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Crafted by a master storyteller

26/6/2018

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​Hellholes of the World
by David G Brown


I have often wondered why I never had the courage to back pack around the world. This is quite apart from family responsibilities. After reading ‘Hell Holes of the World’ I have my answer. I could not bear to go for days without a shower, sleep in hovels and not know if I had a bed for the night.
    What I particularly liked about this book was that it took me to the places I would never dare visit and allowed me to at least have a peek, to feel the grime, to smell the polluted air and to meet the people.  That was the magic. I met people I would never encounter in real life.  
​    David takes us to meet them through his vivid description and storytelling.  A lot of it is grim but there are moments of incredible beauty and they explain why David went to such lengths to visit these isolated and often dangerous places. 

    We quickly realise that these places have not been given a make-over for the tourist. They are raw, war torn or neglected.
    What I found most interesting was not so much the physical journey, which was fascinating and arduous, but rather David’s journey as a human being.
    He began his story on a kibbutz in Israel where he worked as a volunteer. The international and local community partied through the night and worked during the day. Palestine was just over the fence but no-one seemed to notice or care.  
    Twenty years later he visited the area and stood on Golan Heights looking at the kibbutz through the border and with a different perspective. He had travelled to almost 100 countries by that time and experienced life at its rawest and seen people at their most deprived. As we read his story we are reading an account of a young man’s transformation into an adult. This was never more pronounced than when he looked at his old kibbutz from the Golan Heights.
    He wrote, ‘The wall between Lebanon and Israel felt as great as the wall between who I had become and who I once was.” (215)
    That moment of looking back at the kibbutz, which he could never visit again, is also a metaphor for David’s life. He was always the observer never the observed. Where ever he went he had an escape, unlike the people whose lives he briefly touched. There was no place he could call home. He even felt he did not fit in New Zealand, the place of his birth. Although he did come to a kind of accommodation with his birth country it was still uneasy. The closest he got to finding the country where his spirit could rest was Israel.  
    But as I read through this book, crafted by a master storyteller, I realized I was following the trajectory of a man’s life from innocence to maturity. He knew the world we live in far more intimately than most of us will ever know it and that changed him. But we also are changed in a small way simply by sharing his journey.
    ‘Hell Holes of the World’ is a wonderful book and I would recommend it to anyone. David was a citizen of the world. He did not belong anywhere yet his curiosity led him to discover the human condition in a way that only those who lived in his ‘Hell Holes’ could. 

Review by Suraya Dewing
CEO, Stylefit (formerly The Story Mint) http://www.thestorymint.com
Title: Hellholes of the World: A Love Story
Author: David G. Brown 
Publisher: Archetype Book Agents
ISBN: 978 047341 782 6
RRP: $35
Available: bookshops

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Soft lullaby of a book

21/6/2018

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Arlo and the Gingko Tree
by Sophie Siers
illustrated by Kate Twhigg


Sophie Sier's picture book Arlo and the Ginkgo Tree, illustrated by Kate Twhigg, is about a little boy named Arlo and a special tree at the bottom of his garden.
    His tree has a special way for him to climb up and a special spot just for him to sit.
   Through the changing seasons, Arlo discovers that this tree truly is special – not just to him, but to some new little friends as well!
    Arlo and the Ginkgo Tree is a simple story, using repetition – particularly of the word ‘special’ – and sensory description to remind us to sit in quiet wonder at the small things in the world around us. It is a message that comes naturally to children and is good to remember as adults too. 
    We learn with Arlo to wait and watch from one spring right through a year to another, as birds and butterflies cycle back to their shared home in the tree.
    The narrative and illustrations are sweet – especially the three tiny chicks drawn in their nest – and the overall impression is that Arlo and the Ginkgo Tree is a soft, lullaby of a book about nature. 

Review by Jenny Palmer
Title: Arlo and the Ginkgo Tree
Author: Sophie Siers; Kate Twhigg
Publisher: Millwood Press
ISBN: 978-0-473-41094-0
RRP: $19.99
Available: bookshops

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Inspiring story

14/6/2018

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Adrift in the Fog: a Journey of Rediscovery
by C C Johannes Peet


