Books featured in Sydney Morning Herald

Books that changed me: Rod Jones

Award-winning author Rod Jones, whose new novel, The Mothers, tells of several generations of single mothers in Melbourne, and an angry young man who meets his birth mother, has a vivid recall of his influences.

Annah Faulkner: Last Day in the Dynamite Factory author shares insights

KAREN HARDY Author Annah Faulkner says she found it frustrating trying to research the historical background to her second novel.

Book review

Book reviews: The Lady from Zagreb, Eagles at War, The Lady of Misrule

Reviewer: Michael Popple Historical fiction reviews with Michael Popple

Future Proofing your Child: Make time for your family, says author

Kathy Walker Eating and chatting together are valuable ways to strengthen the bonds between parents and children.

Rebecca Dinerstein's year of writing bravely in the Arctic

Jessica Salter A young writer coped with the staggering loneliness of a Norwegian winter, and emerged with the material for a sparkling first novel.

In short: non-fiction book reviews

Fiona Capp Beyond Literal Belief

2018: The year of publishing women only

Jane Sullivan Could this be the beginning of the quiet revolution? A British publisher, And Other Stories, has committed to making 2018 the year of publishing women only.

The Mystery of a Hansom Cab by Fergus Hume: Australia's first literary sensation

Simon Caterson In Australia's relatively short history as a nation, we have produced a few truly phenomenal cultural exports.

Characters verge on a breakdown in Murray Middleton's stories

Kalinda Ashton Murray Middleton's new short-story collection reveals a tenderness for his characters. 

Louis de Bernières: ‘I’m kind of a narratological imperialist, I suppose’

The author on the ease of storytelling, his new novel – based on his grandmother’s experience of the first world war – and hallucinogenic snails

'I've been working on this book for 20 years': Louis de Bernières. Photograph: Murdo Macleod

Alex Clark

Sunday 28 June 2015   The Observer

Louis de Bernières is the author of 11 books, including the bestselling novel Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. The Dust That Falls from Dreams is his eighth novel, and was inspired by the story of his grandmother’s first fiance, who died of wounds sustained in the first world war.

Tell me about the genesis of The Dust That Falls from Dreams.
I’ve been writing and planning little bits and pieces of it for 20 years. I hope it’s going to end up as three volumes, which can be read separately. It’s part of a huge project – I’ve already written the last chapter of the last book.

What about the decision to base it on your own family?

In my family we’ve always been rather obsessed with our own history, and if you’ve got a story given to you on a plate then it’s too good to pass over. But it’s not a family history – I’ve just used basic scaffolding: the fact that my grandmother lost her fiance in 1915, which altered the course of her life.

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The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher review – Hilary Mantel’s dark wit

This collection of short stories by the Wolf Hall author are a deliciously macabre reminder of the breadth of her literary prowess

Hilary Mantel: dark even in comic moments. Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

Lucy Scholes

Sunday 28 June 2015  - The Observer

This short story collection offers fans of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies something to tide them over as they eagerly await the third and final volume in Hilary Mantel’s twice Man Booker-winning Tudor trilogy, plus a timely reminder of the breadth of her literary prowess.

The opening piece Sorry to Disturb was originally published as a memoir, detailing Mantel’s life in Saudi Arabia in the early 1980s and the uneasy friendship she formed with a Pakistani businessman. Most haunting, though, is Mantel’s account of her ill health and the subsequent “fierce drug regime” she was on. In the final story, and the one from which the collection takes its name, Mantel imagines an IRA sniper invading the home of an unsuspecting Windsor resident – who mistakes him first for a plumber, then a paparazzo – so he can take out the PM as she leaves the private hospital the flat conveniently overlooks.

Death rears its head in many of the stories – from the inevitable wasting away of a teenage anorexic, a woman suddenly struck down by a fatal heart defect in a moment of shock, a child killed in the dark by a reckless driver, and a woman who sees the ghost of her dead father at Waterloo. Mantel’s writing is dark even when it’s comic and this collection is deliciously macabre.

The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher is published by Fourth Estate .

A must-read novel about love, hard work, sacrifice and old fashioned Kiwi baking.

