Your chance to win an exclusive signed copy of H.G. Parry’s new book, The Magician’s Daughter!
We are pleased to announce a special competition to celebrate our upcoming event with one of the finest fantasy writers around, H .G. Parry, and the release of her much-anticipated The Magician’s Daughter. All you need to do to win one of these fabulous prizes is attend the book launch and ask the best question on the night!
The event promises to be an entertaining, enlightening, enthralling and totally unmissable for any fan of fantasy books.
Join us at
Newtown Library
Friday 10 March
6pm
So get your thinking cap on, put it in your calendar and join us to be in with a chance to win your very own free copy of The Magician’s Daughter.
The magician’s daughter / Parry, H. G.
“It is 1912, and for the last seventy years magic has all but disappeared from the world. Yet magic is all Biddy has ever known. Orphaned as a baby, Biddy grew up on Hy-Brasil, a legendary island off the coast of Ireland hidden by magic and glimpsed by rare travelers who return with stories of wild black rabbits and a lone magician in a castle. To Biddy, the island is her home, a place of ancient trees and sea-salt air and mysteries, and the magician, Rowan, is her guardian. She loves both, but as her seventeenth birthday approaches, she is stifled by her solitude and frustrated by Rowan’s refusal to let her leave. One night, Rowan fails to come home from his mysterious travels. To rescue him, Biddy ventures into his nightmares and learns not only where he goes every night, but that Rowan has powerful enemies.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
The unlikely escape of Uriah Heep / Parry, H. G.
“For his entire life, Charley Sutherland has concealed a magical ability he can’t quite control: he can bring characters from books into the real world. His older brother, Rob – a young lawyer with a normal house, a normal fiancée, and an utterly normal life – hopes that this strange family secret will disappear with disuse, and he will be discharged from his life’s duty of protecting Charley and the real world from each other. But then, literary characters start causing trouble in their city, making threats about destroying the world… and for once, it isn’t Charley’s doing. There’s someone else who shares his powers. It’s up to Charley and a reluctant Rob to stop them, before these characters tear apart the fabric of reality.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
A declaration of the rights of magicians / Parry, H. G.
“A sweeping tale of revolution and wonder in a world not quite like our own. It is the Age of Enlightenment — of new and magical political movements, from the necromancer Robespierre calling for revolution in France to the weather mage Toussaint L’Ouverture leading the slaves of Haiti in their fight for freedom, to the bold new Prime Minister William Pitt weighing the legalization of magic amongst commoners in Britain and abolition throughout its colonies overseas. But amidst all of the upheaval of the early modern world, there is an unknown force inciting all of human civilization into violent conflict. And it will require the combined efforts of revolutionaries, magicians, and abolitionists to unmask this hidden enemy before the whole world falls to darkness and chaos.” (Adapted from Catalogue). Also available as an Audiobook.
A radical act of free magic : a novel / Parry, H. G.
“The Concord has been broken, and a war of magic engulfs the world. In France, the brilliant young battle-mage Napoleon Bonaparte has summoned a kraken from the depths, and under his command, the Army of the Dead have all but conquered Europe. In Saint Domingue, Fina watches as Toussaint Louverture navigates these opposing forces to liberate the country.But there is another, even darker war being fought beneath the surface: the first vampire war in hundreds of years. The enemy blood magician who orchestrated Robespierre’s downfall to bring about a return to dark magic to claim all of Europe. ” (Adapted from Catalogue)
Sarah L. Taggart is a queer, Canadian writer living in Petone who has just released her first novel, Pacifique.
The book is about a woman named Tia who, after five wonderful days with her new lover Pacifique, wakes up in an ambulance with a collarbone broken from a bike accident — and no trace of Pacifique. Unable to convince anyone that Pacifique exists, Tia winds up in a psychiatric ward, forced to face the possibility that Pacifique may not be real.
In addition to writing a brilliant first novel, Sarah is also completing a PhD at the Institute of Modern Letters on Janet Frame and the burgeoning field of “mad studies”. Sarah’s writing has been featured in many journals and her short stories have won prizes back in Canada.
When Sarah approached us about the possibility of an interview about the book and the themes it explores we jumped at it!
We wish to extend our heartfelt thanks and appreciation to Sarahfor taking the time to answer our questions, and for providing such an illuminating insight into her world and work.
This interview was done by Customer Services Librarian Tessa Bowler.
You can watch the video below, or on our YouTube channel. Borrow Pacifique today, we’ve included a catalogue link below.
Pacifique / Taggart, Sarah L.
