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Friday, July 13, 2012

A surprise for Wiki Coffin and me

That subject line is a joke:

Wiki Coffin is my fictional half-Maori seafarer and detective.

The first book in the Wiki Coffin series is A Watery Grave

To my delight and surprise, I learned today that Caron Eastgate Dann, author, reviewer, lecturer, is also a talented artist.


Here is what she says on facebook:

"My latest painting: "Voices From Home". It is of some books by NZ authors I admire, including A Watery Grave, by Joan Druett; a small painting of the Coromandel; my kete (flax woven bag); a greenstone pendant and paua ring; and a book about the All Blacks (including my great-grandad Bunny Abbott) that my friend Yvette Parsons gave me."

Read a detailed review of her fascinating novel, The Occidentals, A 19th Century Siamese Saga, here

3 comments:

Caron Eastgate Dann said...

It's interesting that only when I'd nearly finished the painting did I realise that the four books of fiction I'd chosen for the pile were all by women. I didn't consciously do that—I do admire male NZ writers as well! The Mansfield collected stories I've had since 1981 when I studied NZ literature at Massey University. The Bone People was sent to me by Hodder & Stoughton when their edition was published in 1985, when I was literary editor at the Auckland Star. It was big news when Keri Hulme won the Booker Prize for 1986. The first edition had been published in 1983 by Spiral in a print run of only 2000, and if you have one of those, it's worth a mint now. Joan's book was given to me when I did an interview with her for Good Reading magazine in Australia in 2007, and we've kept in touch via social media ever since. I bought Paula Morris's Rangatira in Auckland when I visited last December.

World of the Written Word said...

Thanks for sharing the history of your acquisitions -- it makes the painting even more interesting.

Shayne Parkinson said...

What a wonderful illustration to be part of! You do keep some fine company, Joan. :)