‘Kristine
has an excellent character with a bright attractive personality. She has
decided dramatic ability and a gift of interpretation which will serve her well
in the career she has chosen. I am confident of her ability to achieve success.’ Testimonial, Miss Clark, Wellington Girls’ College
Tina Grenville began life as Kristine DeLacy. Born
into privilege but out of wedlock, she weighed just 2 pounds (900 grams) of
heavily subsidised butter at birth. Her prematurity meant that she struggled
with poor health in early childhood and didn’t start school until she was
nearly seven years old.
Described by her mother as ‘very
self-conscious, nervous and highly strung’, it wasn’t a very promising start
for the little girl who longed to be an actress. But adversity can foster
courage and determination, and Tina Grenville had both, in spades. She also had
grit. Just as well, for she was going to need all the fortitude she could
muster throughout her life, as she rode the proverbial rollercoaster and
endured the best and worst of times.
Tina Grenville was thrust into the limelight at
the tender age of 19 with a young baby in tow, when her charismatic and dashing
former husband disappeared in mysterious circumstances from a Wellington wharf
one morning. Rumoured to have drowned while trying to swim across the harbour,
to win a bet after partying hard all night, it was a huge news story. Sitting
in the Wellington Coroner’s Court, Tina had to suffer the humiliation of
hearing the police read out a long list of her husband’s misdemeanours.
Widowed before she was 20, but blessed with exceptionally
good looks and a steely determination, Tina Grenville rose above the gossipy, insinuation-fuelled
headlines to forge a hugely successful modelling and acting career. Audacious
and fun, Tina Grenville cut a dash in New Zealand society, and once, back in
the 1970s, famously took off her trousers – ladies weren’t supposed to wear
trousers in those days – and calmly walked into the dining room at DeBretts.
Tina Grenville won Model of the Year in 1964
and went on to become one of the most recognisable faces on New Zealand and
Australian television. Along with son Ashley, she appeared on Channel Nine’s
Logie award-winning series, The
Godfathers and sequel The People Next
Door, during her 14-year stint in Australia. Returning to New Zealand in
1980, she hosted Good Morning for
Northern Television and worked for Wellington’s Downstage Theatre. She also
appeared on Gloss, Homeward Bound and as a panellist on
Selwyn Toogood’s iconic, Beauty and the
Beast show.
But while Tina’s career went from strength to
strength, her personal life was plagued by gossip and controversy. Family life
was tempestuous and now, with three children to look after, not to mention
husbands – past and present – making constant demands on her time, energy and
resources, it wasn’t long before the ‘black dog’ barked at her door. Yet
despite the upheavals, the emotional and financial uncertainty, Tina never gave
up and not only survived, but thrived.
In mid-life, while still continuing with her
acting career, Tina Grenville became a successful businesswoman. Having cut her
teeth with Madam Louise Charlton of Le Normandie restaurant in Wellington –
where she mastered the (basic) art of French cooking – Tina started up a
private supper club, Dining by Arrangement. She ran her business out of her
late nineteenth-century villa, in the wilds of Karekare, and it was a huge hit.
Later, she oversaw the building of a mud brick cottage in nearby Piha, which
set the stage for her second business, The Beautiful Bed & Breakfast Co.
This won the 1998 BNZ Business Award for Best Accommodation out West and was
later featured on high-rating television programme, Location, Location, Location.
Tina Grenville: A
Life in Three Acts is an inspiring, entertaining and tender
memoir; one that proves the adage, ‘it ain’t over until the fat lady sings’; in
the case of Tina, the fat lady was a long coming and if life was a performance, then she hadn’t yet reached the last act.
Tina
Grenville was educated at Wellington Girls’ College. After leaving school with
University Entrance and the school’s cup for drama, she gained her Royal
Academy letters to teach classical ballet and her Trinity College
qualifications to teach speech and drama. She started work as a radio actress
and went on to become a household name in New Zealand and Australia, as a
photographic and runway model, and actor.
Tina now lives in Piha with her husband, Tom
Cagwin. Her most recent work was playing Tim Finn’s mother in the 2010 film Predicament, for which she gained a
nomination for Best Supporting Actress at the AFTAs (Aotearoa Film and
Television Awards).
Tina Grenville: A Life in
Three Acts by Tina Grenville
Trade Paperback - 320 pages
plus 16-page colour picture insert
NZ RRP $39.99 - Harper Collins
Michele Hewitson interview with Tina Grenville - if you missed this colourful and playful interview in the NZ Herald last week then do link here and have a read.
Left - Tina Grenville - Photo - Brett Phibbs
John McCrystal heard Bill telling this story on a visit to the
Auckland Islands in 2008, and his curiosity was piqued. Lavishly illustrated
with images supplied by leading photographer Mike ‘Wilco’ Wilkinson, ‘The
Riddle of the Rifleman’ presents an account of the salvage, the conservation of
the artefacts raised and McCrystal’s four-year search through documentary
sources for clues to the ship’s identity. 
RSVP Publishing Company is an imprint launched by Stephen Picard in 1990, initially to publish his own first novel. They now have a very diverse catalogue of 20 titles, and the company follows the principle of some US publishers in keeping every book they publish in print.
Crystal Mission, Trail of the Hawk and Search for the Feathered Serpent are all titles by Dr Cornelius van Dorp. The firstleads the New Zealand doctor into fantastic territory – the discovery of a planetary electro-magnetic grid, and its connection with ancient foundation points like the Great Pyramid of Giza, a crystal mountain in Arizona, and secret sites in Tibet and New Zealand. Trail of the Hawk recounts contact with Native American Indian tribes, and Search for the Feathered Serpentfocuses – via a mystical stone-trail to Mexico and its ancient peoples, from whom the timing of the Harmonic Convergence came – on a search for Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent.
“I was stunned when they didn’t pick up our last two books. One was a Maori title, Vision of Maui by Joyce Paraone Hemara, about an ancient system of divination for prophesy used by the Maori seers and prophets, modernized into a Tarot for use today.”
