The Marlborough Book Festival

Nici Wickes in conversation with Belinda Jackson Nici's career reads like a dream come true and she admits to sometimes having to pinch herself. Restaurant reviewer, food writer, presenter for a TV food and travel show, and now cookbook author. Sharing her enthusiasm for cooking, eating, and travel, Nici lets us in on how she creates new recipes, how she got to star in her own TV cooking show, World Kitchen, and what it was like to get her dream job as food editor for the esteemed New Zealand Woman’s Weekly, only to see it fall away during Covid. If you've ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes of making a food and travel show or how food writers and cookbook authors come up with new recipes all the time, then come along to hear Nici's tales of all. Her various roles have paved the way to her latest cookbooks, which feature delicious recipes, most serving one to two people households, alongside personal stories for living well alone. Nici talks about a career of food writing, the fun times she has experienced and the happy place she finds herself in today with Belinda Jackson during the 2024 Marlborough Book Festival.

Emily Perkins in conversation with Nikki Macdonald Emily talks about her novel Lioness which won the big fiction prize of 2024, The Acorn Fiction Prize at the Ockham NZ Book Awards. Judges described the novel as “an incisive exploration of wealth, power, class, female rage, and the search for authenticity”. The main character, Therese, is in her early 50s and her life is unravelling; her wealthy husband is being investigated for fraud and she is fascinated by a new friend Claire who has cast aside family and societal expectations. Warmth and humour - including a chaotic party scene at a flash Marlborough Sounds holiday home - are used to explore questions we might have hoped feminism would have solved years ago and to examine tensions of class and wealth. Emily talks to Nikki about Therese's coming of (middle) age.

Rachael King in conversation with Jane Forrest Waghorn What magic lies behind the crafting of spellbinding adventure stories with enduring appeal? Rachael’s new book is infused with her love of horses and long-lost words, with ancient Scottish myths, and Te Waipounamu landscapes. Join Rachael as she discusses The Grimmelings and reflects on other children's stories that are still great reads in adulthood. This session has been planned with an adult audience in mind, but young readers are welcome, accompanied by an adult.

Chris Tse in conversation with Sally McLennan At the 2024 Marlborough Book Festival, the Poet Laureate talks about and reads from his poetry collections in which he explores questions of identity, including his Chinese heritage and queer identity, and addresses Aotearoa history. He also reflects on his time as Poet Laureate and his hopes for the power of poetry. Chris Tse is the New Zealand Poet Laureate 2022-2025. His first collection, How to be Dead in a Year of Snakes (2014), won the Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry. The collection revisits the 1905 murder of Joe Kum Yung at the hands of the racist Lionel Terry. His second book, HE’S SO MASC, explores themes of identity, sexuality and pop culture. It received critical acclaim and was included in the New Zealand Herald‘s Best Books of 2018 and The Spinoff’s 20 Best Poetry Books of 2018. His most recent collection of poetry, Super Model Minority (2022), was longlisted for the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry at the 2023 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards and was a finalist for the Gay Poetry Award at the 35th Lambda Literary Awards. With Emma Barnes, Chris co-edited Out Here: An Anthology of Takatāpui and LGBTQIA+ writers from Aotearoa (Auckland University Press, 2021). Chris is the editor of The Spinoff’s Friday Poem. Te Pouhuaki National Librarian Rachel Esson described Chris’s appointment as Poet Laureate as recognition of “a poet leading a generational and cultural shift in the reach and appreciation of poetry in Aotearoa”.

Sue McCauley QSM, is a novelist, short story writer, playwright, journalist, and screenwriter. Her first novel, Other Halves (1982), won the Wattie Book of the Year Award and the New Zealand Book Award for Fiction. It was reprinted numerous times, in New Zealand and overseas, and was made into a film. In subsequent years Sue wrote five more novels, two short story collections and a biography. She has also written drama for stage and TV and adapted her own novel for the film Other Halves. Sue’s first book was loosely based on the early — and unconventional — relationship between Sue and her husband, Pat. Sue discusses her latest novel, Landed, and reflects on her writing life in conversation with Tessa Nicholson. Landed is a wry, pensive, character-driven novel that is a close examination of what matters most in life. It’s about reconciling familial obligation with a sense of purpose and relevance, it’s about the inevitability of growing old, the importance of connection, and the need to find ‘home’.

