Starting the Year with International Flair

Media Release 15 February 2006 For Immediate Use

Starting the Year with International Flair

This year the New Zealand Book Council has a great line-up of international writers for Wellington booklovers. The Book Council is offering literary events that feature writers of memoir, historical fiction, environmental matters and fiction.

In February, Pulitzer Prize winner, Frank McCourt will be returning to Wellington to discuss his third book, Teacher Man, with Wellington writer Chris Else. In Teacher Man, McCourt reflects on his thirty years of secondary school teaching, an experience that prompted him to complete his award-winning first novel, Angela’s Ashes.

Early March offers two women writers of considerable talent and of considerably different genres. Sarah Waters, English novelist, will be promoting the release of her new novel, The Night Watch, about the trials of war-torn England during the 1940s. Two of Waters’ previous novels, Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith, have been adapted into television programmes and screened in New Zealand.

Lisa Harrow, New Zealand born but now living in England with her husband Dr. Roger Payne, will be giving a presentation in conjunction with her environmental awareness book, What Can I Do?: Using the Internet to Help New Zealand’s Environment. Harrow is probably best known for her acting talents on stage and screen, which the audience will be privileged to see when she performs her presentation titled, Lessons From Copernicus.

The latter half of March sees John Berendt promoting his latest novel. Berendt will be making his debut appearance in New Zealand with his, City of Falling Angels. Berendt steps away from the escapades of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: A Savannah Story, to Venice, where the furnace of Fenice Theatre feeds Berendt’s narrative.

Wellingtonians also have the pleasure of welcoming back 2003 Man Booker Prize winner, DBC Pierre, and his new book, Ludmila’s Broken English. Pierre’s latest novel encompasses a dark tale of desire, bullets, globalisation and the full English breakfast.

For further information on any of these events, visit www.bookcouncil.org.nz or phone 04 499 1569.

ENDS

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