mesmerising

Excuse me if this looks a little cosy - but after writing a post about Kathleen Jones' bewitching biography of Katherine Mansfield, I remembered Kathleen had reviewed The Blue a couple of months back. It's so very lovely to get a review of my book this late on in its life (it is three years old) - and a review by a writer as talented as Kathleen Jones - and a review in the UK.

Kathleen says some interesting and insightful things - although the comment about the book being 'mesmerising' is still buzzing under my skin (as a word like 'mesmerising' does - independent of its meaning.) And I am doubly delighted that she read The Blue while staying in Kaikoura - just south of where The Blue is set and where whales roam the bays.

I went to Kaikoura with my family to research The Blue. It is one of my favourite places in the world and the trip with my family - my youngest only 8 years old at the time - travelling by train and boat with backpacks, is one of my favourite ever. After Kaikoura, we caught the train up to Picton and a boat to Arapawa Island where The Blue is set. There we stayed for a while exploring one of my other favourite places in the world. How lucky am I.

Here's the review.

Preparing for Prose

Lookout

The Blue is on Radio NZ National today at 10.45 am! Press the headphones on the top left of the Radio NZ web page to hear it live - it doesn't appear to have podcasts for some reason. The photo was taken when I visited Arapawa Island with my family on a research trip for the novel. It approximates the view Lilian Prideaux has from her house in The Blue, only she lives closer to the water and is tucked back a little inside the neighbouring bay. The finger of land you see is where the whale lookout was, between the island and the Lookout is Tory Channel which opens into Cook Strait and behind that is a tantalising peek of the Pacific Ocean which takes you to South America and Antarctica where the whales come from ...