From the Auckland Writers Festival to the Baileys Women's Prize: Eimear McBride

Iain Sharp, who chaired the AWF session with Eimear McBride, cheers her win (and his call) in the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction.

Having often in the past been proven hopelessly wrong when predicting the winners of literary awards, I can’t resist crowing a little over my successful prophecy that Irish writer Eimear McBride would take the 2014 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction with her remarkable debut novel A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing. The innovative fragmented prose style, which the author describes as not so much “stream of consciousness” as “stream of pre-consciousness”, commands respect in itself. Beyond that, the deeply disquieting subject matter forces readers to think hard about gender divisions and expectations, not just in 1980s Catholic Ireland, where the novel is set, but in general.

I had the privilege of chairing the session with Eimear McBride at this year’s Auckland Writers Festival. In the days leading up to the event I felt quite apprehensive. This, I hasten to say, was not because I feared that Eimear would be as dark, moody and difficult as her book. I’d read, heard and seen interviews with her and she was pleasant and cooperative in all of them. My worry was that it’s impossible to discuss A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing without touching on the three topics most likely to upset or offend audiences: sex, religion and politics.

As it turned out, I was fretting too much. Eimear, I soon discovered, is skilled at discussing contentious issues eloquently but without causing umbrage and we were speaking, in any case, to a good-tempered, broad-minded and intelligent crowd.

I also quickly learned that Eimear is adept at fending off questions about how autobiographical her novel is. She clearly prefers to keep her private life private. “If you’ve read to the end of the book, you’ll know the girl can’t be me,” she said during the session, then added that ten years ago, when she first tried – without luck – to find a publisher for the book, she was told it might be more “marketable” if presented as a memoir.

Written in 2004, A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing was finally published in 2013. Eimear told me that its subsequent success still seemed a bit unreal to her and she was now on the international festival circuit with the likes of Alice Walker and A M Homes. When I met her in the green room, she had just come from attending the hour-long session with Homes, ably chaired by Paula Morris.

As we headed onstage, Eimear was a little nervous. She was anxious, she told me, about losing her voice. As it turned out, her voice held superbly. She not only read – inimitably – from the novel but even did an impromptu recital of the first stanza and the refrain from Yeats’s “The Stolen Child”, which features in the book.

Where dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water rats;
There we've hid our faery vats,
Full of berrys
And of reddest stolen cherries.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Auckland Writers Festival 2014: "Dear Leader" with Jang Jin-sung

"Jang Jin-sung in discussion with John Sinclair" was how the AWF programme had it, but that wasn't really how it turned out. Jang Jin-sung, the poet and propagandist who defected from North Korea to South Korea in 2003 and made a new life for himself, first as an intelligence analyst (I suppose the months of "debriefing" would have helped him learn the trade), then as a journalist, and now as the bestselling author of a memoir titled Dear Leader, did not actually enter into discussion with "political speechwriter, public servant and yoga teacher" John Sinclair.

Sinclair had some questions lined up, which I'm sure he had spent a fair amount of time excogitating, but they seemed more about providing the translator with periodic rest stops than about initiating exchanges of thought. For it was very clear that Jang Jin-sung had things he wanted to get across to this large gathering of fellow Pacific Rimmers in the ASB Theatre -- I started to say "very large" but considering that when we reach 5 million we'll have 10% of the population of South Korea, perhaps it didn't seem that large to him -- and he already knew what they were.

He looked at us for a moment at the start, offering a friendly "Hello, everybody, nice to meet you", and then at Sinclair for the time it took him to pose his first question, which was 'Do you speak English?", before settling into an intense face-to-face with the translator, whose name I wish I'd caught, because he was wonderful to behold, kind, attentive, and respectful, holding a little pad in the air before him on which occasionally he'd jot down a word, like a seamstress putting in dress pins here and there to keep the underlay in place.

