Category: History

George, the cover reveal

George, due February 2027

I am more than thrilled with the cover for my new book, George. It was created by the extraordinary Henrietta Harris, a Tamaki Makarau based artist and absolutely inspired choice with her enigmatic, disruptive images. In my story, George Grey is more than the cool governor sitting regally in his chair. What you can’t see in photographs of him Henrietta has captured here – the modern woman whose consciousness sits in his head. His imaginary friend.

George will be released by Bateman Books on 1 February, 2027.

The Unfortunate Lunatic – book review

The Unfortunate Lunatic, by Tess Redgrave

The Unfortunate Lunatic was Tess Redgrave’s paternal great grandfather. He wasn’t always known by that name, of course. He was Christopher Macalister, chemist of Invercargill, a husband and father, sandy-haired with ‘ruddy cheeks and soft blue eyes’. He suffered from ill health and died in 1893, ‘at the early age of thirty-three’. Tess knew nothing about him. Her paternal grandmother she did know personally, knew her troubles and the whispers of madness. Tess herself had bouts of the black dog occasionally, given blue pills, ‘mother’s little helpers’, for anxiety at school. Then, in her mid-thirties and suffering clinical depression, she began to wonder about the possibility of an inherited aspect to her mental condition. With her journalist’s nose for getting to the bottom of things, she went in search of her ancestors.

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A Sky Full of Fire

A Sky Full of Fire, by Sarah Ell

Alice and her ‘Aunt Hen’ arrive at our very own wonder of the world, the Pink and White Terraces, in 1886, as the mountain prepares its worst beneath them. Hen is hiding under her large hat shrouded with tulle and showing jaunty rings, a dramatic touch, suggesting someone not recently bereaved but in communion with the dead. Indeed she is a charlatan, playing psychic tricks on paying customers and hiding behind her fakery. Alice is escaping the life of a working girl in Melbourne. Despite her horrible past she is beautiful and savvy, with a kind heart for fellow sufferers. She deserves better than Hen. They are not the only tricky characters in Tarawera in the days before the mountain erupts. Another newcomer, Cyprian Marsh, has been on Alice’s trail from Australia.

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The Other Catherine – book review

The Other Catherine, by Lauren Keenan

Lauren Keenan (Te Ātiawa ki Taranaki) is making a name for herself writing strong women’s stories of our past told from alternating Māori and Pakeha viewpoints. Both The Other Catherine and her previous novel, The Space Between, follow this device. It soon becomes clear that, though the lives of these women from the outside may appear very different, their lived experiences have distinct similarities. They struggle, love and fear, find joy in small things, have unfulfilled desires and hope for a better future. Throw these experiences into a colonial context: women’s lack of agency and political power, poor sanitation and health, hard work and lives dependent on the mercy of men, and you’ll find a compelling story.

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George is on the way

George, a novel by Cristina Sanders

It’s no secret that George Grey is the subject of my next historical novel and I’m not at all embarrassed to say that I have dipped into the speculative realm to give him a bit of swag.

Bateman Books have taken George on, and I’ve sent the final (final final final) proofs off today. Hooray! I let George have an early read. He liked it.  The rest of you will have to wait until February.

The Mannequin Makers – book review

The Mannequin Makers, by Craig Cliff

I’m always delighted when I find a terrific New Zealand historical fiction from the past that I’ve missed. The Mannequin Makers was published in 2013 by Penguin and now on my list of top NZ hist fict to recommend. This is no sweeping saga of real events, rather a strange small town rivalry that mostly takes place in a shop window. With mannequins. Sounds quirky? Well, yes, in the sense that the story is unconventional and miles away from the usual immigrant saga, but it thankfully misses all the usual shit that comes with ‘quirky’, there is no manufactured cheesiness or forced charm, no ‘found family’ of misfits. Craig Cliff soars above all that.

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Saltblood – book review

Saltblood, by Francesca de Tores

The cover has a tall ship under sail in a stormy sea, SALTBLOOD written in bold gold strapped across the middle and a promise of ‘A blood soaked story of piracy and prejudice’. Its a story of a girl brought up as a boy who runs away to sea and ends up as a pirate. Can a book get any more inviting than that? Well yes, it can, because I happen to know that the story is based on fact. How cool is that?

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Alias Grace – book review

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

Wow. This is a hell of a book. Designed to throw you off balance and make you think, chapter after dense chapter of revelations that leave you uncomfortably challenging your assumptions and prejudices. Those weird Victorians and their strange ‘scientific’ beliefs – right on the cusp of modern thinking and at the same time waaay back in the Dark Ages. Well? Do you believe that sweet Grace Marks brutally murdered her master and the housekeeper?

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Always Home, Always Homesick

Always Home, Always Homesick, by Hannah Kent

Why fall in love with Iceland? Hannah Kent counts the ways. As a young Australian woman she picks up the default option of a Rotary exchange to Iceland, spends the first few months in a cold house with a cold family and an inhospitable frozen land, but after a while, both Hannah an Iceland thaw. She works hard to learn the language “my conversation has always been pockmarked with grammatical error and the foreigner’s manner of jamming in known vocabulary at the expense of clarity and precision”, makes some friends, and moves in with a new family who became her greatest support and friends for life. She falls in love with Iceland itself.

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Bad Archive – book review

Bad Archive, by Flora Feltham

Here’s another interesting look at how we view history, seems very much the topic du jour (see What We Can Know), this time by local author Flora Feltham, contained in a set of wandering essays that I enjoyed tremendously. Just the title, Bad Archive, tells you that this is going to be an opinionated work with something awry – slanting truths perhaps, ironic labels on ordinary things. Just the way I like my archives.

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