It’s the perfect time to write your own locked-room murder mystery – easy, right? Read more from the lockdown letters here. How do I feel? Sick of vacuuming that’s for sure. Sick of ignoring the voice that says, “you can’t see the dust anyway so why bother?” Since I went into self-isolation I’ve been teaching my … Read more
‘My patience, never a very strong part of my character, is being stretched a bit so thinking of something else is preferable to throwing all the cups on the floor.’ Read more from the lockdown letters here. A wild patience has taken me this far… Adrienne Rich I thought of that line this morning while I … Read more
‘Illegal bulletins by Rona and Chips Bailey and cartoons by Max Bollinger continued in spite of police raids and were delivered by people to other people, all of whom knew if they were caught with a copy they’d go to jail.’ Read more from the lockdown letters here. After the fifth listen I went for a … Read more
‘Yes, it’s endearing that the PM said that the Easter Bunny is an essential service but I wondered how many kids had a hope in hell of seeing three good meals a day let alone a chocolate egg.’ Read more Lockdown Letters here. Bob Dylan’s latest, Murder Most Foul, is an interesting and enticing listen. … Read more
In our new series The Lockdown Letters, some of New Zealand’s best writers tell us what they’ve been up to in the days of Covid-19 alert level four. Today, Ōtaki author Renée. Yes, a few cyclists out and about. I remember my first bike bought from Farmers around 1942, five shillings a week, all up 19 … Read more
In our new series The Lockdown Letters, some of New Zealand’s best writers tell us what they’ve been up to in the days of Covid-19 alert level four. Today, Ōtaki author Renée. I have a wild tomato flopping all over the path down the back of the veg garden. I picked a tomato from it this … Read more
Summer journeys: In the final of a special travel writing series, playwright and novelist Renée reflects on the past and ponders her future on an evocative drive up the East Coast. The Spinoff Summer Journey series is entirely funded by The Spinoff Members. For more about becoming a member and supporting The Spinoff’s journalism, click here. I know … Read more
A memoir of the end of a marriage by playwright Renée. At the age of 50, Otaki author Renée started to write the plays that made her one of New Zealand’s most acclaimed writers. Her focus was on creating work that put women centre stage. Now, at 88, she has written a memoir; it tells … Read more
All week this week we revisit the Mervyn Thompson Affair – the strange, powerful 1984 incident when six women abducted an Auckland university lecturer, chained him to a tree in Western Springs, threatened to castrate him, and labelled him a rapist. Today: a memoir by playwright Renée, whose play Setting The Table inspired the attack – … Read more