From despair and depression to hope and new directions.
Peet’s misfortunes began with the onset of blindness caused by Stargardt’s disease, a form of macular degeneration. He was 42 years old and a wine expert and winemaker. Within 6 years he was legally blind. 
    In Adrift in the Fog he recounts his frustration at not being able to fend for himself and how easily he was taken advantage of by his would-be carer. He tells of the bleak depths of his subsequent depression, bordering on suicidal. 
    When it seems his life can’t get any worse the New Zealand Blind Foundation come to his aid with special computer software and gadgets and he gradually emerges from his depression and begins to take an interest in life again. He inadvertently joins a computer dating site and almost as an afterthought takes a second look at a photo of the Russian woman he now calls his Mona Lisa. He’s in his mid-50s by now, legally blind, struggling on a disability benefit and understandably full of misgivings about himself. Thanks to Mona Lisa he is back on an optimistic, upward curve. 
    With unflinching honesty, blind, and writing in his second language, he shares his most intimate feelings as the relationship develops. 
    Peet’s blindness aside, I feel many people, women as well as men, will be able to identify with his story of embarking on a new relationship in middle-age – an experience that is further complicated by issues of mental health and alcohol misuse.
    Adrift in the Fog is, in spite of its gloomy title and muted cover, an inspiring read. The author comes to terms with himself. Defying his blindness and the dramatic changes that it has brought to his life, he re-finds himself and rediscovers a sense of optimism and of self.
    Peet writes in a straightforward, no-nonsense style, making Adrift in the Fog an easy read. The ending leaves us wondering What next? so there is scope here for more of Peet’s engaging story telling. Discerning readers will pick up on proofreading oversights, but these shouldn’t interfere with an appreciation of Peet’s story.   

Review by Carolyn McKenzie
Writer, freelance proofreader, copy editor, & translator from Italian to English.
Carolyn kindly offers accommodation at reasonable rates for FlaxFlower writers
in Thames (Waikato) and Ventimiglia Alta (Liguria, Italy). 
carolynmckenzie@libero.it
Title: Adrift in the Fog: a Journey of Rediscovery
Author: C C Johannes Peet
ISBN: 978-0-473-42384-1
RRP: $24.95 incl. P.&P.
Available: Paperback private sales: info.redhenbooks@gmail.co

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Really good story

7/6/2018

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Out of the Wild
by Charlie Paterson


This book tells the experiences of Charlie Paterson who discovered that there were surveyed, legal titles that could be bought in Fiordland National Park, in the abandoned settlement of Jamestown Bay which was originally designed to connect the goldfields of Central Otago to Sydney. If the local body rates were not paid, the sections reverted to the Southland District Council. 
    Charlie managed to locate the owners of two sections that were still in private hands and was able to buy the land. His intention was to build and operate an upmarket lodge to cater for trampers, hunters and nature lovers. The struggle he had overcoming bureaucracy, vested interests, and the severe climate is the theme of this book. 
    I found his account of getting the building materials to Jamestown Bay by floating them down the Hollyford river on a totally inadequate boat, and then across Lake McKerrow to the building site quite heroic. When the boat sank and deposited all his supplies into the lake, Charlie was plunged into the depths of despair, rescued only by the efforts of locals who aided him without thought for themselves or money.
    He took two years to build the lodge, aided by friends and some tradesmen helicoptered in for brief periods. He succeeded finally, but the lodge did not prosper. The delay in building saw his idea overtaken by people with much more money to spend on advertising and transport, and they creamed the tourists. 
    Because Charlie had no money to buy a fridge or freezer, his diet consisted of venison he hunted, and rolled oats and other food that would not perish. This lack of fresh vegetables or fruit, and the continual stress of fighting bureaucracy affected his health, and Charlie became malnourished and ill. Finally, he was forced to sell the property, albeit at a significant profit.
    However, the story is not a negative one. It is written in flashbacks, giving the story of the build. The scenes written in the present beautifully describe the peace of the forest and its inhabitants. Although Charlie is appalled by the harm done to the environment by introduced predators such as stoats, rats, and the destruction of the forest by deer and possums, he finds in the majesty of the wild mountains and the forest, the presence of a Creator and becomes firmly convinced of the existence of a caring God. 
    I found the latter part of the book a little disappointing because in several places Charlie expresses his desire for a meaningful relationship with a caring woman. Further on he includes a beautiful colour photo of his wife Bronwyn, and their two children, followed by a photo of him on a volunteer house build in North Malawi. However, there is no explanation of these events, and I felt that the book was not complete without telling these parts of his story.
    The book is printed on good quality paper, which allows the inclusion of many colour photos which I really appreciated. There are several spelling mistakes which grate a little, but which do not detract from a really good story, and I can recommend this book as a good read.

Review by Harold Bernard
Title: Out of the Wild
Author: Charlie Paterson
Publisher: Charlie Paterson
ISBN: 978-0-473-41454-2
RRP: $39.90
Available: bookshops; email charliewilderness@hotmail.com, 
website https://purewilderness.co.nz/  
Amazon as ebook (ASIN:B079NMTWFL) or paperback (ISBN 9781980245544)
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