Nicky Pellegrino writing in the Herald on Sunday 28 June 2015 and I must say I totally agree with her,  a wonderful novel..

Chappy

by Patricia Grace 

$38.00 Penguin Random House)

There is a real purity to Patricia Grace’s fiction. She may be New Zealand literary royalty but her writing is not about showing off her finery. Chappy is her first novel in a decade, a heartfelt, spirited tale and an absolute joy to read.

Troubled 21-year-old Daniel is sent from Europe back to New Zealand to stay with his grandmother Oriwia. He spends his time piecing together the life story of his mysterious Japanese grandfather, Chappy, coaxing memories from Oriwia, and from Aki, his uncle by double adoption.

Although the story is centred on him, Chappy remains its most elusive figure and the trials of the indomitable Oriwia and the travels of big-hearted Aki are what dominate. It’s a huge story in some ways, taking us from New Zealand to Hawaii and Tokyo, and through wartime, but it’s in its smallness that Chappy is most beautiful.

In the sections narrated by Daniel himself Grace doesn’t do much of a job of nailing an authentic 21-year-old’s voice but then I don’t think she’s even trying to - her style is timeless.

This is a must-read novel about love, hard work, sacrifice and old fashioned Kiwi baking.

Lance O'Sullivan - The Good Doctor

The Good Doctor

Dr Lance O’Sullivan

Penguin - RRP $38.00

Out now

Māori children die prematurely of accidents, asthma, child abuse, sudden infant death syndrome, violence and preventable communicable diseases. As young adults it’s suicides, car accidents and alcohol-related deaths and later on the killers are heart disease, heart attacks, cancers and diabetes.

It’s a sobering statistic that three out of four of the youngsters Dr Lance O’Sullivan sees in his Kaitaia clinic probably won’t live beyond the age of 65 but what gets our charismatic ‘New Zealander of the Year’ out of bed every morning and cycle the 15 kilometres to his clinic is also knowing that it is possible to make a massive difference in just one generation. His own personal journey is testament to this, as his exhilarating new memoir, The Good Doctor, reveals.

Even having a devoted, hard-working solo mother who did her best to equip her three children for life, Lance could still so easily have become another statistic. What was missing, and what he craved more than anything, was a positive male role model to guide him through his early years which he didn’t have in his alcoholic and absent father. 

After being expelled from two schools, he found his way at Hato Petera College, connecting with his Maori ancestry, and going on to study medicine. After a brief but outstanding career working as a GP in the public health system, Lance and his wife Tracy, a nurse, quit their day jobs to set up a ground-breaking practice in the Far North that offers free healthcare to the many who can't afford it.

The Good Doctor charts Lance’s inspirational, captivating life-story, and shines a light on many social issues affecting New Zealand today. It is simply a compelling and exhilarating read from a man who is breaking the rules to make a difference up North and, ultimately, relay an overarching hope for a better New Zealand.

A great read and a friend of mine who just read the book summed it up so well when she e-mailed me:

It's such a page-turner and everything he talks about makes such sense. I found it such an emotional rollercoaster: heartbreaking, exhilarating, bleak, constructive, optimistic.....

Len Lye in his own words

 Saturday June 27, 2015 - New Zealand Herald - Linda Herrick, Arts and Books Editor at the NZ Herald

A new book revealing artist Len Lye in his own words reflects a man who lived an ethos of great energy and happiness. Linda Herrick reports

Len Lye returned to New Zealand briefly in 1968 and visited his old childhood home at Cape Campbell.

When Auckland writer Roger Horrocks was researching his 2001 biography of New Zealand artist Len Lye, he celebrated the originality, inventiveness and humour which made him such a towering figure in international modernism. Now Horrocks has just released a new book: Zizz!, a word Lye used to mean energy, fizz, excitement - the very embodiment of the way he lived his life.