If I tell you that the answer to "Do you speak English?" was "I believe all emotions come from language. Since my childhood I had learned only two emotions in my language, loyalty and hatred. Loyalty to Kim Jong-il and hatred of America", I think you'll get an idea of what I'm talking about.

Here are some of the things Jang Jin-sung wanted to tell us:

"I have only read three books. People think that because I'm a writer I have read a lot of books  But there are only two literary heroes in North Korea - Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un, and that was all we could read. Then one day I came to discover Lord Byron's poetry." In North Korea the works of foreign authors are printed in just 100 copies, only made available to high-level officials. It was one of these Byrons which made its way into Jang Jin-sung's hands. "Since then I wanted to become a poet."

Just as well for him, as Kim had shifted the emphasis from novels to poems as the best medium for propaganda. Paper cost too much, and poetry was more economical: "With only two or three lines, you can change the way people think." Poets were in the front line, the "professional revolutionists".

"During the great famine (1994 to 1999) 3 million people died from starvation in North Korea. On a business trip I saw a young girl and gave her some cookies, but she refused and begged me to give her dental paste. I asked her why. The girl said she put a little on the rotting food she found on the street to avoid getting sick. She had lost her little brother to starvation. I wrote a poem about her, called 'The Most Delicious Thing in the World':

     Three months ago, my brother said
     The most delicious thing in the world
     Was a warm corncob.

     Two months ago, my brother said
     The most delicious thing in the world
     Was a roasted grasshopper.

     One month ago, my brother said
     The most delicious thing in the world
     Was the dream he ate last night.

     If my brother were alive today,
     What would he say this month, and next, was
     The most delicious thing in the world?

This was the moment when I turned from Great Leader Literature to Realist Literature. When Kim Jong Il died there were three years of funerals. When 3 million people died, there was no funeral."

"There is only one question left for North Korea. It is not, will the country collapse? The only question is when will it collapse. When I was in North Korea, I thought it would not, because of the terror the regime uses. But now that I live in the free world, I know that the answer lies with the free world."

"The outside world must separate the North Korean government and its people. You must negotiate with the people, not the government."

"Please support the people."

Auckland Writers Festival 2014: Eleanor Catton, Jessica Jackley, Ngahuia Te Awekotuku and Sandi Toksvig in "Gender Divides"

Guest post by Angela, Readers Services, Central City Library.

I settled in with the packed crowd at the ASB Theatre for what I was sure would be an entertaining and informative discussion on the gender divide and I definitely wasn’t disappointed. Dr Judy McGregor led the discussion with Man Booker Prize-winning author Eleanor Catton; broadcaster, comedian and writer Sandi Toksvig; former academic and author Ngahuia Te Awekotuku; and entrepreneur Jessica Jackley.

All of the panellists came to the topic from different perspectives. Jessica Jackley, a social fundraising entrepreneur, talked about the lack of access poorer women in the third world have to finance and loans and how micro-financing platforms can help them start small businesses. This wasn’t something I’d thought too much about, but she talked about how giving women the ability to earn money helps increase the prospects of children in poorer parts of the world and helps narrow the economic gender divide.

Ngahuia Te Awekotuku talked about traditional gender roles on the marae and how, on some marae, women don’t have speaking rights. She also lamented that Maori women are underrepresented in Maori academia. The women do most of the academic research but it is the men that get the jobs. Ngahuia and Judy laughed at the fact that they both had the distinction of being expelled from Rotorua Girls High, though Ngahuia’s recollections of the racism she experienced there from the teachers was horrifying and sad.

Eleanor Catton was asked to comment on the uproar her comments about male reviewers had caused. She clarified that it was more about the disparity in the number of male book reviewers to female and that books written by men are more likely to be reviewed by well-known publications than books written by women. She also discussed the extra pressure put on women to represent their gender as a whole, not just themselves.

Sandi Toksvig also talked about this pressure: you feel as a female comedian that you have to be funny, or otherwise people will say that women just aren’t funny. Another topic she discussed was the ageism experienced by women in the broadcasting industry; most of the female presenters on British television are young and women seem to be let go once they reach a certain age. Sandi was a delight, I remember seeing her on various British comedy shows when I lived in Britain and she’s just as funny as I remember. She brought a great levity to the discussion.

