Historical novelist gives Taranaki talks
‘‘"Writing historical fiction is a wonderful way to present the past in a compelling and entertaining way,"’’
An Emmy-nominated sound engineer and New Zealand author will host a number of South Taranaki book talks.
Paul Feenstra will visit Hawera LibraryPlus on Thursday, October 13 and Patea and Waverley libraries on Friday, October 14 to talk about his two books, The Breath of God and Boundary.
A historical fiction writer based in Wellington, Feenstra focuses on historical accuracy in a bid to record early relationships between Pakeha and Maori correctly.
Feenstra has also written a third novel, For want of a Schilling.
The novels are set in New Zealand and detail early colonial life and the impact of colonialism.
‘‘History is about the untold story, and writing historical fiction is a wonderful way to present the past in a compelling and entertaining way,’’ he said.
Feenstra lived at Waverley beach while researching his book Boundary and visited the town library often, Hawera branch librarian Ann-Louise Vonk said.
‘‘Lots of people come in to the library saying they’re writing books and wanting to do research, however he’s succeeded.’’
Feenstra’s book Breath of God has a focus on Parihaka and the Maori Land Wars.
‘‘He’s actually a really interesting guy. He lived in the United States for 20 years and he worked there as a talented sound engineer and in order to make money to continue writing, he goes back to Hollywood,’’ she said.
‘‘The books are perhaps controversial. The reason for that is he went back to original documents in his research and uncovered some pretty horrific details.
‘‘I think the important thing about Paul is he really cares about the accuracy of the information and that the relationship between Maori and Pakeha is recorded correctly.’’
The books have been so popular that Vonk said the library was looking to increase its stock.
‘‘We’ve put it in to the homespun collection, which is a new collection about people who are local and writing about locals.’’
Talk times are: Thursday, October 13 - Hawera, 11am, and Friday, October 14 - Waverley, 10.30am, and Patea, 1pm.