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A Day With May Gibbs at Nutcote
32 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1993
2 people want to read
About the author
Jean Chapman
95 books1 followerJean Chapman may be:
*Jean Erica Sherlock Lycett Chapman (1926-2012), a Australian Children's writer.
***
*Jean Chapman (1929), a British Romance novelist. She was born on 30 October 1929 in England, UK. On 24 March 1951, she married with Lionel Alan Chapman, they had 1 son and 2 daughters. In 1989, she obtained a BA at Open University. Jean began her writing career as a freelance journalist before going on to write fiction. She is the writer of some romance novels and many short stories. Her debut novel "The Unreasoning Earth" and "The Red Pavilion" were both shortlisted for the Parker Pen Romantic Novel of the Year Award, she also was nomined to the RNA Major Award. Jean Chapman was elected the twenty Chairman (2001-2003) of the Romantic Novelists Association and she is the three-time President of the Leicester Writer's Club. She is a lecturer in creative writing. She has taught and lectured and spoken widely on creative writing and tutored on-line for Nottingham Trent University. She has acted as a reviewer and appraiser for East Midlands Arts and Readers' Digest.
Jean Chapman lives in a small village in Leicestershire, England.
***
*Jean Chapman (1926-2012):
Jean Erica Sherlock Lycett was born on February 15, 1926 in Sydney, the youngest of the three daughters of George Lycett and his wife, Margaret (nee MacLean). She went to Fort Street girls school on Observatory Hill, and had her first story, about a sick cow, published in the children's section of a Sunday newspaper when she was only 12. After finishing high school, she went to business college to learn touch typing, which was useful when she became a writer. Then she enrolled in the National Art School. She met Max Chapman on a blind date and they were married after World War II. They scrimped and saved to buy a block of land in Seaforth, where they built a house.
She wrote ceaselessly, and her writing career took off when she began writing for the ABC's Kindergarten of the Air. Her imaginative stories were so successful that Chapman was offered a place at the ABC's scriptwriting school, graduating in 1960, when she began working on Playschool, Let's Join In and Kindergarten of the Air. She was a scriptwriter for the ABC's children's programs for 25 years. Chapman also began approaching children's publishers. Some early successes were followed by a long-standing association with Hodder & Stoughton (Australia). In the 1970s, it published Tell Me A Tale, a collection of stories, rhymes, songs and activities illustrated by Deborah and Kilmeny Niland, the twin daughters of the authors Ruth Park and D'Arcy Niland. The hugely successful book was followed by Tell Me Another Tale and themed collections such as Pancakes and Painted Eggs and the Sugar Plum Christmas Book. Chapman published 63 books in total and won several awards for children's literature. Children and children's books were Chapman's life's work. She frequently visited schools and libraries to speak to her readers. She was a tireless worker for the Children's Book Council of Australia's NSW branch, was made a life member and was awarded the council's Lady Cutler Award for her contribution to children's literature. She was also a member of the group that fought and won the battle to save Nutcote, the home of her fellow children's author, May Gibbs, in Neutral Bay. In addition to her busy life as a writer, Chapman supported Max in his passion for veteran cars. They frequently travelled together on motoring trips and were active in the Veteran Car Club. The pair travelled the world and she always had to visit children's book sites, including Hans Christian Andersen's house in Denmark and Beatrix Potter's house in England.
Jean Chapman is survived by Max, their children Gregory and Louise, three grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Her seventh great-grandchild is due in October and Chapman had already knitted and sewn pieces for the baby's layette.
*Jean Chapman (1939):
Jean was b
*Jean Erica Sherlock Lycett Chapman (1926-2012), a Australian Children's writer.
***
*Jean Chapman (1929), a British Romance novelist. She was born on 30 October 1929 in England, UK. On 24 March 1951, she married with Lionel Alan Chapman, they had 1 son and 2 daughters. In 1989, she obtained a BA at Open University. Jean began her writing career as a freelance journalist before going on to write fiction. She is the writer of some romance novels and many short stories. Her debut novel "The Unreasoning Earth" and "The Red Pavilion" were both shortlisted for the Parker Pen Romantic Novel of the Year Award, she also was nomined to the RNA Major Award. Jean Chapman was elected the twenty Chairman (2001-2003) of the Romantic Novelists Association and she is the three-time President of the Leicester Writer's Club. She is a lecturer in creative writing. She has taught and lectured and spoken widely on creative writing and tutored on-line for Nottingham Trent University. She has acted as a reviewer and appraiser for East Midlands Arts and Readers' Digest.
Jean Chapman lives in a small village in Leicestershire, England.