All-in-all it was a fun and inspiring talk. The panellists also discussed the female thinkers who inspired them, the pressure put on women about their appearance and the inherent biases in their respective fields. I found it thought-provoking and thoroughly enjoyable.

Auckland Writers Festival 2014: the extraordinary Jacques Roubaud

Was French poet Jacques Roubaud amused to hear that a poet named Anne French was to interview him at the Auckland Writers Festival? I'm sure this famed member of Oulipo, the writers group whose work is characterised by wordplay (among other ludic literary techniques such as palindromes, collage, use of mathematical permutations and patterns, even plagiarism, as long as it is playful) enjoyed the plaisanterie. 

He did not, however, smile when Anne said, as part of her introduction, that he teaches poetry at the European Graduate University (where he is Professor of Poetry), interrupting her with a three-line manifesto:

"I don't teach poetry!"

"It's impossible to teach poetry!"

"I don't try."

Seeing (and hearing) Jacques Roubaud was my Writers Festival stand-out, I have to say. There he was, the man who had sat in Parisian cafés sharing a word game, sharing perhaps a light for their Gauloises, sharing molecules with the great Raymond Queneau, creator of Zazie in the Metro; the man who walked the countryside with the genial Georges Perec, author of Life A User's Manual, composing poetry as he went, like the wandering Japanese monks of the 12th and 13th centuries who so inspired him; yes, there he was, khaki pants, checked shirt and dark red pullover, corduroy jacket, looking like any man you'd find sitting next to you on a bus in Paris, except that man would likely not be composing a poem called "Ode to Paris Bus Line #29", as Roubaud did while riding the bus, nor be so fascinating to listen to.

Jacques Roubaud is a mathematician as well as a poet. Talented in both fields, eventually he had to decide to study one or the other, mathematics or poetry. He chose mathematics, he tells us, because "I liked numbers". Not because mathematics is an art, as Anne French seems to be about to suggest. "Mathematics is not an art, it is not a science. It is completely apart. It's alone in the world."

In his new book Mathematics: a novel  he elaborates, "I sought out arithmetic to protect myself. But from what? At the time, I would probably have replied: from vagueness, from a lack of rigor, from literature."

The talk turns to his poetry and Roubaud has an excellent phrase for what happens in the translation of a poem: "le droit de douane", customs duty. He once decided to meet the challenge by writing a poem which could be translated into all languages and lose nothing.

It's a sonnet entitled "La vie",  and he recites it for us in its English version, "Life". The entire crowd in the chock-full Lower New Zealand Room listens quiet as a mouse, breathing as one.

Life

000000 0000 01
011010 111 001
101011 101 001
110011 0011 01

000101 0001 01
010101 011 001
010111 001 001
010101 0001 01

01 01 01 0010 11
01 01 01 01 01 11
001 001 010 101

000 1 0 1 001 000
0 0 0 0 0 110 0 0 0 101
0 0 0 0 01 0 0 0 0 0 0

The applause, and Anne, invite him to go on. He tells us about a book of poems he wrote which were ordered black, white, black, white, like a game of  'Go'. "I was 'White'. I left the game unfinished.. The last poem was a 'White'. I was young, I had some hope."

He is now 81, and working on a long, experimental Project which he calls a "treatise of memory", not a memoir, of which Mathematics is the third volume out of seven completed -- so far. Only the first three volumes have been translated into English.
                     
What Jacques Roubaud is probably most famous for is belonging to Oulipo, which stands for Ouvroir de littérature potentielle, "Workshop of potential literature". It's a group of French-speaking writers who create works using "constrained writing techniques" as a way of triggering ideas and inspiration. Notable members have included Raymond Queneau, Georges Perec, Umberto Eco and Italo Calvino.

