Blog Posts - Flaxroots Productions

Novel based on real-life events

6/5/2019

Between the Immensities
by Doreen Davy

I love the title of this book. I loved where the title came from and everything it means. I loved what it meant to the author and her mother.
Dr Katherine Moore (christened Kathleen) makes the decision to leave her life in New Zealand to nurse her dying mother through her final months. Returning to Bootle, Liverpool, she reconnects with her three sisters and the mother she loved but never really knew or understood. This is a novel based on real-life events unfolding without bitterness or regrets that cannot be explained with a nicely rounded ending. I hope we all have the opportunity to say our goodbyes in such a caring, loving way though, alas, I fear most of us are condemned to less easily understood emotions and resolutions.
The skills Dr Moore brought into her family to help her dying mother and two troubled sisters proved cathartic for her as well, while the questioning of an after-life through the raising of religious and professional doubt provided the opportunity for some carefully explained/unexplained phenomena – Dr Moore’s scepticism is brought up against the possibility of her mother reaching out to her from beyond the grave. This was interesting stuff.
As much as I enjoyed this book, I enjoyed it at a remove. With a professional background as a psychologist the author was able to lead us capably through this dramatic time. She wrote of the possibilities for terrible family fall-outs from hovering misunderstandings and stolen money with a calm detachment that translated itself into the relationship between me the reader and her characters. I never felt fully engaged. Her writing was skilful, the story touching in its themes, just not in its story-telling. There was sense of writing up case-notes as opposed to telling a story.
That said, this was an interesting book and I’m writing this review with my own family’s disfunctions sitting ghost-like around me, hoping that we can find the healing it needs before it is too late for any one of us. I felt the author was lucky to share this ending with her mother and sisters.
Thank you, Dr Davy.

Review by TJ Ramsay

Title: Between the Immensities
Author: Doreen Davy
Publisher: The Book Guild Publishing
ISBN: 978-1912575213
RRP: $24.99
Available: Print: The Book Guild, a variety of online bookstores including Amazon, or independent booksellers

Impressive research

1/5/2019

Pathway of the Birds – the voyaging achievements of Māori and their Polynesian ancestors
by Andrew Crowe

At a time when no member of another culture is known to have deliberately ventured more than a few hundred kilometres from the shore Polynesians had spread themselves over one fifteenth of the Earth’s surface. The territory that they inhabited at that point was greater than occupied by any other race.
At the same time as the bronze age was ending in Europe, Polynesians began settling the remote islands of Oceania including Fiji and West Polynesia. By the time Portuguese navigators reached the Mediterranean, Polynesians had fanned further east and settled the whole of East Polynesia, including New Zealand. An area equivalent to the whole of Africa and Western Europe combined.
The story of how they came to New Zealand is the subject of this book. It takes its title from the annual migration of birds, to New Zealand in spring, and from New Zealand in the Autumn, returning to their feeding grounds in the Pacific or even further, to South America, Hawai’i or even Siberia. Even today some 20 million birds follow this annual migration pattern. The inhabitants of Pacific islands must have been aware that these birds did not breed in their islands but made the journey to an unknown land in the south and returned in the autumn.
The author sets out to prove that the inhabitants of the Pacific islands deliberately followed the birds and by use of the stars, ocean currents, and prevailing seasonal winds discovered New Zealand just as they had all the rest of Polynesia. He uses painstaking research involving, language, plants, animals, and the DNA of people, to make a very convincing case for not just journeys of discovery and return voyages, but well-established trade routes throughout the Pacific. He goes so far as to even consider the DNA of head lice across the Pacific.
The detail of this research is impressive and contains so much material of interest that I found I had to read the book in many parts, giving myself time to digest and take in the huge amount of information offered. It is written in a style that is easy to read and is not a dry academic book.
He approaches the subject by examining each island group one by one, comparing the archeological findings, culture, language and plants of each island group, and showing how they had come in contact with and indeed had traded with other islands. This is in contrast to some writers who considered that return voyages from New Zealand to the Pacific did not happen.
The result is a book that is greatly impressive, and very convincing. In a review it is impossible to cover every aspect of the author’s research and I urge people to read it to discover this for themselves.
The book itself is beautifully printed, on quality paper, with colour illustrations on almost every page.
It contains an extensive reference section and is well indexed.
The price seems very little for a splendid book that I am proud to own.

