New Zealand Writers

MARRIOTT, Janice

Her realistic, humorous novels feature teenage embarrassment and a desire to change the world.

• From The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature
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Author entry from The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature, edited by Roger Robinson and Nelson Wattie (1998). About the Companion entries View list of Companion contributors

MARRIOTT, Janice (1946– ), writer of teenage fiction. Educated at Napier, Gisborne and Victoria University, she took a librarianship course in rare books in San Francisco, and worked in radio and TV in California and Vancouver. After temporarily losing her eyesight in England, and now widowed with a son, she graduated from the Wellington College of Education, but in 1983 went from teaching to audio production for Learning Media. In 1994, she was the inaugural writer-in-residence at the Auckland College of Education. Her realistic, humorous novels feature teenage embarrassment and a desire to change the world. Letters to Lesley (in England called Marrying Off Mum) (1989), and its sequel, Brain Drain (1993), introduced the irrepressible Henry Jollifer; the trilogy was completed by Kissing Fish (1997), which updated the joke of the eccentric Henry trying to elude a persistent penfriend, now using a fax machine. Other titles include I’m Not a Compost Heap (1995), and Crossroads (1995), which deals more seriously with death and grieving, its compelling exploration of two teenagers in crisis deepened by metaphor and literary resonances, especially echoes from Hamlet. It won the 1996 Aim Supreme Award and Senior Fiction Award. Marriott’s writing for adults has appeared in magazines and on radio.

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Updated Information

Growing Things to Eat (2003) is part of the Yates Gardening for Kids series. Find out how you can make a living tepee and discover how to grow a cucumber inside a bottle. See how you can even grow your own food without a garden!

Chute Thru (Mallinson Rendal) is one of two books released in 2006. Thor's Tale is a story of endurance and adventure in the Southern Ocean and was published by HarperCollins. It won the Junior Fiction Category of the New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults 2007.

Soldier in the Yellow Socks - Charles Upham, our Finest Fighting Soldier (HarperCollins, 2006) was illustrated by Bruce Potter, and tells the story of Charles Upham, who is the only New Zealand soldier who has gained the Victoria Cross twice. It was a finalist in the Non-Fiction section of the New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults 2007.

Common Ground (HarperCollins, 2008) is the story, told in letters, of the friendship between Marriott and Virginia Pawsey, who met at a school reunion and found a common interest in gardening helped their friendship to renew and flourish.