Asked if he can give some examples of Oulipo writing, he starts with one of the more famous works, Perec's  La disparition, literally The Disappearance, published in English as A void.

"Well, the book looks a bit weird but it is a very fascinating novel -- it has this character who has disappeared. The character is Mister E. The characters in the novel try to find Mr. E."

Mr. E is the letter "e". The entire book is written without a single word containing "e", except for the author's name.

He gives a few other examples of Oulipo constraints, and then, ah, this one as well: "One cannot be a member of Oulipo if one wants to be a member of Oulipo. It's the exact opposite of the Academie Francaise. It can take seven years to decide on a name. Sometimes we tell people they are now members and it has taken so long they have forgotten they were candidates."

Roubaud feels that a poem must "move with the times" in the head of the person who received it, so that it is an always "mobile" work, a work "in the process".

He asks if he may recite again, an emblematic poem in this sense. Here it is:

Les nuages
Changent.

That's it.

Clouds
change.

Question time:

"Is there anyone here from Auckland Libraries? I want to say that I am shocked that Auckland Libraries doesn't have your books, except the one with some other author! "

I am too far in the back to be able to make my way down the aisle to assure the indignant fan that copies of Roubaud's works are undoubtedly on order, but probably not easy to get (even the Festival bookstall was only able to put their hands on a handful of copies of Mathematics, which were swooped down on and quickly purchased by the first to arrive).

I can see that Anne French is casting about for a way to sidestep the issue and not finding it. Jacques Roubaud, who has been leaning forward, listening attentively, holds up a finger.

"May I comment?" he asks politely. "I am not surprised. I do not have a lot of readers. I have [pause] 100 readers, worldwide."

After such a great performance, I suspect there will now be a real number (to use a mathematical metaphor) in Auckland. And here's what Auckland Libraries has or will soon have for them:

Mathematics : (a novel) by Jacques Roubaud ; translated by Ian Monk.

The form of a city changes faster, alas, than the human heart : one hundred fifty poems (1991-1998) by Jacques Roubaud ; translation by Keith and Rosmarie Waldrop (on order)

Exchanges of light by Jacques Roubaud (on order)

And the book "with another author": 53 days by Georges Perec, edited by Jacques Roubaud and Harry Mathews (Perec died leaving the book unfinished, Roubaud and Mathews put it together from his notes), translated by David Bellos. Two copies of this one, both out at the moment, one to me.

Auckland Writers Festival 2014: Peter McLeavey

Guest post by David Ashman, Preservation Manager, Auckland Libraries


I chose '08 - Peter McLeavey' from the programme of AWF events because I have worked with Jill Trevelyan, author of Peter McLeavey: the life and times of a New Zealand art dealer, and I had met Peter on a couple occasions and felt drawn to attend out of curiosity, conviviality and a sense of allegiance.

Rhana Devenport

What I hadn't realised until I had made my way down to the burrows of the Aotea Centre was that it was a panel discussion that included artists John Reynolds and Yvonne Todd and was chaired by Auckland Art Gallery Director Rhana Devenport.

What ensued was a lively and insightful discussion among three people who know Peter well, hold him in high regard and carry a swag load of affection and respect for the man.

This affection didn't prevent revealing Peter's sometimes less than flattering dark side, though it never steered into sensationalism or offensiveness.

It was revealed that Peter liked to be in control to the extent that you didn't buy art from Peter, he sold it to you, if he wanted to. John recounted his own story about having decided he wanted to buy a particular artwork by Laurence Aberhart and being taken by surprise to find himself negotiating with Peter for the right to write a cheque and bring the work back to Auckland.

John Reynolds

The panel continued in this vein with their own personal anecdotes, fond memories and sometimes bizarre stories that conjured up a picture of a man who was generous in his support of artists, committed to New Zealand art, and who had an idiosyncratic approach to business.

The session had begun with a clip from the documentary from a few years back called 'The Man in a Hat' and it ended with another tantalising glimpse from that documentary of a man not just in a hat, but also wearing a warm, thick and comfortable cloak of mana.