Review by Harold Bernard

Title: Pathway of the Birds – the voyaging achievements of Māori and their Polynesian ancestors
Author: Andrew Crowe
Publisher: Bateman Publishing
ISBN: 9781869539610
RRP: $49.99
Available: bookshops

Enjoyable quick read book

25/4/2019

Death On The Quay
by Thomas W Devine

This paperback book is an easy to read murder mystery “whodunnit”. Suitable for over 18 years of age as some details of violent acts are quite graphic. However, these are necessary for the story and a mature reader will understand this.
The story begins with a young freelance journalist, Adam Adair, walking to work along Lambton Quay in Wellington, when a woman collides with him and overbalances. Adam eases her fall and in the process of trying to sit her up, a bystander notices that she is bleeding from a knife wound in her back. The woman fixes her eyes on Adam with a desperate, pleading look before losing consciousness. Adam soon learns that she dies in the ambulance before reaching hospital.
Adam is haunted by the young woman's desperate attempt at communication and decides to investigate, as the Police do not seem to be making any progress, putting him and his closest friend in great danger.
Meanwhile, fashionable socialite, Cynthia, is being stalked, but hides her fears as she has a great secret that she cannot risk being uncovered. The plot thickens as some unsavoury characters are introduced.
The author keeps the reader wondering until the end of the story as events start to link in with each other, highlighting the stark differences of behaviour and attitudes between social classes. The author has the ability to make the characters to become quickly familiar to the reader which makes for easy reading.
The author also has a great knowledge of the City of Wellington and describes the locations of events very well, so even a reader not familiar with the city would get a good picture of Wellington and environs. If I had any criticism at all, it would be that occasionally the author slightly overdoes the details of road and area names.
Altogether an enjoyable quick read book with a good story line, written in a fairly simplistic manner which makes it the easy read that it is. I would recommend this book as a “put your feet up” holiday read.

Review by Fran Hartley

Title: Death On The Quay
Author: Thomas W Devine
Publisher: Thomas W Devine (through Amazon KDP Publishing)
ISBN: 9781729132289
RRP: US$12.65
Available: Paperback & e-book. Amazon & other online outlets; Writers Plot Readers Read Bookshop Upper Hutt

A great read

18/4/2019

No One Can Hear You
by Nikki Crutchley

This is a great read. I read it in one sitting and finished it with that regretful feeling of having finished a good book and wishing for more. On page 9 I read:
‘….the clouds glided across the darkening sky – even they had a better place to be.’
And knew I was in the safe hands of a born story-teller.
Zoe Haywood has been informed that her mother Lillian has committed suicide. She is forced to return to Crawton, the small New Zealand town she grew up in and longed to escape from. Ghosts from her past abound for Zoe as she rekindles her old friendship with Alex, the nerdy boy who had been her best friend. This relationship gives Zoe a light in the darkness that has become her life as she struggles to feel anything for the mother who never loved her. Then Zoe finds a notebook of Lillian’s. Girls have been going missing and as a respected, much-loved school counsellor, Lillian had known these girls but her suspicions are fogged by the Alzheimers claiming her mind and Zoe, reading the ramblings in the notebooks, can’t decide what’s true and what’s illness.
This novel has an unsettling opening. The principal of an expensive private school is covering up the violence of one of Zoe’s pupils. The father of the boy makes everything go away with a hefty donation – rich privilege protecting and covering up its bad behaviour. One of our local Catholic schools engaged in similar behaviour not too long ago – protecting the boys of privileged backgrounds whose untenable behaviour led to two young female teachers having to leave so, from the outset of this book, I felt a strong sense of ‘This could happen. It all too easily could.’ And that feeling lasted through the horrors of abduction and slavery in Auckland.
I don’t want to say too much and offer spoilers in the guise of this review so will finish with this – Strong characters. Good dialogue on the whole. Great plot. Wonderful reveal. This would make a great mini-series for TV.
Thanks to Nikki for a great read.

