John Summers recalls the delight of seeing agapanthus when he first moved to Wellington, and how they’ve come to represent the perfect imperfection of his home city. Lately, the book I find myself returning to again and again is one featuring Hairy Maclary and his friends. This isn’t by choice, at least not mine, but … Read more
Summer reissue: From the highs (Ralph Hotere’s turtleneck), to the lows (Bain), the jersey is as much a part of this place as the jandal or the Swanndri, but it resists such easy nostalgia, writes John Summers. First published May 31, 2020. Whenever it comes time to lure tourists back to our shores again, we … Read more
From the highs (Ralph Hotere’s turtleneck), to the lows (Bain), the jersey is as much a part of this place as the jandal or the Swanndri, but it resists such easy nostalgia, writes John Summers. Whenever it comes time to lure tourists back to our shores again, we really must work on our slogan. Forget … Read more
From foul combat snacks to forbidden cones and fruit-based sophistication, the most sought-after sugary snacks of his childhood still hold a special place in John Summers’ heart. Childhood is always summer in recollection, and so came with the hope of ice cream, of jandals slapping on dry pavement in the direction of the dairy. There … Read more
Summer reissue: Hard to break, cheap as chips, filled with instant coffee or weak tea – it’s the mug of the marae, the staffroom, the factory canteen, the church hall. It’s our mug, says John Summers. First published 8 May, 2019 Our son was born almost three months ago. He’s close by, fighting sleep in … Read more
Hard to break, cheap as chips, filled with instant coffee or weak tea – it’s the mug of the marae, the staffroom, the factory canteen, the church hall. It’s our mug, says John Summers. Our son was born almost three months ago. He’s close by, fighting sleep in his bassinet as I write this. He … Read more
John Summers is inspired by a dreamer who ended up living as a kind of Robinson Crusoe on a Cook Islands atoll ‘where there truly was no sound beyond the waves, the birds and whatever noise you made yourself’. Some of the happiest hours of my primary school education were those spent sitting on the mat, listening to … Read more
John Summers gets to grips with one of the year’s most popular books, a self-help guide to feeling good, deciding what’s really important in your life, and “banging blondes”: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck. First published on 21 June 2018. Surely weekends are the most stressful days of the week. The petty … Read more
John Summers gets to grips with one of the year’s most popular books, a self-help guide to feeling good, deciding what’s really important in your life, and “banging blondes”: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck. Surely weekends are the most stressful days of the week. The petty anxieties of the workday are nothing … Read more
As the deadline fast approaches for entries to the 2018 Surrey Hotel Steve Braunias Memorial Writers Residency In Association With The Spinoff Award, Wairarapa essayist and 2017 winner John Summers presents his diary of the prize – a five-night stay in Grey Lynn’s Surrey Hotel. I arrive overdressed. I got up at 5:30am, and wore my overcoat … Read more
In the latest of our occasional series of essays which investigate whether literature exists in the provinces, John Summers looks for clues in Greytown in the Wairarapa. I do most of my writing on the Wairarapa line, the WRL. Every morning, every evening, it rattles beneath the hills between Wellington and Greytown with me aboard, … Read more
On a Friday at the Upper Hutt Cosmopolitan Club, John Summers saw Elvis. Or, sixteen of him. Elvis was Māori. He was Pākehā. He was young. He was usually fairly old. He was drunk, possibly, or maybe just feeling nervy. He was blind, helped to his cane when stepping off the stage. He looked remarkably … Read more
Been outside the house this summer? Actually done one of the Great Walks? John Summers reviews a new book which ponders the nature of the hike, the tramp, the trail. It’s felt like a secret shame, but in more than 15 years of tramping, I’ve always stuck, rigidly, myopically to the track. Once, early on, … Read more
Writer John Summers recalls a road trip to Nelson punctuated by Antiques Roadshow, the cozy, dozy series that knows no end. We were a micronation of five, a Monaco within the wider limits of Christchurch, complete with our own rituals, talismans and anthems. Among these were the identical blue jerseys we’d each bought independently from op … Read more
John Fogerty wasn’t the only member of Creedence Clearwater Revival – he wasn’t even the only Fogerty – but the meticulous perfectionist was the band’s guiding light and driving force. CCR fan and New Zealand author John Summers writes on Fogerty’s memoir Fortunate Son. The room looked out to a grass quad, a sunny spot among … Read more
Who writes good creative non-fiction in New Zealand? Journalists hammer away at it with their big fat thumbs, but writer John Summers is rather more nuanced in his fascinating and recently published collection of true stories, The Mermaid Boy (Hue & Cry Press, $30). We got up early, packed away our things and began our … Read more