A publisher’s call that sent an author to “panic stations” and a sketch inspired by a pimply pooch fluttering to the ground at just the right moment.
This was the mess that led Dame Lynley Dodd to create Kiwi kids’ popular fictional dog: Hairy Maclary.
“It was all an accident,” Dodd told the Bay of Plenty Times, in an interview at her Tauranga home to mark her beloved character’s 40th birthday.
“I’d been working on a book called Wakeup Bear and my publisher got in touch and told me I couldn’t get on with it because another book [with a similar title] was coming up overseas,” Dodd said.
“They told me I’d have to think of something else in a hurry.”
Dodd said those words sent her to “panic stations”.
“That’s where Hairy Maclary came along because I’d done a little drawing of Hairy and stuck it in my ideas book and it literally fell out on the floor when I was trying to think what to do.”
To this day, Dodd could not bring herself to believe how much bedtime mayhem her accidental character had caused since his introduction in July 1983.
Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy turns 40 this month. One of New Zealand’s bestselling books, more than five million copies have sold worldwide.
There are now 21 Hairy Maclary and Friends books. Foreign language editions have been published in Sweden, Japan, Slovenia, Russia, Korea and China.
The shenanigans of Hairy Maclary and his gang have also made it on to everything from children’s pyjamas to the Tauranga Waterfront.
Dodd said she had “never quite got used to the idea” of the Hairy Maclary books becoming successful both in New Zealand and around the world.
“I’ve always been absolutely surprised by that,” Dodd said.
“I can still remember when my then-publisher told me they’d like a second book and I did a double-take. I absolutely didn’t think I’d still be talking about Hairy 40 years later.”
The celebrations for Hairy Maclary’s 40th birthday included an online lookalike competition that had received hundreds of entries, a special edition of Hairy Maclary’s first adventure, a suite of collector’s edition stamps and a coin from New Zealand Post and an Opus Children’s concert.
“When you look at it all you see just how special it is,” Dodd said.
“It’s incredibly exciting that Hairy Maclary is becoming important enough to have a 40th birthday celebration with so many wonderful things happening,” Dodd said.
“I feel very honoured by it all.”
Dodd said “these days” were an exciting time for books, especially compared with the more “restrained era” of her childhood.
“People were still deadly serious after World War II,” Dodd said.
“There were some pompous books that came out that were rather dictatorial about behaviour. They spoilt all the fun a bit and because they weren’t expensively published they didn’t have much colour.”
Dodd remembered being drawn instead to the colourful and “silly” works of Dr Seuss and a cherished childhood story about a familiar animal.
“My favourite book was about a dog.”
Dodd said her mother couldn’t change the words in the book because Dodd would automatically correct her.
But she never thought she would be an author.
“I never tried to be a writer. I was an illustrator. I studied art. I taught art for several years.”
Then when Dodd was at home with her two young children Eve Sutton suggested the two work together on a children’s book.
“I didn’t know how to do a children’s book but we got going.”
That first book was called My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes. From then on, Dodd was hooked.
“I thought, ‘This is great fun. I’ve got to try and do some for myself.’ That’s how I got into writing.”
Dodd had 13 children’s books under her belt when she watched a piece of paper from her ideas book flutter to the ground in the midst of a publisher-induced panic.
On the paper was a little drawing based on a friend’s dog of a character Dodd would come to call Hairy Maclary.
“[My friend’s dog] was a little terrier who suffered from pimples because his owner kept giving him cake,” Dodd said.
“He was very cheeky like all terriers are. They think they’re Alsatians and they go around being completely bossy and bustley.”
Unlike the real dog who inspired his creation, Dodd said Hairy Maclary “isn’t a proper breed”.
“Hairy’s just a mixture really.”
The idea for Hairy’s gang of dogs was inspired by a scene from Dodd’s life.
“We lived in Lower Hutt, above the valley and a gang of dogs used to come up the hill on a regular basis, about five of them. They would stop at my letterbox and everybody else’s letterbox.
“I suddenly thought, ‘Well, Hairy Maclary would be in a gang’.”
What followed was the same “solid work” and self-discipline that Dodd applied to creating all her books.
“I’m slow. It takes me a long, long time to put a book together,” Dodd said of her writing process.
“Every word matters in a picture book. You can’t fluff about with the text at all. So you’ve got to get it right.”
Dodd said she was “very hot” on using “good language” in books.
“Children love good language. Learning new words is something they absolutely love.”
Dodd said she would sketch important parts of the story as she worked on the text.
“Very often I do what happens on the final page first, an illustration of how it winds up because that’s the crunch point.”
Dodd then makes small draft books she calls “dummies” or “baby books”.
“I draw up on every page in pencil what the illustrations are going to be because that tells me whether the book is going to work or not.
“Then that goes to the publisher and I sit there chewing my nails to see whether that’s going to be successful.”
Dodd said drawing the illustrations could take her between four and six months.
“It’s very satisfying but it’s ghastly if something goes wrong in a picture and you have to start again.”
Dodd said she remembered Hairy’s first publication day very clearly.
“I remember we were in a bookshop. The reaction was so good that a lot of people turned up. The event had a sort of vibe that made me feel like, ‘Oh gosh, maybe this is a bit special.’ It was rather lovely.”
Dodd has received mountains of feedback from readers over the years.
“Feedback is so important to writers. Otherwise, you’re working in a vacuum. There wouldn’t be any books without readers,” Dodd said.
“That’s been huge fun. It’s been a thrill that people not just here in New Zealand but all over the world are enjoying the books.
“I think it’s simply because I chose something that everybody likes and that’s pet dogs.”
Dodd said she appreciated feedback from children the most.
“Children will let you know, all too obviously, if they don’t like something. They don’t fluff about. They let you know.”
Dodd said it was important to her that children had fun reading about Hairy and his friends.
“I’m not sure there’s any deeper meaning in them other than the fact that dogs can behave badly,” Dodd said.
“But they do get their comeuppance. They don’t get away with it. That’s a good thing.
“My books just tend to be full of mayhem.”
Maryana Garcia is a regional reporter for the Rotorua Daily Post and the Bay of Plenty Times.
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