Before I Forget - Book Launch Report

Auckland University Press were delighted to have Carole Beu and her marvellous staff at The Women’s Bookshop host a big crowd for Jacqueline Fahey’s launch last night.

Here is Sam Elworthy's launch address:

Jacqueline Fahey is one of those authors that we publishers love

1^st, because she can write:

‘I woke entangled with a toaster. I had been dreaming about toasting a piece of bread that was deep gold on one side but pale on the other. I wanted it an even tone all over. My new toaster can’t do that because the bread stands on a slant. Irritating. However, I woke up slowly and easily, thinking about the dream. The toaster is anxiety; getting the colour of the toast just right is all about perfection, the finish. A straightforward dream: the language of my unconscious was graphic, practical and satisfying.’

This is from Jacqueline’s opening chapter of Before I Forget, with prose that is both dead straight and deliciously dreamy. When those words landed at Auckland University Press, we knew we had another great book.

2^nd reason we love Jacqueline – because she’s fun to work with:

At the NZ Post Book Awards last week, Kathryn Ryan had just interviewed Jacqueline on Nine to Noon and she came up to me gasping at the extraordinary interviewee she had just encountered. Here was an 80 something year old woman saying ‘fuck’ on National Radio, and Kathryn Ryan was just thrilled. We’ve had a whole team working on this book: Anna Hodge, Katrina Duncan and Christine O’Brien; Rebecca Lal, Anna Cushen, Louise Belcher and Athena Sommerfield. Throughout, Jacqueline’s been as lively, as extraordinary, and as fun to work with as she was on NINE TO NOON last week, so we like that.

3^rd reason we publishers love Jacqueline Fahey, because her stories matter:

This is a book about a woman’s life in post-war New Zealand, about psychiatry and espionage, about the changing world of art and letters, about the mysteries of home and the impact of overseas. And it’s a book full of – and all about – the painting through which Jacqueline has worked to make some sense of it all. These stories and this life matter.

Thanks to Creative New Zealand for helping fund this book (and it does seem fitting that the book includes large chunks from Jacqueline’s report to CreativeNZ in its previous guise,  as the QEII Arts Council). Thanks to the Women’s Bookshop for hosting us and thanks to all of you for coming tonight.

Finally, thanks to Jacqueline for writing the second volume of her memoir, Before I forget. Jacqueline, we are all looking forward very much to volume III!

Photos below, top to bottom  - Carole Beu -bookseller extraordinaire, Sam Elworthy addressing crowd, author and publisher, author in full flight.