A Strange Beautiful Excitement: Katherine Mansfield's Wellington

by Redmer Yska

How does a city make a writer? Described by Fiona Kidman as a ‘ravishing, immersing read’, A Strange Beautiful Excitement is a ‘wild ride’ through the Wellington of Katherine Mansfield’s childhood. From the grubby, wind-blasted streets of Thorndon to the hushed green valley of Karori, author Redmer Yska, himself raised in Karori, retraces Mansfield’s old ground: the sights, sounds and smells of the rickety colonial capital, as experienced by the budding writer.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography

296 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2017

Reviews

[Carol, She's so Novel ꧁꧂ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5★

On a recent holiday in Wellington (yes I know - I get around :D!) I spotted this neat, compact book on my sister-in-law's bookshelf. I'm a massive fan of Katherine Mansfield, Wellington, & the Ockham Awards (this title made the 2018 long list)so of course I picked it up & was quickly absorbed in Yska's search for Mansfield's Wellington.

We used this book as a guide book when we went to the Eastern Harbour area. This map could also have been helpful. ;)



With this book open we went to the Beauchamp holiday home in Day's Bay. We knew this cottage had been badly damaged in high tides & that not much was left of the original home (& of course grateful that the present owner, Chris Stevenson was able to save anything at all - it would have been far cheaper to knock it down) Even so, we drove past the house at least three times, before asking directions. It has a high fence & looks very modern now.



The Glen at Muritai was rewarding, although the house looks quite different from when it was the Beauchamp's holiday home - the verandah roof has gone - which gives the house quite a bleak appearance.The suburb is quite built up now - the only way we could take a photo was at an angle on a neighbour's steps.



Unfortunately when I returned home, our library's copy was perpetually on loan, so it has taken me a while to return to this.

So verdict on the rest of the book? Well written & interesting, although I found some of the chapter organisation a little odd. Yska's theories on how Wellington's sewage & drainage problems could have affected her health in later years is well worth reading - no wonder Harold Beachamp kept moving his family to more salubrious locations.Very helpful map if you want to do a Mansfield walk of the central Wellington area.

Yska's big find - a story written by 11 year old Kathleen Beauchamp! This is reproduced.

Strongly recommended for devotees like me.

[Anne Fenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strange and beautiful book! It takes such an eagle-eyed look at every little aspect of Katherine Mansfield's childhood in Wellington and Karori. I really liked the author's fact-based municipal angle, tying elements of her writing down to the actual circumstances of life in the nineteenth century city . Public health, town drainage, management of council funding are shown to be reflected in the fears expressed in her stories. KM's schooling , her travels, holidays and family life are retraced or researched from history archives, architectural plans, old photos, other people's diaries and interviews from the past, giving a fresh grasp of what she was like. I love the modern city of Wellington, but my goodness it had rough and tough beginnings. The author adopts the popular current approach of inserting himself into the narrative. In this case, he does add authenticity to what is sometimes imaginative reconstruction, but 'too much information' about his own life was my reaction by the finish. On the other hand, I really loved his attention to detail in the focus on every part of Tinakori Road. Beautifully presented, includes painting, sketches, maps and photos, I was engrossed by this new and original story of KM's life. My favourite bit - the chapter on Wellington's wind!

[Rosemary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I walked into a lovely indie bookstore in New Zealand, hoping to find the collected works of Katherine Mansfield. Instead, I left clutching anew biography of just 15 years of her brief life (She died of TB at age 34.). With a mental map of Wellington in my head as I read, it soon became evident that the scholarship of the writer was spot on, and that the subject was complicated and worth my time to know. I highly recommend this award-winner text by a NZ writer who placed personal experiences in the area along with diligent investigation. Bravo!

[Susan Pearce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous, engaging, moving and very well informed biography of KM's early years in Wellington. Beautiful sentences. A detailed yet never dull look at her environs including the walk to school in Karori and the terrible sanitation of the first Pākehā settlement - I didn't know so many children had died of typhoid. Also containing Yska's discovery of a new 'earliest published story'.

[Anne Herbison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating details of Thornden, Karori, and Wellington generally, in Katherine Mansfield's time and now. The author has lived in both of the suburbs and provides details and information from both contexts, as he did in European Journeys.

[Lorna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating. Had to read in small bites, to digest the new information, and to savour it.

[Brenda Strauchon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this beautifully written book, an insight to Katherine’s Wellington.