The 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.

Soraya Lane has followed her heart creating historical fiction and romance novels. Her series, The Lost Daughters, has been an international success, and her WWII novels are enormously popular with lovers of the historical genre.

At the 2023 Marlborough Book Festival she explains to Courtney Clark Michaels about her writing life and how she weaves empowerment of women in the #MeToo era into her fiction. 

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.

Joanne Drayton discusses her memoir, The Queen’s Wife, a modern love story featuring whakapapa, archaeology, art and heartbreak, with Jane Forrest Waghorn at the 2023 Marlborough Book Festival. 

Joanne’s story is one of two married women who met in 1989 in Christchurch. Their love threatens to cost them their children, families and friends and forces them to reassess their sexuality, identity and heritage. Against the odds, the couple’s new life together is rich in laughter, travel, unusual encounters, investigations into Viking raids, the Kingitanga movement and much more.

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.

Gavin Lang's book Seeking the Light is about climbing the country’s highest mountains that rise above 3000m, but it's about the importance of getting outdoors to improve health and wellbeing.

Inspiring and exhilarating, each story captures the tension and drama of mountaineering in Aotearoa, and is vividly brought to life with Gavin’s outstanding photography. Gavin’s work is a beautiful and original contribution to mountain lore and literature.

Gavin was talking with fellow outdoorsman Mike White at 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.

An utterly believable mimicking magpie narrates this extraordinary story set in the beautiful yet harsh landscape of Central Otago. Catherine Chidgey discusses her inspiration for the novel, with its exploration of themes encompassing domestic violence, the challenges of farming, the weird world of internet fame, and the vagaries of human relationships with animals, which she suggests can be at once closely bonded and exploitative.

Catherine was in conversation with Nikki Macdonald at 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.

Hear a selection of guest authors take their work off the page and onto the stage in the gala opening of the 2023 Marlborough Book Festival.

In order, the audience heard from Joanne Drayton, Eileen Merriman, Cristina Sanders, Michael Bennett and Joanna Preston.

Their stories - whether true, imagined or a blurring of both - certainly got to the heart of the matter.  They'll certainly make you want to hear more. This was a special event to launch the festival, providing a taste of the treats ahead over the weekend to come.