Kia ora koutou and welcome to
the 2018 series of monthly public history talks convened jointly by the
Ministry for Culture and Heritage and the National Library of New Zealand.
How does a city make a writer? In 'A
Strange Beautiful Excitement, Katherine Mansfield’s Wellington, 1888-1903’,
Redmer Yska explored how the late Victorian capital left an indelible mark on
her.
Moving between grubby Thorndon and the green valley of
Karori, Yska, himself raised in Karori, retraced Mansfield’s old ways: the
sights, sounds and smells of her childhood. He tried, as he put it, to ‘catch
a glimpse of her in the open air: striding through the gale, long hair flying’
His research into Thorndon’s festering, deadly surroundings also led him
to propose a new theory for the family’s 1893 move to Karori: a long running
epidemic of infectious disease that killed her baby sister.
Redmer Yska is a Wellington writer and historian and author of many
works of New Zealand history, including a 2006 commissioned history of
Wellington City: Wellington: Biography of a City. At this talk
the author reflects on the book’s key conclusions.
Time
and place:
Wednesday 14 March at
12.10pm. The talk will conclude at 1pm approximately. Please come to Te
Ahumairangi (on the ground floor), National Library Building, corner of
Molesworth and Aitken Streets, Thorndon, Wellington.
These free public history
talks are a collaboration between the National Library of New Zealand and the
Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
No need to RSVP but space is limited so please be seated shortly after
midday
in time for a prompt start. We look forward to seeing you.
Note: talks are recorded
and will be available online at https://nzhistory.govt.nz/handsonhistory/downloads-and-podcasts
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