“When Tia meets Pacifique, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime love. They spend five wild days and nights together, and then Tia wakes up in an ambulance with a collarbone broken in a bike accident– and no trace of Pacifique. Unable to convince anyone that Pacifique exists, Tia winds up in a psychiatric ward, forced to face the possibility that this perfect lover may be a figment of her imagination. While there, Tia meets Andrew, a contemplative man with schizophrenia, who falls in love with Tia. He, too, tells her to forget Pacifique. Who to believe? The medical establishment and her fellow patients? Or her frail human memory? And if Pacifique truly is a figment, is life in the “real world” with Andrew enough? (LAMBDA LITERARY OCTOBER’S MOST ANTICIPATED LGBTQIA+ LITERATURE ) ” (Adapted from Catalogue)
A modern love story: whakapapa, archaeology, art and heartbreak
We recently sat down to chat with acclaimed author Joanne Drayton, the New Zealand biographer of a slew of bestselling books including the Ockham-awarded Hudson & Halls: The Food of Love, and the New York Times Bestseller The Search for Anne Perry.
In The Queen’s Wife (published by Penguin Books NZ), Drayton has turned her biographers lens inwards, writing her first memoir that details a turbulent period of her life. With a richly interwoven narrative, Drayton recounts her experience of coming out as a lesbian in the late ’80s and early ’90s, and the joys, struggles and heartbreaks that ensued.
Here we discuss her reflective journey writing her way through multiple threads of personal histories, her unconventional writing style, and how a 14-year-long chess-piece carving project formed the overarching theme of her memoir.
We extend our thanks to Joanne for taking the time to talk to us about her new memoir The Queen’s Wife. You can discover all of Joanne’s works in our catalogue reading list below, and check out Joanne’s website for more information on her writing.
Browse books by Joanne Drayton:
The Queen’s Wife / Drayton, Joanne
“A memoir of a turbulent time – and a chess game that broke all the rules. In 1989, two married women met by chance. They instantly hit it off, but little did they know that their new relationship would turn their lives upside-down. This is the true story of that relationship, which threatened to cost them their children, families and friends and forced them to reassess their sexuality, identity and heritage. Along the way, one – an acclaimed biographer – was to explore the power of objects, while the other – a painter – was to follow her whakapapa back to the first Maori king, Te Wherowhero. Against the odds, the couple’s new life together became rich in laughter, travel, unusual encounters, investigations into Viking raids, the Kingitanga movement, the death of a New Zealand artist, chicken claws, ghosts, eccentrics and much more. A fascinating read on so many levels, this is an important view of our country from its very edge. ” (Catalogue)
Ngaio Marsh : her life in crime / Drayton, Joanne
“One of the celebrated 1930s and 40s ‘Queens of Crime’ Ngaio Marsh was probably our first million copy author. Her tightly written, stylish whodunits were perennial favorites, rating alongside Agatha Christie and Dorothy L Sayers. A textured, rich and fascinating story, of a young woman of ambiguous sexuality who reveled in the abandon of the Bohemian Riviera, whose spurned suitor committed suicide and whose scintillating murder mysteries all took their inspiration, setting or characters from the heady life she enjoyed as a member of the in set in England, where one moved between town house and country estate. In what will be one of the most read and most significant biographies of 2008, Ngaio Marsh comes to life and finally steps out from behind the cardboard cutout of respectability and decorum.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
Hudson & Halls : the food of love / Drayton, Joanne
“Hudson & Halls is more than just a love story, though a love story it certainly is. It is a tale of two television chefs who helped change the bedrock bad attitudes of a nation in the 1970s and 80s to that unspoken thing – homosexuality. Peter Hudson and David Halls became reluctant role models for a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ generation of gay men and women who lived by omission. They were also captains of a culinary revolution that saw the overthrow of Aunty Daisy and Betty Crocker and the beginnings of Pacific-rich, Asian-styled international cuisine. In this riveting, fast-paced and meticulously researched book, New York Times bestselling author Joanne Drayton celebrates the legacy of the unforgettable Hudson and Halls.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
The Search for Anne Perry / Drayton, Joanne
“In 1994, director Peter Jackson released the film ‘Heavenly Creatures’, based on a famous 1950s matricide committed in New Zealand by two teenage girls embroiled in an obsessive relationship. This film launched Jackson’s international career. It also forever changed the life of Anne Perry, an award-winning, bestselling crime writer, who at the time of the film’s release was publicly outed as Juliet Hulme, one of the murderers. A new light was now cast, not only on Anne’s life, but also her novels, which feature gruesome and violent deaths, and confronting, dark issues including infanticide and incest. Acclaimed literary biographer Joanne Drayton intersperses the story of Anne’s life with an examination of her writing, drawing parallels between Anne’s own experiences and her characters and storylines.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
Edith Collier : her life and work 1885-1964 / Drayton, Joanne
