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Alumnae news
MORE WELL-DESERVED RECOGNITION FOR DR TESSA DUDER
In the recent Queen’s Birthday Honours list, author Dr Tessa Duder CNZM, OBE (Staveley, 1958) was named a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) for services to literature.
This is not her first honour. In 1994, Tessa was awarded an OBE, in 2007 she received an Artists to Antarctica Fellowship, and in 2009 she was given a University of Waikato honorary doctorate.
Of her CNZM, Tessa is modest. “I know it’s cliché, but I’m grateful to all those people who will also enjoy this as a reflection on their work.”
Tessa attended Diocesan for her entire schooling, except for one year when she travelled by ship with her parents to England at the age of five, returning to Auckland in 1947. She was deputy head prefect and represented Dio in swimming and hockey.
“I remember my 11 years at Dio as happy, busy and very supportive of my swimming activities,” she says. “I’ll always be grateful that the teaching at that time was strongest in the humanities. My best subjects of English, history, languages, music, choir and drama laid the groundwork for the careers and passions I later chose to follow.”
Since leaving school, Tessa hasn’t stood still. Her early achievements began in the pool. She swam competitively as a teenager, winning a raft of national swimming titles and breaking records in both butterfly and medley in the mid to late 1950s. At the Cardiff Empire Games in 1958, she took home silver in the 110 yards butterfly and a fourth place with the New Zealand women’s medley relay team. The following year, Tessa was named New Zealand’s first Swimmer of the Year.
Her journalism career began at the Auckland Star. She went on to work at the Daily Express in London in the mid ’60s, and then she and her husband, John, lived in Pakistan for five years with their young family.
In 1977, after a brief career as a pianist with a light music trio, and with her youngest daughter now at school, Tessa began writing fiction. Her first novel, Night Race to Kawau, was published in both New Zealand and the UK in 1982. Tessa has gone on to write around 45 books. Among the most celebrated are her Alex novels about a teenage Olympic swimming hopeful. This series of four books has earned Tessa three New Zealand Children’s Book of the Year awards and three Esther Glen medals. Alex is published in five languages and has been made into a feature film. The paperback version of the book was, for a time, Penguin New Zealand’s best-selling work of fiction.
Tessa also won the New Zealand Post Senior Fiction Award for her 1999 book The Tiggie Tompson Show. But her oeuvre extends well beyond fiction – she’s written educational readers, biographies and non-fiction books for children and adults on subjects as varied as the history of the first Olympics, the restoration of a stolen James Tissot painting, and James Cook’s charting of New Zealand.
In 2001 Tessa spent time in Livorno, the Tuscany home of her Italian greatgrandparents. From that visit came a family history and travel book called In Search of Elisa Marchetti — a writer’s search for her Italian roots.
But writing isn’t the only string to Tessa’s bow; she’s also edited several anthologies, written a full-length play about Joan of Arc (The Warrior Virgin) and had roles in numerous plays. She’s even appeared on 11 episodes of Shortland Street. As a member of the drama quartet Metaphor, she presented performances of self-devised plays and programmes of ‘literary cabaret’ at major arts festivals around the country.
Mentoring, inspiring and teaching are Tessa’s most generous gifts to younger generations. She has taught creative writing through the University of Auckland and at summer schools and seminars around the country. Over more than three decades, Tessa has visited hundreds of classrooms around New Zealand, spoken to teachers, librarians and parents, as well as at international conferences, and judged book and short story competitions.
She is a past president of the NZ Society of Authors (PEN NZ Inc), a current Trustee of the Storylines Children’s Literature Trust of New Zealand, and a former trustee and deputy chair of the Spirit of Adventure Trust.
Not keen to rest on her laurels just yet, Tessa is currently completing her latest work, a young adult novel set in early Auckland.
Sadie (right) and her sister, Zita, at the 2019 Dio Graduation Ball. LIFELONG FRIENDS
ONE TO WATCH
Sadie Sumich, who graduated from Dio in 2019, moved to London at the start of this year to audition for some of the world’s top drama schools. After a very intense process, Sadie was delighted to accept one of only 20 places at the prestigious Royal Birmingham Conservatoire to study acting on the BA (Hons) Acting course.