All three panelists and the chair provided an entertaining and highly informative hour that came to a close all too quickly and left me wanting to delve deeper into Peter's story; for that I will need to read Jill Trevelyan's highly regarded book.

And just when it all seemed to be over, a member of the audience stood up and revealed that he was Peter's nephew. As if to confirm Peter's need to be in control he recounted the story of how as an eighteen-year-old he had announced he would like to be an Art Dealer, like Uncle Peter. His mother telephoned her brother and asked if he would take Paul on and show him the ropes, as it were. There was a moment's silence, then Peter said he would call him when he was ready -- thirty-five years later, Paul still hasn't received the call.

Auckland Writers Festival 2014: "May We Be Forgiven" with A.M. Homes, chaired by Paula Morris

Guest post by Campbell, Readers Services, Central City Library.


I’m here to see A M Homes speak; I’ve recently read two of her books. I’m not late, but the lights are off and the room is almost full. Naturally people take the end seats first and I navigate around people’s legs and bags to get to a seat by the left wall. I stand on somebody's bag and feel something squish beneath my step. I spill some water on some lady. I am sorry. I’m doing my best. She is on stage already, dressed head to foot in shades of black, her white skin is not tan but not pale, a generous helping of brown hair is thrown this way and that. A yellow dot floats over one cheek. Sitting with her on stage is Paula, in a black and white stripy skirt. Paula wants to talk about Jewishness. Her theory about the title of the book is wrong. The stage behind them is all black and orange, the festival colours. They talk about Scarlett Johannsen suing a French author, then talk about having a cold. She gestures with her hands, linking her fingers, holding hands with herself, touching her fingertips together flinging her hands outward. She is super confident, super relaxed and super healthy. She invites the entire audience to an artistic retreat just out of New York. I want to go. People are still coming in, they are missing the gold. The rare empty seats are filling up around me. A man behind me is obviously annoyed that I am using my phone as a light to take notes, I put my finger over the light and write in the muted red glow, it is just enough. She tells jokes. One falls completely flat but she turns the failure into a joke, this gets a laugh. She talks about being adopted and jokes that she is still up for adoption, one person sitting close behind laughs loudly. She drops names. She talks about her memoir, says it was like picking at a scab every day. It felt awful but she came out of it feeling like she’d had a massive therapy session. I would say that sounds accurate. She reads a passage from the latest book. I know the book and remember the scene. It involves a surprise orgy at laser tag. It’s a good scene. She reads quickly, in short stops and starts, only looks to her left. She is different when she reads. Later she says ‘in America we like to pretend things didn’t happen’. She talks about America. They translate very few books. Her books are not popular there.

A.M. Homes

Auckland Writers Festival 2014: "The Conquest of Everest" with Huw Lewis-Jones

Guest post by Doreen, Community Outreach, Central City Library.


Everest.

One word is all most of us need and we can see the photographic images of that famous mountain.

What a story Lewis-Jones had to tell. Those times he spent with George Lowe while researching and gathering information to put the book together. He had a captive audience, as we all enjoyed his humour and the personal stories of the journey which was the making of his book The conquest of Everest: original photographs from the legendary first ascent.

When the photographer on the trip of 1953 became ill, Lowe was available to take on the role (although he had no previous experience), giving him some wonderful photographing opportunities. He was in the lead going up for much of the climb, ensuring the possibility of the famous shots of Hillary and Tenzing from a higher location and then looking up to take the photos of that famous descent from the summit. Capturing those everyday moments where opportunities presented themselves, George Lowe was the invisible man on the trip, taking his place behind, rather than in front of the camera.

Having done the Base Camp trek last year, I can understand the attraction that the region holds. The Khumba glacier, the glorious mountains every which way, the enormity of it all. Walking through the rhododendrums, many still in flower in May. The journey is the people, the views, the experience is too precious to miss.