It's a nicely compact volume which burrows into more personal anecdotes than the earlier book. Horrocks had access to Lye's notes, essays and letters, and he also talked to some of Lye's friends, particularly the girlfriends. Lye had a lot of girlfriends.
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Dickens, Brick Collectors, and Unusual Leisure

Dickens, Brick Collectors, and Unusual Leisure Stephen Jarvis On Writing

My new novel, Death and Mr. Pickwick, tells the story behind the creation of Charles Dickens's first novel, The Pickwick Papers. Although Death and Mr. Pickwick is entirely self-contained, and requires no previous knowledge of The Pickwick Papers , the two books of course bear a relationship to each other. Indeed I take Dickens's first illustrator, Robert Seymour, as my main character - a man who shot himself shortly after completing a picture of a dying clown for Pickwick. I've often been asked: what are the things in my background that led me to write this novel? And I suppose people expect me to say, "Oh, I have had a lifelong fascination with nineteenth-century literature in general and Dickens in particular." But the answer to the question may surprise you - it's not literary at all. Read on...

Visions of Home In Conversation with Katherine Taylor

In Valley Fever, Katherine Taylor examines high-class small-town life among the grapes - on the vine or soaked in vodka. It's a blisteringly funny, ferociously intelligent, and deeply moving novel of self-discovery. Here she talks to us about California's Central Valley, the deadly Valley Fever, and accepting where you're from. Read on...

New Zealand's Most Private Author

Charlotte Grimshaw: 'I'm often asked: do you mind if we talk about your father?'

 Saturday June 27, 2015 - New Zealand Hearld

Author Charlotte Grimshaw talks to Linda Herrick about the strangely familiar characters in her new novel, growing up with her famous father, C.K. Stead, and how a dog named Philip has changed her.

Award winning writer Charlotte Grimshaw on the release of her new novel Starlight Peninsula. Photo / Nick Reed

Last month, Auckland writer Charlotte Grimshaw took part in an Auckland Writers Festival session called "Ways To Change The World". The panel included eminent American surgeon and writer Atul Gawande, who specialises in end-of-life care.

Grimshaw was feeling terrible. She should have been in hospital: the thyroid gland in her throat was swollen and felt "on fire", but she'd put off the surgery until after the festival. "I was almost tempted to say, 'Atul, you know how you're a surgeon ...'," she laughs.
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A Hilarious, Fresh, and Unconventional Romantic Comedy

By Sarah Jane Abbott    |   Friday, June 26, 2015 - Off the Shelf “I may have found a solution to the Wife Problem.” These are brilliant geneticist Don Tillman’s first words to the reader. The “Wife Problem” is not a euphemism for a genetics study or even a personal problem with his wife. No, Don’s “Problem” is that he doesn’t have a wife. Most people would just say “I’m single,” but Don Tillman is not most people.... READ MORE

Fifty Shades of Grey author EL James now worth £37m

Books, film and merchandising tie-ins help to boost fortune

EL James with her latest novel, Grey. Photograph: Mary Altaffer/AP

Jamie Doward

Saturday 27 June 2015  The Guardian

Sex sells, so they say. And the accounts of EL James, author of the Fifty Shades of Grey bondage trilogy, prove it. James’s company, Fifty Shades Ltd, raked in almost £20m last year, with a profit of £9.8m.

The accounts show that James, 52, took a dividend of £2.6m from the company last year, compared with £3.2m in 2013. Almost £1m was given to charity. While last year’s profits pale against the £25m made the previous year, the accounts confirm that James’s fortune continues to grow. Last year she was sitting on cash and shares in her company worth more than £37m, up from just under £30m in 2013.

The accounts cover the period before she earned royalties from Grey, her new take on the Fifty Shades trilogy. Nor do they include any share of her royalties from the first Fifty Shades film, starring Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan, which broke box-office records with sales of more than $569m (£360m)
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Horncastle’s Hero or Hell Raiser

Horncastle’s Hero or Hell Raiser

Graeme Horncastle has launched his second book, Horncastle’s Hero or Hell Raiser and the extraordinary life of his grandfather "Old Charlie" Jacobsen.
Rich in New Zealand history, Hero or Hell Raiser is a riveting read about Charlie’s life of   adventure and mayhem as a gold miner, fisherman and launch master spanning from 1880 to 1960. Life was hard in those days, particularly where Charlie lived in remote parts of the West Coast and Marlborough Sounds.
“Charlie died in 1960 when I was eight. The story I tell is from his notes and family recollections. History would be dull and boring without pioneers and explorers, and people who wanted the best out of life and managed to get the worst dealt to them. It's all there,” says Graeme.

