly?
Yes, every week she bought it – probably from the first-ever issue and we got Time magazine early on too. She passed on the magazines to her friends as she belonged to a reading circle. They were particularly interested in the household hints and the recipes because just before the war, most people in Remuera still had maids.
Tell us about when you were first published in the Weekly.
I remember as a seven-year-old writing stories and sending them in for the children’s pages. And my own four sons went on to do that too. Then later on, I was involved in the setting up of playcentres in Auckland – it was a predecessor of the kindergarten movement. So I wrote a piece for the Weekly in 1951 telling how a group of us mothers would hire a church hall two days a week and take turns supervising the children playing. Funnily enough, I also went on to have a recipe published in the Weekly. It was an easy-to-make dessert, which my grandmother used to make me, called Prune Whip. I was paid $25. During the early ’80s, I travelled to places like South Africa and Egypt, and enjoyed writing travel stories for the magazine when Jean Wishart was editor.
Hanging out with cheetahs in South Africa.
You were Dux of Epsom Girls’ Grammar School – what are your memories from this time?
In 1943, I was in the same class as Tui Flower, who for many years was the Weekly’s food editor. Tui was a country girl who was boarding with relatives in Auckland at the time and she always seemed more mature than the rest of us! We did home science and met several times in our adult life as she lived nearby in Epsom, before she died in 2017 aged 92.
Ann (pictured in 1944) was head prefect and dux of her school.
Did you marry young?
I got married at 19, much to my mother’s absolute fury. My mother always told me, “You’re going to be an academic. You’re going to Oxford, so you can’t have a glory box because you’re not getting married!” I had intended to go on and finish my degree, but unfortunately my husband [psychiatrist Dr Laurie Gluckman] developed tuberculosis, so I stopped my university studies. When I was 32 and we had four children, my husband said to me, “You’re getting about as interesting as stale cabbage!” That’s exactly what he said. So he suggested I go back to university. And I did. I couldn’t continue in geology, so I started in geography because it was the only lecture that fit in with my babysitter.
And did your husband find you more interesting?
Yes! Well, he was a very studious man. I suppose at least it kept me quiet and stopped me nattering away to him. In 1960, there was a photo in the Weekly of Cath Tizard [who went on to become New Zealand’s first female Governor-General] and I because we were the only women with children in the women’s common room at Auckland University.
With late husband Laurie and son Philip.
What do you think women today can learn from past generations?
Sadly, women today no longer seem to have time with their children. Even when I was studying and teaching, I was always there for my boys after school. And I always spent time with them in the evenings when they had homework to complete. My husband also had a whole host of Paddy McGinty stories that he would read every night to them. It was chaos, of course. A friend of mine, Diane Levy, used to write a parenting column in the Weekly. I do feel there is real room for another column like that, highlighting the importance of family time with kids, even if it’s watching something worthwhile together on TV.
It sounds like you could write this column, Ann!
No, I’m far too busy researching my family history and playing bridge very badly.
As you look back over your 95 years, what are you most proud of?
I’m proud of my children, who were always central to my life when I was younger. Peter [73] is now President of the International Science Council. John [71] farmed and has climbed Mount Everest, and Philip [68] is a third-generation doctor and still working as a GP. My youngest son David died in a car crash in 1979, just as he was about to graduate with his law degree. His death has affected me profoundly.
Visiting the landmarks n Egypt.
Finally, are you still a fan of the Weekly?
Oh, yes. I get it every week – I just wish there were more puzzles. I liked following the Queen and I think New Zealanders’ lives are very interesting. I’m inspired by people of my vintage who, despite infirmities, continue to do much of worth for the community. I find other magazines just aren’t as down-to-earth.