Anna Smaill in conversation with Jane Forrest Waghorn Anna’s latest novel moves between reality and magical realism, as two women navigate intense personal loss in a wonderfully hyperrealist, slightly eerie, Tokyo. Dinah is a New Zealander, teaching English in Japan, grieving her twin brother who was a gifted, but troubled, musician. Yasuko, who has talked to the natural world since her teens, is grieving her adult son’s move to independence. In this exquisitely written novel, Anna explores the feelings that come with losing a loved one and teases out the tension between our internal and external lives. Don’t miss hearing Anna in conversation with Jane Forrest Waghorn at the 2024 Marlborough Book Festival.

Marlborough-based Wine journalist Tessa Nicholson has interviewed industry players and been witness to challenges overcome and enterprise rewarded. Speaking to journalist Mike White at the 2023 Marlborough Book Festival, Tessa discusses her book Fifty Years, Fifty Stories, Marlborough the Region That Turned The Wine World Upside Down.

W J Moloney discusses Invincible, a novel based on the incredible story of one man’s journey through a world war and onto worldwide sporting glory. The novel follows Son White, a Southland man who went to WWI with his horse Ben and returned a mentally scarred man who found redemption on the rugby field. After joining a local club in 1919 he managed to be selected for the All Blacks by 1921 and captained the team that was famously undefeated on their 1924 tour of the British Isles and France. W J discusses his five years of research on the book and reflects on his family’s experience of the intergenerational effects that the Great War had on families. He was in conversation with Tessa Nicholson at the 2023 Marlborough Book Festival.

Growing up, Dr Peter Meihana often heard that Māori received special treatment and had advantages that other New Zealanders did not. However, this idea didn’t match with his life experience as Māori nor did it match with what he learned when he became hooked on studying history. He blew the myth apart in his doctorate thesis and has kindly encapsulated his argument for the lay reader in his important new book, Privilege in Perpetuity, Exploding a Pākehā Myth. Peter was in conversation with Emma Tucker at the 2023 Marlborough Book Festival.

Robbie Burton discusses his memoir, Bushline, which tells of life, love and adventures in the outdoors, as well as his long career in publishing. The natural world played a central part in developing his youthful obsession with tramping, skiing and mountaineering, first in Nelson Lakes National Park, then throughout the Southern Alps. Robbie was in conversation with Nikki Macdonald at the 2023 Marlborough Book Festival.

Mrs Jewell and the Wreck of the General Grant is a vivid imagining of the story behind the southern hemisphere's most famous shipwreck. The gold-laden General Grant struck the Auckland Islands in 1866, with just 14 men and a single woman making it to shore. The mystery of what happened to the ship has attracted treasure hunters and adventurers ever since, and fascinated author Cristina Sanders and interviewer, journalist Mike White. This session is from the 2023 Marlborough Book Festival.

Two consistencies throughout Eileen Merriman’s childhood were her fascination with the human body and a desire to be a doctor. She worked hard at science but excelled at English. From doctor to fiction writer, the award-winning author delves into the science of blood and bone and the intricate depths of heart and soul during a conversation with Tessa Nicholson during the 2023 Marlborough Book Festival.

In his latest book, the Ockham illustrated non-fiction award-winning Jumping Sundays: The Rise and Fall of the Counterculture in Aotearoa New Zealand, Nick Bollinger tells the story of beards and bombs, freaks and firebrands, self-destruction and self-realisation, during the ‘60s and ‘70s, a turbulent and definitive period in New Zealand’s history and culture. ‘Bollinger puts a personal and personable stamp on this critical decade with words, sights and sounds that surprise and delight,’ writes cultural historian Bronwyn Labrum. Nick was in conversation with Robbie Burton at the 2023 Marlborough Book Festival.