Review by TJ Ramsay

Title: No One Can Hear You
Author: Nikki Crutchley
Publisher: Oak House Press
ISBN: 978-0-473-44936-0
RRP: $31.99
Available: from www.nikkicrutchley.com and ebook from Amazon

Collection to be read and reread

13/4/2019

Murmurations
by Art Nahill

This tight little book of 68 pages contains a weight of wisdom, phrased in very effective poetic form.
The poems included are ordered into three sections.
In Part l, some deep emotions are given voice. Sad loneliness is portrayed in Athazagoraphobia–
       Every day I check the mail
       sometimes twice for evidence
       of my existence…
– and also in other poems such as, Superstitions, and A Brief History of Salt, that together suggest biographical progression.
Then, in Part ll, memories of past times and people once known – Mary Lou, Mr Dombrinski and more, as well as some on the inevitability of old age –

       Sit here too long
and you can feel the world
   shaking you
off its back like a wet dog.
     Also in this section is a group of poems on birds, including one, Murmurations, which is the inspiration for the title and the cover design – to my mind not the most effective in the collection, but it’s a great title. In fact, titles of individual poems throughout the volume are very well chosen.
In Part lll, I find great use of metaphors to paint evocative word pictures. In Ars Poetica #78, the metaphor of an ant is used to comment on the form of the poem itself. Very arty, Mr Nahill.
Then in the next poem, You Say My Poems Have Too Many Adjectives, there’s an answer to critics from the poet himself –
  As if a lamp
could be just a lamp
a shoe just a way
to get around
as if our lives
didn’t need
a bit
of embellishment
– written almost without an adjective.
     The head-on approach of Damn Right I Let the Cat Out, is also present in others – it’s a collection that looks at aspects of life, living, and experience with honesty.
     The poems mentioned, and others, make this a collection to be read and reread. They’re all very accessible, and even readers who don’t usually read poetry should find them rewarding.
     They’re not lengthy, mainly having just a few words in each line. Dare I suggest that, if there’s to be a reprint, a larger font, and placing each one further out on the page to make a wider gutter, would increase readability. But it’s a minor niggle.

Review by J.M.

Title: Murmurations
Author: Art Nahill
Publisher: Two Hemispheres Poetry
ISBN: 9780473430535
RRP: $20
Available: Order through TimeOut Books, Unity Books or other independent bookseller or via twohemispherespoetry.com

Thriller has it all

6/4/2019

The Pumpkin Eater’s Wife
by Tannis Laidlaw

Domestic violence, both physical and psychological abuse, identity theft, HIV, immigration offences, an estranged child. This book has them all.
It is the story of a woman escaping a very bad marriage and carrying the knowledge she is a murderer. We follow her as she escapes to another country breaking many laws along the way as she attempts to make a new life for herself.
Predictably, it all works out well for her because she is our heroine. She gets the life she wants and the baddies get their comeuppance. How she gets away, finds jobs and friends all seems a bit too easy to me but it keeps the story moving along and the pages turning, which is what we ask of thrillers.
At the beginning the author apologises to North American readers for using New Zealand English. Why? Do American authors ever apologise to us for using different spelling and syntax? Maybe this novel was aimed at the American market as the name refers to the American Nursery Rhyme “Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater”.
I would probably class this an airport novel.

Review by Rewa Vivienne

Title: The Pumpkin Eater’s Wife
Author: Tannis Laidlaw
Publisher: Forth Estate Books
Available: as e-book only, via Amazon (B06XK2QVGH), Kobo and distributors

