CATH TIZARD -

GREAT NEW ZEALANDER

One of the joys of being a book reviewer, in addition to the lovely parcels of books that arrive at your door, is getting to read books before they are published, before anyone else had read them, before any reviews have appeared that may prejudice your view of a book.

Today in the mail I was overjoyed to open a parcel from Random House and find an advance copy of CAT AMONGST THE PIGEONS - A Memoir - by Cath Tizard.

Dame Cath as she is affectionately known is the greatly admired and respected former Mayor of Auckland and former Governor General. She was of course our first woman Governor General, I guess she was the Commonwealth's first Governor General too?

I have looked at all the photographs and have read the early chapters, as well as a couple of the later ones - involving the days of her national prominence and I have to say that I am enjoying it immensely.
She writes well and with a good dollop of modesty, and of course her trademark wicked sense of humour.
Feisty, irreverent, shrewd, fun-loving and resourceful, Dame Cath was the driving force behind the Aotea Centre project of course and later she lifted Government House out of its stiff and starchy past and into a more relevant present. There are some most fascinating insights into the vice-regal life.

When asked why she had decided to write her memoir, Dame Cath laughs, saying that she thought she’d “better get in first before someone else did”.

That is all I am saying at this stage and I'm afraid that you are going to have to wait a while before you can read it - publication date is 17 September.
On second thoughts I'll give you one little snippet.

"One of the final dinners was at Windsor Castle where I sat between two tall men, the Duke of Edinburgh and Lord King, the chair of British Airways. I was wearing a new crossover evening jacket, which wouldn’t stay done up. I kept trying to squeeze the hook to make it latch and eventually apologised to Lord King for my fidgeting. ‘I’m having a problem getting my top to stay put,’ I said. ‘No problem to me,’ he said, leaning over and looking down my cleavage. ‘No problem to me either,’ said the Duke, doing likewise from the other side".

I recommend you order it now from your bookseller or library because this is going to be a hugely popular book, a best-seller without doubt, and I'll wager now that the publishers have not ordered a big enough first printing to meet the initial demand.
Random House - rrp $39.99