Horncastle’s Suitcase
Graeme’s previous book Horncastle’s Suitcase focussed on his life growing up as the second of eight children in a poor West Coast family, By age 18 he was married with a child and, although his prospects weren't flash, Graeme was determined to succeed against the odds and now owns the iconic 86 room Pavilions Hotel in Christchurch.

Autographed copies of Horncastle’s Hero or Hell Raiser and Horncastle’s Suitcase can be purchased for $29 (including GST) from the Pavilions Hotel on 0800 80 55 55.

For more information, visit www.graemehorncastle.co.nz

Publication date:              June 2015
Publisher:                            Pavilions Hotel, Christchurch
Size                                        240 x 165 mm
Pages                                    192
ISBN                                      978-0-473-31786-7
Price                                      $29.00

Matariki Meets Winter Solstice – Juliet Batten on a New Year for Aotearoa

The June celebrations of Matariki and Winter Solstice share a surprising closeness of meaning, says Herne Bay author Juliet Batten, (right), with both winter festivals marking the turning of a new year.

“When the Maori and European cultural traditions meet in such striking ways, we have a compelling case for a new year – even a new calendar – for Aotearoa,” Juliet says.

She will speak about how we can connect more closely to both our inherited traditions and local seasonal changes at a free public event that the Grey Lynn Library has organised for Tuesday 30 June, during the Matariki period, at 1.30pm.

Her book Celebrating the Southern Seasons: Rituals for Aotearoa, which has shed new light on these seasonal festivities, offers ways to embrace the cross-cultural heritage of many New Zealanders.

Celebrating the Southern Seasons helped draw wider attention to Matariki on its first publication in 1995 – and its reception and ongoing resonance ensured a  tenth-anniversary new edition in 2005. The book is currently undergoing its fifth reprint.

Victoria University Professor of Religious Studies Paul Morris has said, “Juliet Batten’s well-researched book . . . reiterates her passionate appeal that we relocate ourselves spiritually in the South Pacific.”

An artist and psychotherapist, Juliet has written eight books on seasonal inspiration, transformation, renewal and discovering the sacred. Her latest book, Spirited Ageing, was published in 2013 and her website, where she has a blog and other information, is www.julietbatten.co.nz.

The “Matariki Meets Winter Solstice” talk is part of a Matariki Programme of events run by the 55-strong Auckland Libraries, www.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz.

The Grey Lynn Library is at 474 Great North Road (next to St Joseph’s Catholic Church), with parking available on site. 

How Dr Lance O'Sullivan changed his life

Saturday, 27 June 2015 - The New Zealand Herald - Canvas Magazine

Northland doctor and New Zealander of the Year, Lance O'Sullivan. Photo / Dean Purcell

Dr Lance O’Sullivan has made it his dream to change the world from the Far North. But, as Greg Dixon discovers, first he had to change himself.
By Greg Dixon

To know the son, we must know something of the father.

And it turns out Bill*, who will be 86 in October, was an old mate of Lance O'Sullivan's old man. "He was hard case," Bill says in his sing-songy voice. "He said to me once when we were drinking - we used to drink, you know - he said 'my son's a doctor'. I said 'what did you say there?' He said 'my son is a doctor'. I said 'well if he's a doctor, then my son must be Prime Minister. My son is the Prime Minister if your son is a doctor! He was a hard case, man. It took me a while to believe him."

O'Sullivan smiles as he listens. This story about his late father, which makes Bill's wife and daughter giggle too, has of course been told as we all sit together in a surgery at O'Sullivan's Kaitaia medical clinic. It comes after a long discussion O'Sullivan has had with the family about Bill's ailments, about how many pills he must take and when; and would someone in their whanau make sure he's taking them with his dinner?
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Footnote:
The Bookman is presntly reading "The Good Doctor"
by Lance O'Sullivan with Margie Thomson (Penguin $38) and more will follow on the blog about the book over the weekend.