“Edith Collier’s contribution to New Zealand art as an innovator, modernist and expatriate painter placed her in a most distinguished group, but her achievements have been eclipsed by the very company she kept – such as Frances Hodgkins and Margaret Preston. This book sets the record straight. Rapidly disillusioned, and feeling marginalised as an expatriate woman painter, Collier became more influenced by other expatriates in London, and was to enjoy greater success through exhibiting with venues outside the art establishment. Collier became a significant Modernist painter and later returned to New Zealand as an experienced artist with innovative ideas. But as a spinster in provincial Wanganui, Collier received harsh treatment, including what Drayton describes as savage, critical assessment and negative response from her own community. In a well-known incident (on which Drayton casts a new perspective) her father burned many of her finest paintings.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
Frances Hodgkins : a private viewing / Drayton, Joanne
“The life of Frances Hodgkins was full of adventure, involving both physical and artistic journeys in which she crossed hemispheres, cultures, epochs and styles. Hodgkins worked with such well-known artists as Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth – and she became a leading figure of British Modernism. She is one of the most internationally significant New Zealand-born artists to date. Art historian Dr Joanne Drayton captures Hodgkins’s life vividly, drawing on the artist’s extensive correspondence with close friends and family on the other side of the world. She critiques individual works and surveys Hodgkins’s entire career, displaying her unique achievements in context. The result is a beautiful, compelling and highly readable book that is indeed a private viewing: it offers a sense of immediacy and intimacy of Frances Hodgkins.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
Rhona Haszard : an experimental expatriate New Zealand artist / Drayton, Joanne
“During Rhona Haszard’s short life she distinguished herself as a “New Woman” whose social and sexual behaviour was highly controversial. She dressed eccentrically, recommended Radclyffe Hall’s lesbian novel The Well of Loneliness, spoke positively of de facto relationships and advocated vegetarianism and unprocessed food. Most significantly, she wanted to paint innovatively and professionally. In the 1920s, her brighter, Post-Impressionist style rapidly brought international recognition.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
Between the lives : partners in art
“Between the Lives: Partners in Art is a fascinating book about artists who are also intimate partners. It takes nine well-known New Zealand couples and explores many aspects of their lives but particularly how the partnership affects the art they produce. Repeated themes are the situation of women and the strains of producing serious art in a small and isolated country. There are also contrasts as different couples have negotiated their own ways of accommodating two powerful creative talents. Joanne Drayton authored the chapter ‘Captured in Words and Paint: The life together of Frances Hodgkins & D.K. Richmond.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
Monica Macansantos’s debut short story collection Love & Other Rituals has already received glowing acclaim and marked her as an author to keep a close eye on. The stories in the collection revolve around Filipinos at home and in the wider diaspora. There are stories set in New Zealand, America, and the Philippines itself.
It’s the delicately relayed emotional journeys her characters undertake that really sets the stories apart. There is longing and beauty, hope and duty, all woven into the stories which are ultimately explorations about what it means to be human. Expect to be surprised and drawn into each tale.
Monica was a James A. Michener Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin, where she earned an MFA in Writing, and holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Victoria University’s International Institute of Modern Letters. Her work has appeared many publications such as in The Hopkins Review and the Pantograph Punch to name but a few, and she has been named Notable in the Best American Essays in both 2016 and 2022.
So, when we got the opportunity to interview the Monica about her work, we jumped at it!
We wish to extend our heartfelt thanks and appreciation to Monica Macansantos for taking the time to answer our questions about Love & Other Rituals and her writing practice, and for providing such an illuminating insight into her world and work.
You can watch this fascinating and insightful interview below or by visiting our YouTube channel by clicking here.
Love and other rituals / Macansantos, Monica
“A man imprisoned by taboo learns the price of love. A child visits the grave of a cousin she’s never met; another absorbs the fallout of her parents’ divorce. Friendships rupture beyond repair, and family members collide when it comes to caring for their ageing father. These vivid stories of yearning, loneliness and resilience navigate the naivety of childhood, the complications of young adulthood and the politics of marriage. Monica Macansantos is a powerful new voice bringing us the raw and darkly beautiful perspectives of characters lost both in and out of their homeland, the Philippines.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
The hidden history of women and architecture in New Zealand is one that, until very recently, has been a story full of prejudice and bias. Pioneering women architects and women working in architecture in NZ were often undermined, overlooked and almost certainly underpaid.
However, the story of that history has now been brought vividly to life by Elizabeth Cox, senior historian at the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, who specialises in both women’s history and architectural matters.
