‘Later, I had a friend who I used to meet in the weekends and she was a secret. Topsy Witihera was a girl with a wide concealing smile and a thick lustrous plait that hung below her waist. She was being brought up by her grandmother, and felt different, as I did, only more so. …
Category: Publications
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Beside the Dark Pool — excerpt
‘A few months after my first meeting with Ustinov in Phnom Penh, he talked to David Marr about possible interview subjects in Australia and New Zealand for a documentary series he was about to start work on. Called ‘Following the Equator with Sir Peter Ustinov’, it would retrace Mark Twain’s epic journey one hundred years …
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The Book of Secrets — excerpt
With the spade she turned the hard earth. The paddocks were misty and cool but they held the fragrance of approaching spring. The curious wax-eyes perched a careful distance away from her. Maria scraped the last loose over the grave, turned the spade over, and tamped the soil firm with the flat side. ‘Maria McClure.’ …
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The Trouble with Fire
The Trouble with Fire Fiction, Vintage 2011 Synopsis: Eleven long stories make up this collection, linked by the theme of fire. Fire is a dangerous lurking event, which is also beautiful and alluring in its physical manifestation. Like memory, one is never sure when it will catch up with you. In several of these stories, …
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Best New Zealand Fiction 1
The Best New Zeland Fiction: 1 Short Stories (ed) Vintage 2004 Synopsis: The Best New Zeland Fiction: 1 is a collection of new writing by a blend of established and new writers.It is planned as an annual anthology which will demonstrate the very best in recent new writing. They have been selected by Fiona Kidman, …
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Publications
The following titles are in print and available from good bookstores: View the complete bibliography here
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Where Your Left Hand Rests: a collection of poems
Where Your Left Hand Rests Poetry, Godwit, 2010 Synopsis: I published my first collection of poems ‘Honey & Bitters’, in 1975, a whole 36 years ago. After four collections, at some point, I simply stopped writing poems. I was a fiction writer, after all, and I needed to focus on that discipline. Or so I …
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Beside the Dark Pool
Beside the Dark Pool
Memoir, Vintage, 2009
This is the second volume of a two-part memoir, taking up the story of my life from 1980, where At the end of Darwin Road ends. The 1980s began in dramatic fashion with demonstrations against the Springbok rugby tour of New Zealand. My husband Ian and I were both caught up in these events, and Ian tells part of the story in the first two chapters.
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At the End of Darwin Road
At the end of Darwin Road
Memoir, Vintage, 2008
This is volume one of a two-volume memoir. Here, I trace my early life in small-town New Zealand, from Hawera through the Waikato, Kerikeri, Waipu, and Rotorua. It follows my life throughout the 1960s and 70s as I juggled motherhood and family with writing jobs during turbulent times of change for women, which would eventually lead me to write my first published novel, A Breed of Women.
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Best New Zealand Fiction 2
The Best New Zealand Fiction: 2 Short Stories (ed) Vintage 2005 Synopsis: 20 wonderful new stories by the best and freshest voices in New Zealand writing today. This year’s contributors are: Norman Bilbrough, William Brandt, David Eggleton, Chris Else, Fiona Farrell, Pierre Furlan, Charlotte Grimshaw, Karyn Hay, Eirlys Hunter, Witi Ihimaera, Kevin Ireland, Annamarie Jagose, …
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