Diary may be key to mystery

1/4/2019

Diary of a Kiwi Kid
by Robin Lee-Robinson

The greater part of this book is in the form of a diary kept by nine year old Rosalyn Jondell a Gisborne schoolgirl in 1977.
Preceding this is a ten page introduction written by her grandson, fourteen year old Jack Jondell, documenting his family’s whakapapa and how he came to have access to the diary. I had to refer back to these pages several times while reading the book – but maybe this says more about me than Jack.
He refers to the mystery surrounding his grandmother Rosalyn’s disappearance at the age of eighteen.
The following 105 pages constitute Rosalyn Jondell’s diary and give insights into the minutiae and vernacular of her schooldays.
As a nine year old the writer of the diary, Rosalyn, regards herself as a house slave, albeit a sophisticated one, doesn’t like her name, and is already developing leanings towards political activism. These aspirations inspire her to attend a young writers’ course with the objective of eventually becoming a writer. Meanwhile she is not averse to undertaking practical projects such as building go-carts, with her father’s help. She tends to make assumptions about people, which are often proved to be wrong, but give authenticity to the fact that the diary was being written by a young person.
The book’s author tactfully speculates how nine year olds might be confused by adult same sex relationships. Even though the title of the book suggests it may be suitable for young readers I would hesitate to recommend it to an immature young person unless I knew their level of understanding of sexuality.
There is mention of one or two things which I feel would have been misplaced on a time scale. For example Cabbage Patch dolls did not become a craze until 1983 and this would have been in the USA and not available to the Gisborne public by 1977. And wet wipes were not commonplace in provincial New Zealand at that time. These are only trivial details which need not detract from the story and would probably go unnoticed by modern teenagers who are the likely target readers.
Most books are complete in themselves and have a denouement, even in a series. In this case we will have to wait for a subsequent book for the mystery to be resolved which some readers would find disappointing.
The inclusion of a glossary of Maori words and phrases is a useful addition and the book has an attractive cover which is nice to the touch.
My appetite is whetted and I would read more books in the series.

Review by Irene Thomas

Title: Diary of a Kiwi Kid
By: Robin Lee-Robinson
Publisher: Red Hen Books
ISBN: 978 -0-473-45519-4 (p/b)
RRP: $25
Available: Print only, via bookstores, public libraries and viaRed Hen Books, P.O. Box 503, Opotiki 3162

Serious book includes light-hearted incidents

27/3/2019

So You Want To Be A Cop...
by Robert Rattenbury

This book recounts the private life and the career history of a policeman in New Zealand in the 1970s through to 1992. This period was quite turbulent for the police in New Zealand, with the Vietnam War protests, the Springbok tour, the rise of patched gangs, and several Royal tours.
It was also a time of progressive change for the Police, with the abolition of the cadet system, the increase in the numbers of women police, the vast increase in drug offending, and the formation of the Armed Offenders Squad.
The author gives a personal account of these changes from the viewpoint of a policeman at the heart of the events. He was also involved with the early days of the Police Complaints Authority (now known as the Independent Police Complaints Authority), and was also a member of the Armed Offenders Squad, initially as a member, then as a commander, and also as a trainer.
“So You Want to be a Cop…” also recounts his personal life from childhood with a violent alcoholic father, his earliest school days, through police training, to marriage, and later, his struggles with depression leading to his resignation from the police and taking up a position as a case manager with the ACC, dealing with traumatic brain injury clients.
There are numerous accounts of incidents and criminals the author was involved with, some humorous, some serious, and some just plain scary.
It is clear from reading this book that policing has changed just as society has changed and the way police handled some situations would not be tolerated today.
What shines through is the sheer humanity of the front-line police, the lifelong friends made and lost, and the comradeship that develops between men and women when faced with danger. It is a mostly serious book, but there are many light-hearted accounts of incidents, which lift the tone of the story.
I came from a similar background to the author and, also having lived through the events that shaped the author’s life, find it easy to empathise with him.
I can recommend this book as it gives an insight into a past age of policing and of New Zealand society.
There are issues of spelling, formatting, and language that irritated. In particular the use of “Xmas”, the constant use of capitalising words when not necessary, the small gutter making the latter pages hard to read. There are places where text is poorly justified, random blank paragraphs are inserted, and a general lack of careful proof reading. However, do not let these issues put you of from reading the book, as it is easy to look beyond these to the real story that is told.