The heavily illustrated and ground breaking Making Space: A history of women and architecture in New Zealand redresses that bias and covers these struggles of pioneering women architects of the past.
Elizabeth herself works as a senior historian at Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage, and also runs a consultancy business exploring the history of New Zealand’s heritage buildings. She has worked at both Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga and the National Trust (UK), as well as being a trustee of the Futuna Chapel in Wellington.
So, when the opportunity to talk to Elizabeth about Making Space: A history of women and architecture in New Zealand arose we took it. We wish to extend our heartfelt thanks to Elizabeth for taking time out of her busy schedule and for such an insightful and informative interview.
This interview was done in conjunction with Caffeine and Aspirin, the arts and entertainment review show on Radioactive FM and was conducted by Tanya Ashcroft. You can hear the full interview, as well as find Elizabeth’s books available to borrow, below.
A friend indeed : the saving of Old St Paul’s / Cox, Elizabeth
“Built in the 1860s, a century later the much loved Old St Paul’s Church in Mulgrave Street, Wellington, was in grave peril, at risk from possible demolition, dismemberment or removal from its site. A friend indeed : the saving of Old St Paul’s provides an account of the many Wellingtonians who raised their voices to save the church, including architects, historians, parishioners, and the Friends of Old St Paul’s.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
Making space : a history of new zealand women in architecture
“Brilliant, hardworking and creative, women architects have made many significant contributions to the built environment, creativity and community of Aotearoa New Zealand. This groundbreaking book spans over a century, telling the story of women making space for themselves in a male-dominated profession while designing architectural, landscape and urban spaces.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
Whiskey Lima Golf is Darin Dance’s debut solo novel, but it’s not his first venture into writing. Having previously co-authored the Trinity Trilogy of books with fellow author Virginia Innes-Jones, Whiskey Lima Golf is a bit of a change in direction for Darin (aka Ted Hughes); the co-written Trinity novels being satirical, romantic, murder mysteries while Whiskey Lima Golf, on the other hand, is a contemporary procedural spy novel set in Wellington.
The main protagonist Tāmati (Tom) is an Afghanistan veteran, sent home with physical and mental wounds, who quickly finds himself involved in a secret operation to identify foreign spies in Wellington. At the novel’s core is Tom’s relationships with his family, friends, loved ones and the various interactions within and between these communities. The book draws extensively on Darin’s own past in the intelligence services.
When Darin agreed to be interviewed about Whiskey Lima Golf we were thrilled. We wish to extend our heartfelt thanks to Darin for taking time out of his busy schedule and for such an insightful and informative interview.
This interview was done in conjunction with Caffeine and Aspirin, the arts and entertainment review show on Radioactive FM. You can hear the full interview as well as find Darin’s books available to borrow, below:
Whiskey Lima Golf / Hughes, Ted (Ted D.)
“Whiskey Lima Golf is a contemporary procedural spy novel, set in Wellington. The main protagonist Tāmati (Tom) is an Afghanistan veteran sent home with physical and mental wounds. Who quickly finds himself involved in a secret operation to identify foreign spies in Wellington. At the novels core is Tom’s relationships with his family, friends and loved ones and the various interactions within and between these communities .” ( Adapted from Catalogue)
Sharks with lipstick / Ellison, Hinemura
“Freshly back from Europe with a new job, Samantha Svensson reconnects with her old friends while managing a new role within the Big Super Ministry – where everyone is busy playing their own internal political games. After the HR Director ends up dead on the same train that Sven was on, suspicions abound, not least from the chief investigating police officer, Charlie Rogers, who happens to be her ex and is still incredibly damned hot! With Wellington still reeling after a recent big earthquake, Sven must use all her canny resourcefulness to clear her name and identify the killer within their midst.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
Snakes in suits / Ellison, Hinemura
“Freya returns to Wellington to restore her inheritance, ‘Portobello,’ an Art Deco building in Petone. Only to find dubious dealings with various Snakes in Suits, lawyers, bankers, the council and an unscrupulous property developer who will stop at nothing, even murder, to get what he wants – Portobello. Freya fights back with the help of her friend Zac – who just happens to be drop dead gorgeous. –Back cover.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
Scorpions in stilettos / Ellison, Hinemura
“Caught in a compromising position, Clara AKA Flat White, the classy, conservative career girl of the Trinity Trio, struggles as her carefully constructed life comes crashing down around her. Juggling a complicated love life, a career with bullying managers, a domineering mother and her own demons from the past, may be just a little too much even for her. Can Clara recover and navigate her way back with the help of her friends ?” (Adapted from Catalogue)
