Category: Publications

Best New Zealand Fiction 3

The Best New Zealand Fiction: 3 Short Stories (ed) Vintage 2006 Synopsis: The standard of New Zealand writing today can hold its own on the world stage. It also has a distinctly local flavour, depicting our landscape and experiences as well as our wry insights and tone. Coming from a variety of writers and representing …

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The Captive Wife

The Captive Wife coverThe Captive Wife
Fiction, Vintage, 2004

When Betty Guard steps ashore in Sydney, in 1834, she meets with a heroine’s welcome. Her survival during a four-month kidnapping ordeal amongst Taranaki Maori is hailed as nothing short of a miracle. But questions about what really happened slowly surface within the elite governing circles of the raw new town of Sydney.

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Songs from the Violet Café

Songs from the Violet Café Novel Vintage 2003 Synopsis: Violet Trench is the autocratic owner of the Violet Café, located in a tourist town in the North Island. Her staff consists mostly of young girls who have difficult home lives. Violet believes she can make a difference to them. She rules them with a rod …

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A Needle in the Heart

A Needle in the Heart Short Stories Vintage 2002 There are six stories in the book: – A Needle in the Heart – Silver-Tongued – Families Like Ours – Mr Blue Satin – Soup Most of the characters in this book have homely domestic backgrounds. Story development: The long story form interests me a great …

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The Best of Fiona Kidman’s Short Stories

The Best of Fiona Kidman’s Short Stories Short Stories Vintage 1998 Synopsis: The Best of Fiona Kidman’s Short Stories contains 37 stories, some previously uncollected, and some new, written in the period 1968-1998. Those that were previously collected appeared in Mrs Dixon and Friend, Unsuitable Friends and The Foreign Woman (Mrs Dixon and Friend was …

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The Book of Secrets

The Book of Secrets
Fiction, Vintage, 1999

In a creaking old house, in the Far North of New Zealand, lives an old woman called Maria, who some call the ‘witch of Waipu.’ Maria is descended from a line of strong women who have followed the fierce and charismatic preacher, Norman McLeod, across the world. McLeod and a group of crofters set off from Ullapool in the Highlands of Scotland in 1817, headed towards Nova Scotia.

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