Auditions take place in London and North America to ensure that the standard of students is the highest. Sadie will take up her place in September. She was also offered an International Scholarship award to Manchester University Theatre Department.
Sarah Spicer, Head of Drama, taught Sadie and says she’s definitely one to watch.
“On our international drama trip last year, Sadie was lead role in the play The Sad Club, which was part of the National Theatre London International programme,” says Sarah. “She was also a co-director of the internationally acclaimed Dio production that was part of the Youth Festival in Scotland.
“Sadie’s talent and passion have developed here at Diocesan. I’m sure she’ll return to perform in our own Performing Arts Centre as an inspiration for our students.”
In 2019, Sadie received the Sandy O’Brien Cup for Excellence in Drama Performance at the Senior Arts Awards. She also won the Best Play award at the regional One Act play festival with the play Hang. At the national final in Wellington, she was singled out for her natural and mature acting style.
ALUMNAE NEWS
BACK ON CALL IN LONDON
Professor Janice Rymer (Dio Head Prefect, 1975) is living in London in the thick of the coronavirus pandemic, doing her bit to help out the NHS.
Janice gained her MBCHB from the University of Auckland in 1981. She chose to specialise in obstetrics and gynaecology after a recommendation from a colleague, and subsequently passed her Part 1 MRCOG (the international gold standard qualification for obstetrics and gynaecology) before moving to England in 1987.
After a year in High Wycombe, she settled in London where she’s lived for the past three decades. In 1994, after gaining her MD thesis, Janice joined the staff at Guy’s Hospital as a senior lecturer/clinical academic. She was made fellow of the RCOG (Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists) in 2005 and was RCOG vice president for the past three years.
As Dean of Student Affairs and professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at King’s College London, Janice spends roughly a day a week teaching and supervising students at the medical school. It’s one of the top 25 ranked universities in the world and among the oldest in England.
In addition to running her own private gynaecology practice, she’s also a consultant gynaecologist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.
“My clinical interests are menopause and HRT, female genital mutilation, and minimally invasive surgery, so I do all the really difficult endometriosis surgery in conjunction with a colorectal and urology colleague.”
Despite not having been on call for 10 years, when COVID-19 hit, Janice offered to help out at Guy’s and St
Thomas’ – which cared for Prime Minister Boris Johnson – so that other medical professionals could be deployed to intensive care wards.
“A lot of the workforce were selfisolating or sick with COVID, so there were significant staff shortages,” she says. “I did gynaecology on call, so I wasn’t looking after COVID patients. Quite a few of my colleagues got COVID, but thankfully no one I know died.”
It’s been a stressful time for health professionals, she says, especially with the changing guidelines around PPE.
“There’s been a lot of controversy about PPE not being available but at Guy’s and St Thomas’ this didn’t seem to be a problem. We were lucky. In the operating theatre, we looked quite scary as the PPE we wear resembles gas masks used in the war. As well as being uncomfortable, the masks make it hard to hear so it’s difficult to communicate with each other.”
With no one allowed onsite at King’s College, all teaching is being done online. Janice and her colleagues hope to resume clinical placements in September.
“I’m doing two days a week working virtually and the other three days I’m in the hospital doing virtual clinics, operating or seeing patients.”
England has had a high rate of COVID-19 cases and a worrying death toll, but Janice says the silver lining has been the amazing camaraderie amongst the NHS staff.
“What’s really weird is seeing London deserted. When the lockdown first began, it was so eerie walking to work with virtually no one in sight and all the tube stations, shops and restaurants closed. But the lack of tourists has made the jog along the Thames from Tower Bridge to Westminster much easier.”
With the UK gradually opening up in July, Janice is very nervous about a second wave and says finding a vaccine is imperative.
“People have been afraid to come into hospital so I suspect there will be delayed cancer diagnoses, and the cervical and breast cancer screening programmes have been paused, which is concerning.”
Before coronavirus changed our world completely, Janice would return to New Zealand two or three times a year, always catching up with her four closest Dio friends and spending two weeks over summer at Lang’s Beach with her sister. Those plans may be on hold for a while. Meanwhile, Janice is set to take on a challenging new role as the National Specialty Advisor for Gynaecology for NHS England.