The final photo in the book is of great interest to me. The Himalayan Trust was to be set up by George Lowe and Ed Hillary to support Sherpa, after finding their guides and friends who had featured in the photo had become ill and passed away, having not had access to medicine. I always remember the endings and I felt the mood change when we were reminded that these feats would not have been possible without the Sherpa. There were murmurs of agreement from the audience.

Huw, you held us in the palm of your hand right until the very end. What an adventure!

Huw Lewis-Jones (photo by Nigel Millard, New York, 2010)

Auckland Writers Festival 2014: "A Question of Civilisations" with Jim Al-Khalili, Yasmine El Rashidi, and Reza Aslan

Guest post by Emma, Birkenhead Library.


“Nothing is black and white...”

…was the message from entertaining and engaging physicist Jim Al-Khalili; serious journalist and campaigner Yasmine El Rashidi; and scholar of religions (and interesting numbers man) Reza Aslan, at the “Question of Civilisations” discussion at the Auckland Writers Festival.

Jim Al-Khalili (Furnace Ltd)

Reza Aslan

Yasmine El Rashidi

Get these diverse people together, and what emerged was a very broad discussion. So much so, that at first I wondered if they would even be able to talk about the same thing. The panelists’ first comments were rather disparate. However as the discussion swirled, there arose interesting insights – all pieces in a puzzle that was the picture of this talk.

Why has Arabian scientific study not continued into the present? Al-Khalili is looking forward to a scientific Arab spring, but in the meantime, what is going on in the Arab/Middle Eastern world? This is a place that the media portrays as violent and full of religious extremists, but which once was at the forefront of world learning.

“Middle Easterners have very long memories.” (Aslan). All panelists saw the colonial experience as a major reason for both the loss of the canon of learning and in subsequently “rattling identity” (El Rashidi), making young people today determined to define themselves and their futures on their own terms. The sense of inferiority to the West is shifting and social media has assisted this process. I was surprised to hear how young this part of the world is: Aslan gave the numbers. Median age in Yemen is 18 years, in Syria it is 24. (Compare to the USA - 37, and NZ - 35). Lots of aspiration and determination are likely there, then.

People affected by colonialism in the relatively recent past react against it and resist the Christianising mission by becoming religious (Aslan), also, looking back to religion is one way to reclaim shaky identity (El Rashidi). Aslan also pointed out that Iran has never been colonised, and so people have a stronger identity there than in somewhere like Egypt.

While becoming strongly religious is one way to reject colonialism, it is not universal. Al-Khalili told of his father being shocked at the young women who choose to veil themselves in his presence. However, covering is not equal to powerlessness. El Rashidi gave examples of women running the show, dealing the stock market and taking care of the money in Kuwaiti families. The need to survive, she says, empowers women to take action. Nor is Islam equal to human rights abuses – remember that one third of the world's Moslems live in democratic or progressive nations. As the atheist Al-Khalili said, some things are just basically wrong, no matter what your culture.

The message from all panelists was, I think, that a more subtle and nuanced view is necessary to look at what makes people seek/reclaim a stronger identity. It differentiates between {religion and culture}, which is when people turn to religion as a means to express their cultural roots, and {religious nationalism} which is when religion governs politics.

The other message was of the harsh economic reality for many people in the region. El Rashidi lives in Egypt and had many first-hand accounts of economic necessity driving people’s choices and actions. She observed early in the discussion that the emphasis on extremism masks the economic struggle that drives people. Aslan thankfully picked up this point near the end of the session. People need foremost to survive, but also to have opportunities to pursue their aspirations. While some nations (The Gulf States) are now incredibly wealthy from oil revenue (as Al-Khalili says, “Why don’t they help out?”), others are struggling.

So, youth reclaiming/redefining identity amidst economic struggle…blurred, nuanced reality. The skill is to see through the commercial media storytelling, which often gives an unbalanced, sensationalist or stereo-typed view.

Nothing is black and white.

Auckland Writers Festival 2014: "The Great Avian Chase" with Brent Stephenson

Guest post by Carol, Information Services, Central City Library.

