Below the radar

Janet, Jacquie, Pamela

Below the radar of the mythologising misogynistic mafia that has so misrepresented Janet Frame the person in her home country, far from the prying eyes of the people from Porlock who have persisted in patronising the author and pathologising the person, beyond the public profiles and the academic theorising, the fantastic invented personas imagined for her, real life always went on, friends and family and relationships flourished.

Here's a snapshot from early this century, at a meal in South Dunedin. Among the visitors, Janet's close friend Jacquie Baxter, also long considered by the Gordons as an extended family member. There were six or seven other whanau and friends at the table that day. It was not a rare event. There were no hermits at the table, just people who liked to preserve their privacy.