A trip to the bookshop ends in calamity – and an encounter with the calm, candid and kind medical staff of North Shore Hospital. As a great admirer of Hilary Mantel’s writing, I looked forward to reading the final novel in her trilogy set in Tudor England, The Mirror & the Light. I drove down … Read more
Ahead of the Ockham national book awards in May, Graeme Lay shuddered to recall the time the award for best novel went to a bogan – and Steve Braunias barges his way in at the end of the story, and adds a highly unusual postscript. Originally posted May 9, 2016 Book awards are wonderful. They’re … Read more
Graeme Lay bids a belated farewell to Auckland’s least glamorous but most useful shopping centre. It was one of the ugliest buildings in Auckland’s central business district, in a part of town where there was tough competition for that distinction. It was the building known as ‘Downtown’. Flanked by the HSBC and ZURICH towers, its … Read more
Graeme Lay meets John Dunmore, the 92-year-old world authority on Pacific exploration – who has also written thrillers on the side, like the one about an assassin sent to New Zealand to kill Prime Minister Rob Muldoon. Question: Who is New Zealand’s oldest living writer still publishing? CK Stead? James McNeish? Gordon McLauchlan? Answer: John Dunmore, 92, … Read more
As the tension builds towards tomorrow night’s Ockham national book awards, Graeme Lay shudders to recall the time the award for best novel went to a bogan – and Steve Braunias barges his way in at the end of the story, and adds a highly unusual postscript. Book awards are wonderful. They’re also fraught. Glittering … Read more
Simon Winchester takes on his most difficult subject yet – a biography of the Pacific. Graeme Lay delves deep, deep into its depths. There can be few people who when flying over the Pacific Ocean haven’t stared down from a window seat at the dark, wind-scuffed blueness below with a sense of wonder. Understandably so. … Read more
An essay by author Graeme Lay on how he came to write his best-selling trilogy of novels about Captain James Cook. I grew up beside the Taranaki coast, first in Oakura, where I started school, then Opunake, so the Tasman Sea with its moody beauty and power was always in sight. It enthralled me. Unsurprisingly, … Read more