''Dot's Little Folk'', a column in the Otago Witness in the late 19th and early 20th centuries grew to become the most important children's column of its time in the British Empire, according to Keith Scott.
His book about the column and the stories it told, Dear Dot - I must tell you, was published in 2011 and now he has written a play, Where once our voices led, based on the letters of ''High School Boy'', who was the catalyst for turning the column from an obscure children's page to a Facebook-like youth culture in which teenagers shared their life and experiences.
The play opens at the Globe Theatre next Thursday. Teenagers and children wrote under pen names and Scott has identified ''High School Boy'' as Bob Gillingham, who came from a farm in Fairlie and was sent as a boarder to Otago Boys' High School in 1897 when he was 15. He returned to work on his father's farm and continued to write for the column until 1900 under ''Boy from the back blocks''.
Scott is convinced Bob's letters, initially at least, were contrived.
''The more I did it, the more interesting I felt it became. These letters were not off-the-cuff, they were contrived letters and ... could never have been written without the permission of the rector. I'm sure they all got together and said `this is what we are going to do'.''
Scott says he is ''absolutely convinced'' the conspirators in this included the editor of the Otago Witness [William Fenwick], Bob Gillingham and possibly his mother, Amelia Godston - who was a correspondent for the Witness - who would have penned the letters in conjunction with the school.
''Whether it was to increase the popularity of the children's column or to increase the visibility of Otago Boys' I don't know, but there was something behind it. It didn't just happen by chance. That is very much part of the play, how this all happened and it involves the school and it involves the editor.''
It is not known who made Bob write the letters - Gillingham himself never said although it was a subject of much discussion later. Those who knew him later in life suspected his mother, a journalist and friend of William Fenwick,
may have written them but others thought it might have been a joint effort between mother and son, Scott says.
''Personally, I think if the earlier letters weren't from Bob then the later ones when he left school definitely were.''
Although the play is based on ''High School Boy's'' letters, Scott has used dramatic licence and developed the characters described in the letters such as his parents and his cousin Steve with whom he grew up but who was sent to Wanganui Collegiate to separate him from Bob.
''The historical letters just give little indications. We don't know in fact what happened but from a dramatist's point of view I take up those little hints and turn them into action to carry the drama along and to give the characters personality and motivation.''
''It was a life of trying not to get caught by the masters and getting caned if you were. It was a life of getting the tuck box from home and having a midnight feast in the dorm, it was a life of Latin and French.''
Among Bob's school friends is Harry Caughley, a swot who doesn't like sports, the opposite of the sportsman and non-academic Bob. It's revealed that he's a ward of the state and if he doesn't do well he'll lose his scholarship but doesn't want to tell his friends.
Several of the characters have things revealed about them, Scott says. Fenwick is a major character in the play. Both Fenwick and Bob have dual personas - Bob as ''High School Boy,'' the cheeky young imp who makes fun of things like his best mate cousin Steve for being a toff at Wanganui Collegiate, that as himself he cares about. He doesn't feel what he is doing is ''real''.
Fenwick also is not only the hard-headed businessman editor who is concerned to have Bob increase the popularity of his paper, but also is the softer ''Dot'' who runs the column and replies to the children's letters.
In the play Bob goes to see Fenwick and says he doesn't want to do it any more.
''He says 'it's not right. I make fun of Steve and I don't mean it. It isn't me, Mr Fenwick, this is High School Boy'. And he says to himself 'why do I have to be this stupid High School Boy any more'. But in the play Fenwick talks him into continuing and he agrees as long as he gets a pie supper at Brown's Tearooms every other Sunday night and extra cartridges for his cadet shooting. He makes a new agreement to carry on.''
When the South African war was declared in October 1899, it sparked a lot of discussion in Dot's Little Folk pages.
''I wanted to include that in the drama. What it did was turn this very ordered and regulated society into chaos. Everything changes, relationships change and are tested.
''Unlike the first world war there was a lot of discussion about whether it was just or right. Even in Dot's Little Folk column there were children, probably older children, writing against the British involvement in South Africa and pro-Boer.''
Scott brings this into the drama with some of the boys being bellicose, wanting to go to war even if they are only 16, while others are opposed.
Bob, under the pen name ''Boy from the backblocks'' has a great banter with Dot about going to South Africa as a war correspondent and Dot plays along.
''So on the page Dot and Bob are having tremendous fun with all this but all the other characters aren't. They are facing the realities of war and saying this is wrong or this is right, so you have different levels going on at the same time which makes it quite interesting.
''It's that dichotomy between the reality and the artificial that was being created in the paper by these personas.''
See it
Where once our voices led: A nostalgic comedy, written and directed by Keith Scott opens at the Globe Theatre on August 1 and runs until August 10.
