FIONA KIDMAN – writer

Frank O’Connor Short Story long-list

The Trouble with Fire has been long-listed for the annual Frank O’Connor Short Story Prize, administered in Cork, Ireland.

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On & Off the Track with Fiona Kidman

I’ve just done a rail tour on the Main Trunk Line for New Zealand Book Month, stopping at small towns along the way for readings and conversation. The tiny Taihape Library is tucked behind the Council office façade on the main street, a street built wide enough for bullock wagons to turn around. The library …

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Rescapée on the métro

My friend, Nelly Gillet, was on the Paris métro recently when she glanced up and saw that the woman next to her was reading Rescapée, the French version of my novel The Captive Wife. They immediately struck up a conversation. Nelly explained that she knew me and asked if she might take a photo because …

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Waipu’s Grand Pageant

Every ten years the town of Waipu, settled by the Nova Scotian migration led by the Reverend Norman McLeod in 1853, holds a Grand Pageant. It takes place beside the river, commemorating the settlement of the town. It runs over several nights, and allows some extra days for bad weather. It is a huge and …

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Holst in Harrods

A Home Grown Cook: The Dame Alison Holst Story (Hyndman Publishers) is fresh in the bookshops. This memoir is the writer/chef’s 100th book, something to celebrate. I’m a fan, one of the thousands of home cooks who have turned to her recipes for good homely inspiration. The Foreword by Sharon Crosbie is a marvelous tribute …

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Events in 2012

13 March 6-7.30 p.m. Taihape Public Library On and Off the Track: A New Zealand Book Month rail tour Fiona talks about her work and life, and invites questions and discussion 14 March 6 –7.30 p.m. St John’s Ambulance Hall, Otorohanga Fiona talks to secondary school students in Taihape before catching the train to …

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News from Telling Stories group 2011

A happy outcome of the Telling Stories class for 2011 is that class member Marlene Ditchfield convened a gathering of members, who have formed a regular ongoing writing group. It plans to meet regularly in 2012. The group calls itself ‘A Thorn in Your Side’ which well represents the sparky irrepressible nature of our meetings …

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Fiona Kidman awarded the 2011 Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement

Fiona (Fiction), James Belich (Non Fiction) and Peter Bland (Poetry) were each awarded the 2011 Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement at Premier House on 22 August. The Dominion Post stories are here and here. Fiona’s speech on the night: I’d like to congratulate my fellow award winners this evening, how pleased I …

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eBooks

The Captive Wife is now available through about half a dozen eBook retailers throughout the world, the most prominent being Amazon (both the US and UK sites), eBooks.com and Kobo. And exciting news that At the end of Darwin Road and The Book of Secrets have been selected for conversion into e-books too. They should …

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The Tower at the Bottom of the Garden

At first glance, the letter looked like another promotion from Vodafone. I carried it up the steps that lead to our back door. For the past forty years we have lived in an old Wellington bungalow that stands on a cliff top and looks out to sea. We planted the kowhai trees when we came here and now they are huge. This is where I’ve lived my life as a mother and a writer. But something was about to change.

The letter informed us that a ten-metre cellphone tower would shortly be erected by Vodafone on the roadside verge beneath the cliff. A company representative would later describe it as ‘the perfect site.’

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