Review by Harold Bernard

Title: So You Want To Be A Cop...
Author: Robert Rattenbury
Publisher: Rangitawa Publishing
ISBN: 978-0-9951046-9-3
RRP: $38.00
Available: print and ebook for kindle from Amazon. Print from Rangitawapublishing.com or author randjrattenbury@xtra.co.nz

Story for reading and interacting

23/3/2019

Kuwi's Rowdy Crowd
by Kat Merewether 

The storyline is easy for youngsters to follow. And throughout this delightful book you will find the most glorious artwork! Vivid and uncluttered.
    All Kuwi the Kiwi wants is to sit down with a quiet cup of tea.
But wherever she goes someone turns up to shatter the peace...
    When Kuwi heads upstairs for a bubble bath, taking her hot cuppa with her, hovering Huwi follows her. A flock of whio are already frolicking in Kuwi's bath full of bubbles.
Huwi finds them most entertaining so Kuwi retreats with her now warm cup of tea to her quiet kitchen.
    But Huwi soon tracks her down bringing with him a couple of karate kicking kokako. What a performance and what a noise!
    So Kuwi silently scurries along to the spare room, where she sips her heated up cup of tea.
But this spare room is not to be her peaceful place. Huwi rolls in with a rowdy rapping ruru.
    So off goes ever-patient Kuwi again seeking a quiet space outside on her tranquil terrace. And there she begins to sip her lukewarm cuppa.
But before long, the noisy Huwi has found her again and sets about tap-dancing with a troupe of tap-dancing tomtits...
    Will Kuwi ever find a peaceful spot to drink her cup of tea? No, even in the stillness and silence of the swamp Huwi stampedes in with a singing swarm of cicadas.
    Finally the ever patient Kuwi has had enough.
"Quiet!" she cries.
And it is.
But is this new silence what she really wants – now she has it.
    This is a great story book for reading and interacting with youngsters. They can chime in at any stage and try to guess what Huwi will produce next in the way of his rowdy crowd.
    And hopefully children will also realise that sometimes all mum wants is five minutes to drink her cup of tea in peace.
    Well done, Kat Merewether.

Review by Susan Tarr

Title: Kuwi's Rowdy Crowd
Author: Kat Merewether
Publisher: Illustrated Publishing
ISBN: 9780994136459
RRP: $19.99
Available: bookshops

Thought-provoking and entertaining

19/3/2019

Ocean of Milk
by Belinda Aycrigg

Two points about this novel to begin with –
One – it’s 473 pages. A book this long has to be very good to hold a reader’s attention.
Two – look at the cover design and the image of a woman clasping a child and with multiple arms, each holding an object, most of them weapons. If it means anything to you you’ll be better equipped to appreciate some of the images and ideas ahead. If not, that’s okay too.
Imagine, as an adult, suddenly finding yourself stripped of memory, having to relearn all by which you define yourself – words, relationships. “You’re like a toddler” – and those who you’re told are your husband, and your small children set out to teach you again.
Even better, perhaps, imagine you’re an alien, instantly transported to Earth, having to learn from the beginning about this new place. Well, not fully, because while Amalia can’t name even everyday objects she does retain some abilities, such as reading and driving. Such anomalies are indicative of the confusion in her mind and also an indication that not all encountered in her story will follow a logical path.
Through Amalia’s experience following an episode of dissociative fugue, we see things pared to basics. Our world and society is examined without context and what is revealed will make us think. For me, this aspect, which occurs in the earlier part of the book, is the most interesting.
Following her journey as she tries to reconcile different lives is often heart-wrenching, frequently funny, and always entertaining.
I made a mistake in my approach to her story, however. I used my rational mind and tried to analyse and interpret in order to get it all to fit neatly, and so I could anticipate the direction it was moving. I think now it’s better to suspend such thought, relax, and go along for the ride with mind open.
There are lots of rides during the telling, literally – some quite extraordinary.
After all, the genre is magical realism. At the same time, there’s a strong theme of environmentalism maintained throughout. It’s a book that doesn’t let you settle into an established pattern – rather, it’s testing you all the way.
By the end of the 473 pages? It could be you’ll be satisfied, still wondering, or perhaps more confused than when you began. But you should have found the journey thought-provoking and entertaining.

Review by Bronwyn Elsmore

Title: Ocean of Milk
Author: Belinda Aycrigg
Publisher: 99% Press
ISBN: 9780473404192s
RRP: $34.99
Available: bookshops

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