‘Haunted’ by old characters

Rachel Dore´ has spent a lifetime in the arts but now she’s published her first novel, A Respectable Veneer, out now (RRP: $37.99, Upstart Press).

Your book is set in 1950s Palmerston North – why? How did you research it?

The 1950s has been mythologised and idealised by American culture. In 1954 New Zealand, the thin edge of rock ‘n’ roll had only begun to make an impact. Households didn’t have television. Radio and newspapers were the main influences and source of news. Social change challenged the strict moral codes that defined respectability. Unmarried mothers gave babies up for adoption or faced a lifetime of shame, prejudice and poverty. Sexual harassment in the workplace was common. In a chauvinistic system, women had few rights and authorities took a man’s word over a woman’s.

Men’s homosexuality was illegal, punishable by imprisonment. The consequences of trauma from war, violence, and or sexual abuse, went unrecognised. Convention dictated that bad experiences should be ‘‘buried’’ and forgotten.

The early 50s promised new prosperity under Sid Holland’s government. Palmerston North was one of the provincial towns that epitomised the catch-cries of progress, opportunity and enterprise. I believe there was more going on than met the eye.

Research was sourced from my interest in social history, various publications, discussions with people, Manawatu¯ Heritage and others.

You’ve been a short story writer, poet and writing coach, and now a debut novelist in her 70s – how did writing this book come about?

Twenty years ago, I wrote a novel which was utter rubbish. But those characters haunted me... Ruby, Frank, Douglas and Edie were in my unconscious, as real as the memory of relatives. About five years ago, I gave them the attention they’d been demanding and they came to life in this novel. They had surprises in store for me and I was introduced to other characters along the way.

Tell us how you write.

From 5.30am, I work on my bed tray with Hubert the cat next to me. By 9am I am at my desk, in my study. At night, there’s a notebook next to my bed to jot notes and vignettes in the night. I wish I could write in the shower, when vivid scenes surface.

And what are you reading right now?

Helen Lehndorf’s A Forager’s Life; Conversations with Money: A Love Story, by Lynda Moore, and occasional dips into favourite poets.