Latest book news from The Bookseller

Glaister steps down as c.e.o of The Book People The Book People’s co-founder Seni Glaister is stepping down from her role as c.e.o of the company. William Wellesley, who has been at the company since January, and has been previously joint managing director at Molton Brown and group chief operating officer at GEMS Education, has been appointed as The Book People’s new c.e.o. Glaister said it was in the “best interests” of the company to step away, but added that she was already beginning her new venture to “provide a service nobody yet knows they need”.

Chinese publishers crack the top 10 as STM remains staunch The changing nature of the worldwide book industry is sharply demonstrated in the upper echelons of the 2015 edition of the Global Ranking of the Publishing Industry: for the first time, publishing houses from outside Europe and North America have cracked the top 10. Both the groups—Phoenix Publishing & Media (PPM) and China South Publishing & Media (CSPM)—come from China, perhaps a key moment in the (long-predicted) emergence of the country as publishing’s next superpower.

Rowling pens Harry Potter play Author J K Rowling has confirmed that a Harry Potter play, entitled "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child", will open in the West End next year. Rowling broke the news today (26th June) on Twitter, saying the play “will tell a new story, which is the result of a collaboration between writer Jack Thorne, director John Tiffany and myself”. The producer is Sonia Friedman.

Gibbon convicted of Alison Morrison murder Satellite engineer Trevor Gibbon has been found guilty of the murder of former children's publisher Alison Morrison.

Fergusson and Healey among SoA award winners The Society of Authors last night (25th June) distributed £85,000 to writers at its annual authors’ awards, giving out prizes to writers of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and material for teaching English. Author Ben Fergusson won the biggest prize of the night, receiving the £10,000 Betty Trask prize for a first novel of “outstanding literary merit” by an author under the age of 35 for The Spring of Kasper Meier (Little, Brown).

Bonnier buys Totally Entwined Group Bonnier Publishing has acquired Lincolnshire-based commercial fiction publisher Totally Entwined Group for an undisclosed sum. Bonnier is acquiring the whole company and its imprints Totally Bound Publishing (romance), Pride Publishing (LGBTQI fiction), Finch Books (YA), Evidence Press (crime and thriller) and Celebritease (celebrity authors).

Johnson & Alcock acquires Fox Mason Literary agency Johnson & Alcock has acquired Fox Mason, the literary agency set up by Ben Mason in 2010, for an undisclosed sum. Johnson & Alcock is taking on the liability for Mason’s 20 authors as well as his employee Becky Thomas, who joins Johnson & Alcock as an associate agent. Mason, who was shortlisted for The Bookseller’s agent of the year award in 2013, is selling his agency to move to San Francisco to pursue new opportunities.

Photo highlights of Independent Bookshop Week The annual extravaganza of indie booksellers returned last week with a barrage of book-centric events, readings, publicity and costumes. Lisa Campbell documents the highlights of the action-packed seven days. David Headley from Goldsboro Books and Sheila O’Reilly right from Dulwich Books with presenter Jo Good on BBC London 94.9FM on Monday (22nd June).

SAGE celebrates 50 years Labour peer Baroness Tessa Blackstone called on civil servants and politicians to make proper use of the evidence-based work of social scientists in their policy decisions, in a speech last night (Thursday 25th June) at an event to celebrate SAGE's 50th anniversary.

Trade praise for Carnegie and Greenaway winners The trade has praised CILIP’s Carnegie and Kate Greenaway award winners, claiming the choice will bring a welcome focus to historical and non-fiction children’s stories.

Süskind’s digital backlist published The backlist of Patrick Süskind’s titles, the internationally acclaimed bestseller Perfume and its follow-up The Pigeon, have been made available in e-book for the first time from today by publisher Hamish Hamilton. Simon Prosser, publishing director of Hamish Hamilton said: "We could not be happier to publish Patrick Süskind’s outstanding work in e-book. For the very first time, readers in our territories will be able to access in electronic format both Perfume and The Pigeon, broadening yet further the readership for this most brilliant and original of contemporary writers."

S&S buys Australian debut Simon & Schuster has bought a "unique" debut from an Australian author. S&S ssistant fiction editor Carla Josephson bought UK, Commonwealth & ANZ rights in All These Perfect Strangers by Australian prize-winning author Aoife Clifford from Rebecca Ritchie and Clare Forster at Curtis Brown.