***
*Jean Chapman (1926-2012):
Jean Erica Sherlock Lycett was born on February 15, 1926 in Sydney, the youngest of the three daughters of George Lycett and his wife, Margaret (nee MacLean). She went to Fort Street girls school on Observatory Hill, and had her first story, about a sick cow, published in the children's section of a Sunday newspaper when she was only 12. After finishing high school, she went to business college to learn touch typing, which was useful when she became a writer. Then she enrolled in the National Art School. She met Max Chapman on a blind date and they were married after World War II. They scrimped and saved to buy a block of land in Seaforth, where they built a house.
She wrote ceaselessly, and her writing career took off when she began writing for the ABC's Kindergarten of the Air. Her imaginative stories were so successful that Chapman was offered a place at the ABC's scriptwriting school, graduating in 1960, when she began working on Playschool, Let's Join In and Kindergarten of the Air. She was a scriptwriter for the ABC's children's programs for 25 years. Chapman also began approaching children's publishers. Some early successes were followed by a long-standing association with Hodder & Stoughton (Australia). In the 1970s, it published Tell Me A Tale, a collection of stories, rhymes, songs and activities illustrated by Deborah and Kilmeny Niland, the twin daughters of the authors Ruth Park and D'Arcy Niland. The hugely successful book was followed by Tell Me Another Tale and themed collections such as Pancakes and Painted Eggs and the Sugar Plum Christmas Book. Chapman published 63 books in total and won several awards for children's literature. Children and children's books were Chapman's life's work. She frequently visited schools and libraries to speak to her readers. She was a tireless worker for the Children's Book Council of Australia's NSW branch, was made a life member and was awarded the council's Lady Cutler Award for her contribution to children's literature. She was also a member of the group that fought and won the battle to save Nutcote, the home of her fellow children's author, May Gibbs, in Neutral Bay. In addition to her busy life as a writer, Chapman supported Max in his passion for veteran cars. They frequently travelled together on motoring trips and were active in the Veteran Car Club. The pair travelled the world and she always had to visit children's book sites, including Hans Christian Andersen's house in Denmark and Beatrix Potter's house in England.
Jean Chapman is survived by Max, their children Gregory and Louise, three grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Her seventh great-grandchild is due in October and Chapman had already knitted and sewn pieces for the baby's layette.
*Jean Chapman (1939):
Jean was b
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 7, 2020
A Day with May Gibbs at Nutcote is an Australian picture book for young children, published in 1993. It was written by Jean Chapman, who was until recently also one of Australia’s most popular young children’s authors.
May Gibbs is know to thousands of children through her stories about cute bush creatures, such as the “Gumnut Babies” book “Snugglepot and Cuddlepie”, which was published in 1918. It sold 17,000 copies on its first release, and has never been out of print. Her gumnuts, blossom babies and bad Banksia men were to delight generations of children. Many Australian children had nightmares about the terrifying “Banksia Man” (a sort of hairy ogre, who would come and abduct children in the night). Other books have equally cutesy names “Little Ragged Blossom”, “Little Obelia”, “Nuttybub and Nittersing” and “Two Little Gum-Nuts, Chucklebud and Wunkydoo”. She was however, passionate about conservation, and her message to children was:
“Humans, please be kind to all bush creatures, and don’t pull flowers up by the roots”.
A Day with May Gibbs at Nutcote is a jolly tale for young children, perhaps of about the age who would enjoy May Gibbs’ stories. It describes, as the title says, a typical day in her life. It focuses on her later life: the time she spent at her last house and garden “Nutcote”, with her husband and two Scottie dogs, Jamie and Peter. Nothing much happens, other than the author making sure she has time for her beloved writing and gardening, in between various delivery men coming to the house and domestic duties such as washing. The tone is jocular, and we see the irony of May having all the latest gadgets, such as “a modern copper to boil the clothes, a wringer, a wooden washboard and washtub”.
Much of her inspiration for her paintings and stories came from her beloved garden, whilst “weeding it and loving it” as her husband used to say. The couple had no children of their own, but May used to welcome children to the house, where she would give them boiled sweets and show them around the garden, asking them to be careful and not to tread on the ants.
Sometimes she would drive her old car “Dodgem” to the shops in Neutral Bay. But we are told: “May’s favourite place was her studio. She always found time to paint and write. Here she spent long hours creating her bush babies and the magic world that surrounded them.”
“Nutcote” is a beautiful house in Neutral Bay, overlooking Sydney Harbour. The house was designed by the noted Australian architect B.J. Waterhouse, and May Gibbs moved there in 1925 with her husband, the mining agent Bertram James Ossoli Kelly, whom she had married in 1919, and stayed there until she died. Jean Chapman, the author of this book about May Gibbs, was a member of the group which fought and won the battle to save “Nutcote”. The house and garden are now open to the public, and in part this is due to her campaigning.
