Christchurch-based Carl Nixon has been best known as a playwright but all that is changing with his publication in 2006 of his first book, Fish’n’Chip Shop Song, a splendid collection of short stories, and now this year with his first novel, Rocking Horse Road which has also been well received.
In Rocking Horse Road Nixon skillfully captures life as it was in provincial New Zealand in the 1980’s with beach scenes, the long wait for school cert results, the wretched Springbok Tour of 1981, all tie in well with the shock experienced in the small coastal community near Christchurch when the body of a strangled teenage girl is found on the beach.Compelling.
I am sure we are going to read a lot more by this writer. I notice Owen Marshall quoted in yesterday’s Sunday Star Times saying he “found Nixon’s work strong, clear and original.”
Author pic from NZ Book Council website.
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