Quite a large crowd assembled outside the doors of the Art Gallery, patiently waiting for opening time. From the buzz of conversation, most were going to attend this session. Snippets of conversation heard centred on their own experiences of bird photography or observation. Could we get any hints from this talk, perhaps?

Brent Stephenson epitomises someone whose hobby became their career. An enthusiastic birder and photographer from childhood, Brent regaled us with stories of his early experiences around Hawke’s Bay. He confesses he was inspired by Geoff Moon’s photography. Included in the commentary were some of his early photographs of birds taken with his mother’s small Kodak camera. “Some of these are not that great," he apologised, as he indicated a smudgy small dot in the middle of a light grey area of sky. “There’s the bird,” he added. Needless to say, his photography is now much better, and he was one of the first photographers in New Zealand to use digital cameras.

Brent has a full-time guiding, photography and birding career, and has done some work assisting the Department of Conservation. He also holds the current record for the most bird species found in New Zealand in a calendar year.

His main passion is seabirds, and he was involved in the recent rediscovery of the New Zealand Storm Petrel. He spent some time researching where the breeding area was, by catching and tagging them. How do you catch birds at sea? With a net gun, of course. It turns out they were breeding on Little Barrier Island, and their entry in Tennyson’s Extinct Birds of New Zealand has now been removed from the latest edition.

The New Zealand biogeographical region has lost 41% of its endemic species, most losses occurring since human habitation. New Zealand developed as a land almost mammal-free. Many of the ecological niches normally occupied by mammals have been filled by birds, reptiles or insects. Because of this, some birds have developed some quasi-mammalian characteristics eg the kiwi, with its coarse, almost hairy feathers, cat-like whiskers and, unusually for a bird, a sense of smell.

Sprinkled throughout the lecture were some gems of information:

• You would probably not want to have met the Haast’s Eagle – now extinct, this was the primary predator of moa, before humans colonised NZ. It was the largest bird of prey to ever have lived, with talons the size of tiger’s claws, and was able to take prey probably up to 200kg in weight.

• The little fantail that accompanies you on your walk through the bush is not just being friendly. It stays close by because your large body is disturbing insects and delivering up food.

• The kea is one of the world’s most intelligent birds – also the bane of South Island car rental companies.

• The Grey Duck (also known as the Pacific Black Duck) now seems to be extinct in NZ due to hybridisation with the numerous Mallard ducks. However, other birds of this species can be found elsewhere in the Pacific area.

Despite the losses, there have been many success stories : e.g. the Black Robin, Takahē, Kākāpō; the South Island kokako, thought extinct, may still be residing in small numbers near Reefton, as there have been recent sightings. We must celebrate the successes, yet still remember that New Zealand had a much richer biological diversity. We are all interconnected with the environment. Most of these birds have been lost since human habitation due to habitat change, competition and predation from introduced species.

A final word. If you do spot anything unusual, contact the Ornithological Society of New Zealand : www.osnz.org.nz They will be able to assist with identification. Did you know that over half of our native birds can be found in the Auckland region?

As I waited in the queue for the author-signing, I flipped through my copy of Birds of New Zealand.  It is extremely comprehensive, listing endemic, introduced, and occasional visiting species. There are notes on identification, behaviour, bird calls, distribution and conservation status. Brent’s photographs make up about 90% of the more than 1000 images in the book. It would be a somewhat weighty tome to carry with you on birding expeditions; however, the information is also available on an app.Visit http://www.mydigitalearth.com for more about it.

And Brent’s advice for budding bird photographers? “Just keep practising, and have patience.” Thank you, Brent. It obviously worked for you.

Auckland Writers Festival 2014: "Science and the big questions" with Jim Al-Khalili

Guest post by Kim, Information Services, Central City Library.



