Former leading New Zealand publisher and bookseller, and widely experienced judge of both the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, talks about what he is currently reading, what impresses him and what doesn't, along with chat about the international English language book scene, and links to sites of interest to booklovers.
Friday, November 07, 2014
Christine Kenneally: I was thrilled to find out I'm a convict princess
Author who blends DNA research with personal stories to examine how people inherit their family’s
Christine Kenneally fascination with genealogy was triggered by her parents’ unwillingness to discuss their forebears.Photograph: Nicole Cleary/Black Inc
Amateur genealogists are always thrilled when they discover a notable or dignified ancestor in their family tree. But for the Melbourne journalist Christine Kenneally – and, indeed, for any Australian – the real pleasure in digging up the past is the possibility one may chance upon a bit of villainy in the form of a convict. “When I first found out my great-great-grandfather was a convict in Tasmania, I was thrilled as I got to be a convict princess,” Kenneally says from New York, where she is doing the publicity rounds for her latest book, The Invisible History of the Human Race: How DNA and History Shape Our Identities and Our Futures, which has received a glowing front-page review in the New York Times’ Book Review section. “When I was in high school it was just starting to become cool to be of convict stock.” Before it became cool it was downright shameful. Australia’s convict descendants went to great lengths to slough off the penal colony stain. The cover of Kenneally’s new book.Photograph: Black Inc More
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