Mason Ball is coming to Tekapo to share his recently completed biography of his father, the acclaimed cartoonist Murray Ball, renowned as the creator of Footrot Flats. His biography reveals all the hits and misses and long years of hard graft that went into what would become a wildly successful creative enterprise: Footrot Flats. From his unique viewpoint and with congenial honesty, he reveals the real-life backstory to Murray Ball's most iconic characters and themes, paying homage to the man - and father - who could see the quirks of human nature in his surroundings and capture them with...
The Life of Frank Erceg – New Zealand Deer Hunter, Mountaineer, Photographer Bateman Books, $49.99 The book for review today is far removed from my usual repertoire of fiction and self-help books. Finding Frank, is the beautiful hardback biography of Frank Erceg a highly respected hunter, first as deer culler for the New Zealand Forest Service and later as a commercial meat hunter. Tragically, Frank was killed in New Zealand’s first helicopter hunting accident, already a legend at the young age of thirty. The striking picture on the cover is a photo of Frank taken in 1961 in...
Ruth Shaw is coming to Tekapo for the evening to celebrate the release of her latest book, Bookshop Dogs. 📚🐕 Dogs of all shapes and sizes visit Ruth Shaw's three tiny bookshops in Manapōuri in the far south of Aotearoa New Zealand. Local dogs, holiday house dogs, travelling dogs: many have great stories, be they funny, sad, strange, bemusing, quirky or sweet. Join us as she shares her generous love of people, books and dogs. It's a must-read for dog fans, book fans and anyone who loved her first book, The Bookseller at the End of the World....
Ruth Shaw is the bestselling author of The Bookseller at the End of the World. In 2016, in her late sixties, Ruth opened her first little bookshop in Manapōuri, Fiordland where she had settled with her husband Lance. They were quickly followed by a wee shop for children’s books and another that is filled with books that men might like. The Bookseller at the End of the World, consists partly of short vignettes about the people who visit her bookshops. This includes the story of how Ruth refused to sell a stack of books with green covers to a customer who...
Ann Cleeves is the author over thirty crime novels, including the Shetland books and the Vera Stanhope books which have been made into TV series. Her latest book is The Raging Storm, the third book in the Two Rivers series. This is only the second Ann Cleeves book that I’ve read, but I am now confident that if I need distraction and an easy read, this author will deliver. Ann Cleeves’ books are all anchored in place. The characters in the Shetland series are shaped by the rugged and isolated landscape. I read that the author planned the first...
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese is a big book of 736 pages set in India and spanning from 1900 to 1977. It follows three generations of a family and starts when a 12-year-old girl is to marry a 40-year-old widower. Big Ammachi, as the girl and future matriarch of Parambil will come to be known, holds the narrative together through the seven decades. The saga is set against the background of the caste system, the colonised and later independent India and the scenery and geography of Southern India. But it is the people and their dramas and dreams...