“Physicists want Einstein to be wrong!”  -- Jim Al-Khalili OBE

Jim Al-Khalili  (photo by Furnace Ltd)

Jim Al-Khalili is a great speaker, he is engaging, he has the ability to make people laugh, and he can make any topic approachable, without dumbing it down. I decided this within only a few minutes of his presentation "Science and the Big Questions". This is a man who knows his topic – science in general, physics in particular – so well that he’s comfortable enough to really enjoy it and encourage others to enjoy it. Many scientists and academics in general seem to be very guarded about their knowledge, but Mr Al-Khalili believes his knowledge should be shared.

Although the facilitator, Shaun Hendy (lecturer in physics at the University of Auckland) structured the talk in accordance with topics covered in Mr Al-Khalili’s latest book, Paradox, the dialogue seemed quite easy and not at all restrained. In fact, Mr Al-Khalili observed at one stage how great it was that an author of a book about science was included at a writers’ festival, and conversely, how strange he thought it that ministers in New Zealand’s government don’t each have a science advisor (as they do in the UK).

It was great to see such a crowd of people gathered to a conversation about science who weren’t all students of science (a poll was taken through show of hands), so enjoying every moment. If you have the opportunity to see Mr Al-Khalili in person, do. And subscribe to his podcast (you can find it here). And read his book.

Auckland Writers Festival 2014: Camilla Lackberg

Guest post by Lucia, Grey Lynn Community Library.


Scandinavian crime Queen Camilla Lackberg delighted the audience at the Auckland Writers Festival with her candidness about her personal life and how she has no control over her characters, in that even she can be surprised by how her characters develop during writing.

An economist who changed her career to follow her passion for writing crime fiction, she wrote her first book when she was four years old, a bloodthirsty story involving Santa Claus and the demise of Mrs Claus. An early signal, perhaps, that she is fascinated by the dark side of life.

She talked at length about the formula of crime fiction writing and her discovery of the fact that she was actually working to a formula. Her first novel The Ice Princess was published in 2003, and her ninth novel is in progress.

Lackberg was happy to assure fans that there are no plans for main characters writer Erica Falck and detective Patrik Hedstrom to divorce. This will no doubt bring a sigh of relief from those who have come to know these two characters well. 

Auckland Writers Festival 2014: "Trouble in Mind" with Jenni Ogden

Guest post by Tim, Readers Services, Central City Library.


The crowd waiting to hear Jenni Ogden speak was large and noisy. I could hardly hear the Black Sabbath song I was trying to listen to. There were people outside the room talking loudly. A man sat down to my left and I wondered if I knew him vaguely. Everyone seemed distracted. Then we all turned to look because the distinguished academic with a soothing voice came on stage to introduce Jenni Ogden -- renowned neuropsychologist and author of Trouble in Minda selection of case histories of people with damage to their brains of one kind or another.

When Ogden came on, her energy and wit and enviable ease with talking (I have two left hemispheres, she quipped) caught the crowd’s attention and held it throughout. She asked us to raise our hands if we knew someone affected by brain trauma. Most of us did. She spoke of her time at MIT studying the most famous brain in the world -- the brain that belonged to the man known as HM in text books, Henry Molaison. His hippocampus had been removed in 1957 in an experimental procedure intended to cure him of epilepsy, a procedure that also robbed him of the ability to create new memories.

Ogden described how HM was awake during the procedure, but because he had been sedated was probably too drowsy to notice this ability disappear -- but would you even notice this? When she knew him it was years later, but time had not really passed for HM, if the measurement of time is the laying down of memories, as Ogden argued. HM had a note in his pocket that he would happen upon every now and then which read "Dad is dead Mom is well". Every time it was (sad) news to him.


Ogden also described a woman who had a hole in her brain, and another woman who, because of a brain tumour, came to disregard anything to her left -- including her own left arm. The man to my left uttered in surprise “She was a friend of mine.”

I left feeling a little more fragile of mind maybe, but excited to read Trouble in Mind. And I wondered, too, if Jenni Ogden knows some arcane neuropsychological secret the rest of us don’t know -- the kind that keeps someone irreverent and energetic in perpetuity. Maybe it’s in the book.