IN SEARCH OF PARADISE LAUNCHED IN STYLEAt the quite splendid TIME OUT bookshop in the Auckland suburb of Mt.Eden last evening Graeme Lay's new book, In Search of Paradise was launched by the Governor General, the Hon.Anand Satyanand, who appropriately addressed the gathering in a number of Pacific languages.
As I said in my review of 3 October this is an absolute gem of a book, one of which the author and the entire publishing team can be immensely proud.
After words from Random House NZ publisher Nicola Legat and the Governor General, the man of the hour, Graeme Lay responded and part of his address follows:
It was early last year when I first approached Linda Cassells and suggested to her that I write a book about the artists and writers who were inspired by the islands of the South Pacific, and it was Linda’s whole-hearted enthusiasm for the project which encouraged me to take the next step. She successfully sold the idea to Random House NZ, and we proceeded from there.
The idea for such a book had been brewing in my mind for some years, ever since I first set eyes on the natural beauty of Tahiti’s mountains, forests and people. This led me to wonder what it must have been like for the first European visitors to witness those same sights. It wasn’t difficult to find out, because the voyagers, botanists, artists and writers who came to the islands left vivid written and visual records of what they had seen and done. It was then a case of researching the lives of those men and selecting the journal extracts, paintings and books which best exemplified their reactions to the islands of the South Pacific.
As I worked, I came to admire and like almost all my subjects. Men like Joseph Banks, Sydney Parkinson, Augustus Earle, Robert Louis Stevenson, Rupert Brooke and James Michener. They would have been great company, I often thought. They did not necessarily find paradise in the South Pacific, but they had a great time as they went in search of it. Even the men who behaved badly, like William Bligh and Paul Gauguin, were fascinating to document.
But the research and writing were only the beginning. The text had to be illustrated and the book designed. And that was the role of the most amazing duo I have ever worked with, Linda Cassells and Jacinda Torrance. Linda and Jacinda – even their names have a poetic ring – worked with incredible patience and energy on the project. There were frustrations along the way – I’m thinking of setting up as an international image procurement consultant – but one by one the obstacles were overcome, the pages were laid out and the book went off to the printer.
The result speaks for itself. It is a beautiful book, and a large one. It’s been suggested to me that it should come in a special package with four folding legs, so that it can be assembled into not just a coffee table book, but a coffee table. It’s going to be difficult to post overseas, so I may have to deliver copies to Tahiti, Rarotonga and Samoa personally.
2.
So, for supporting my idea and seeing it through to fruition, I am enormously grateful: to Linda and Jacinda for their professional expertise, to Nicola Legat and Rebecca Lal for their support and astute judgements, to Jillian Ewart for her great work on publicity for the book, to Bernard Brown for his advice regarding the tracing of a photograph of Rupert Brooke, and to Kevin Ireland for his invaluable editorial advice. The book is dedicated to Kevin and his late wife, Caroline. Their last holiday together was a memorable one they spent on Rarotonga, almost exactly one year ago, so that too seems fitting.
The idea for such a book had been brewing in my mind for some years, ever since I first set eyes on the natural beauty of Tahiti’s mountains, forests and people. This led me to wonder what it must have been like for the first European visitors to witness those same sights. It wasn’t difficult to find out, because the voyagers, botanists, artists and writers who came to the islands left vivid written and visual records of what they had seen and done. It was then a case of researching the lives of those men and selecting the journal extracts, paintings and books which best exemplified their reactions to the islands of the South Pacific.
As I worked, I came to admire and like almost all my subjects. Men like Joseph Banks, Sydney Parkinson, Augustus Earle, Robert Louis Stevenson, Rupert Brooke and James Michener. They would have been great company, I often thought. They did not necessarily find paradise in the South Pacific, but they had a great time as they went in search of it. Even the men who behaved badly, like William Bligh and Paul Gauguin, were fascinating to document.
But the research and writing were only the beginning. The text had to be illustrated and the book designed. And that was the role of the most amazing duo I have ever worked with, Linda Cassells and Jacinda Torrance. Linda and Jacinda – even their names have a poetic ring – worked with incredible patience and energy on the project. There were frustrations along the way – I’m thinking of setting up as an international image procurement consultant – but one by one the obstacles were overcome, the pages were laid out and the book went off to the printer.
The result speaks for itself. It is a beautiful book, and a large one. It’s been suggested to me that it should come in a special package with four folding legs, so that it can be assembled into not just a coffee table book, but a coffee table. It’s going to be difficult to post overseas, so I may have to deliver copies to Tahiti, Rarotonga and Samoa personally.
2.
So, for supporting my idea and seeing it through to fruition, I am enormously grateful: to Linda and Jacinda for their professional expertise, to Nicola Legat and Rebecca Lal for their support and astute judgements, to Jillian Ewart for her great work on publicity for the book, to Bernard Brown for his advice regarding the tracing of a photograph of Rupert Brooke, and to Kevin Ireland for his invaluable editorial advice. The book is dedicated to Kevin and his late wife, Caroline. Their last holiday together was a memorable one they spent on Rarotonga, almost exactly one year ago, so that too seems fitting.
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