The illustrations are by Sandra Laroche, a freelance artist working in Sydney, who has illustrated more than thirty books for children. For A Day with May Gibbs at Nutcote, she has employed a colourful cartoonish style, which matches the feel of the book. It is perhaps particularly appropriate too, since May Gibbs drew cartoons, after several years studying Art in England. Her first “Bib and Bub” comic strip was published in the “Sydney Sunday News”, from August 1924, right through until 1967.
A Day with May Gibbs at Nutcote teaches quite a lot of early twentieth century social history, such as milk coming in churns, the paper boy flinging the morning paper over the fence, the ice man delivering blocks of ice twice a week to houses in Sydney, the baker arriving in a horse and cart, and last but not least, the fact that May and her husband listened to the wireless and the gramophone in the evenings.
The book feels specific to the house, and both the author and illustrator are local to Sydney. I have searched the internet without much success in finding another copy. It occurs to me therefore that it might have been originally written and produced for “Nutcote” to sell, (although I have no evidence for this). It seems strange otherwise, that such an attractive picture book is now so scarce.
May Gibbs is know to thousands of children through her stories about cute bush creatures, such as the “Gumnut Babies” book “Snugglepot and Cuddlepie”, which was published in 1918. It sold 17,000 copies on its first release, and has never been out of print. Her gumnuts, blossom babies and bad Banksia men were to delight generations of children. Many Australian children had nightmares about the terrifying “Banksia Man” (a sort of hairy ogre, who would come and abduct children in the night). Other books have equally cutesy names “Little Ragged Blossom”, “Little Obelia”, “Nuttybub and Nittersing” and “Two Little Gum-Nuts, Chucklebud and Wunkydoo”. She was however, passionate about conservation, and her message to children was:
“Humans, please be kind to all bush creatures, and don’t pull flowers up by the roots”.
A Day with May Gibbs at Nutcote is a jolly tale for young children, perhaps of about the age who would enjoy May Gibbs’ stories. It describes, as the title says, a typical day in her life. It focuses on her later life: the time she spent at her last house and garden “Nutcote”, with her husband and two Scottie dogs, Jamie and Peter. Nothing much happens, other than the author making sure she has time for her beloved writing and gardening, in between various delivery men coming to the house and domestic duties such as washing. The tone is jocular, and we see the irony of May having all the latest gadgets, such as “a modern copper to boil the clothes, a wringer, a wooden washboard and washtub”.
Much of her inspiration for her paintings and stories came from her beloved garden, whilst “weeding it and loving it” as her husband used to say. The couple had no children of their own, but May used to welcome children to the house, where she would give them boiled sweets and show them around the garden, asking them to be careful and not to tread on the ants.
Sometimes she would drive her old car “Dodgem” to the shops in Neutral Bay. But we are told: “May’s favourite place was her studio. She always found time to paint and write. Here she spent long hours creating her bush babies and the magic world that surrounded them.”
“Nutcote” is a beautiful house in Neutral Bay, overlooking Sydney Harbour. The house was designed by the noted Australian architect B.J. Waterhouse, and May Gibbs moved there in 1925 with her husband, the mining agent Bertram James Ossoli Kelly, whom she had married in 1919, and stayed there until she died. Jean Chapman, the author of this book about May Gibbs, was a member of the group which fought and won the battle to save “Nutcote”. The house and garden are now open to the public, and in part this is due to her campaigning.
The illustrations are by Sandra Laroche, a freelance artist working in Sydney, who has illustrated more than thirty books for children. For A Day with May Gibbs at Nutcote, she has employed a colourful cartoonish style, which matches the feel of the book. It is perhaps particularly appropriate too, since May Gibbs drew cartoons, after several years studying Art in England. Her first “Bib and Bub” comic strip was published in the “Sydney Sunday News”, from August 1924, right through until 1967.
A Day with May Gibbs at Nutcote teaches quite a lot of early twentieth century social history, such as milk coming in churns, the paper boy flinging the morning paper over the fence, the ice man delivering blocks of ice twice a week to houses in Sydney, the baker arriving in a horse and cart, and last but not least, the fact that May and her husband listened to the wireless and the gramophone in the evenings.
The book feels specific to the house, and both the author and illustrator are local to Sydney. I have searched the internet without much success in finding another copy. It occurs to me therefore that it might have been originally written and produced for “Nutcote” to sell, (although I have no evidence for this). It seems strange otherwise, that such an attractive picture book is now so scarce.
February 21, 2025
This is a lovely children’s book which I read because I love visiting Nutcote. May Gibbs’ home is well worth a visit and the volunteers do a wonderful job maintaining the gardens. The tea rooms serve a lovely Devonshire tea. It’s like going back in time reading this book. Very nostalgic!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews