You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin from News Talks.

You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin from News Talks.

AB joining me now as Joan mackenzie. Good morning, Hello, What have you got for us today?

AB joining me now as Joan mackenzie. Good morning, Hello, What have you got for us today?

The first book I've got is by Jenny Patrick, who I'm sure many listeners will remember, wrote a book twenty two years ago called The Denniston Rose, which in a way I think started to change the landscape of New Zealand fiction because it was really commercial, really accessible, fascinating in its history and did incredibly well and it really ultimately was a story about survival. While she's done it again in this new book, which as I say, is twenty two years later. It's called Sea Change, and it's after a magnitude eight earthquake strikes the Alpine Fault in the South Island and a tsunami arrives afterwards, which devastates and cuts off a small village slightly north of Wellington, and the government decided it was unsustainable and unsafe, and they decreed a mandatory relocation of all of the inhabitants. But a group of really resourceful and determined people decided to stay and live off the grid and under the radar and it's really well done because each of them, in their own special way, has particular skills which, when they're all pulled together, mean that the basic necessities for a small community can be taken care of, and of course the social fabric amongst them starts to really meld. And I've found it really heartwarming to see the bonds that they develop and how they're so focused on their survival so cleverly. But it's all threatened when a really nasty, unpleasant developer who has a holiday home there, decides this is an opportunity for him to buy up a number of these no longer lived in houses and build a little estate, a little mini empire for himself. So he sends his people over to check it all out, and he's got a plan to take most of the area over. And I will say it's fair to say there's a number of reasonably stereotypical characters in here, the property developer being so avaricious and so unpleasant being one. But I thought it was a really heartwarming story based on something which for us is unfortunately quite credible, which was the earthquake and tsunami, And I thought that the courage and the strength of the characters was just lovely.

The first book I've got is by Jenny Patrick, who I'm sure many listeners will remember, wrote a book twenty two years ago called The Denniston Rose, which in a way I think started to change the landscape of New Zealand fiction because it was really commercial, really accessible, fascinating in its history and did incredibly well and it really ultimately was a story about survival. While she's done it again in this new book, which as I say, is twenty two years later. It's called Sea Change, and it's after a magnitude eight earthquake strikes the Alpine Fault in the South Island and a tsunami arrives afterwards, which devastates and cuts off a small village slightly north of Wellington, and the government decided it was unsustainable and unsafe, and they decreed a mandatory relocation of all of the inhabitants. But a group of really resourceful and determined people decided to stay and live off the grid and under the radar and it's really well done because each of them, in their own special way, has particular skills which, when they're all pulled together, mean that the basic necessities for a small community can be taken care of, and of course the social fabric amongst them starts to really meld. And I've found it really heartwarming to see the bonds that they develop and how they're so focused on their survival so cleverly. But it's all threatened when a really nasty, unpleasant developer who has a holiday home there, decides this is an opportunity for him to buy up a number of these no longer lived in houses and build a little estate, a little mini empire for himself. So he sends his people over to check it all out, and he's got a plan to take most of the area over. And I will say it's fair to say there's a number of reasonably stereotypical characters in here, the property developer being so avaricious and so unpleasant being one. But I thought it was a really heartwarming story based on something which for us is unfortunately quite credible, which was the earthquake and tsunami, And I thought that the courage and the strength of the characters was just lovely.

Oh good to hear. And you've got a book that I know a lot of people are talking about. Allie Moore has written a memoir.

Oh good to hear. And you've got a book that I know a lot of people are talking about. Allie Moore has written a memoir.

Yeah, and she'll need no introduction to most listeners because she's been on our screens and in our newspapers for years and years now. But she was born and grew up in Australia. She grew up in a family which wasn't easy. Her father was a rough and tough newspaper man and she eventually followed him into that world, the world of journalism. But he was a difficult man to please and a deeply misogynistic individual. So she grew up both with him and in the newsrooms of Australia at the time. And I don't know how she survived it, because I'm damn sure that I wouldn't have anyway. She eventually came to New Zealand and married here and had kids and had a really good career. But one night she got a phone call from her elder sister who cracked opened something that had been festering for forty years, which was the fact that when those two were children, their father interfered with them and they suddenly had to front up to the reality of what had happened to them and how they were now going to deal with it. And it was compounded when she discovered that her nephew had also been abused by her father. So obviously there were very dark elements to this book, but I will say she writes beautifully and incredibly courageously, and it's the story about how you confront this stuff, and if they'd done something about it earlier, would her father have received a different kind of justice, And would their relationship with their mother, who protected him, have been different And the kind of relationship their mother in her later years was desperate to have with her daughters, to have them close again, but everything had been so fractured that it wasn't possible. It's a very brave book to have written, because at the time of writing her parents are both.

Yeah, and she'll need no introduction to most listeners because she's been on our screens and in our newspapers for years and years now. But she was born and grew up in Australia. She grew up in a family which wasn't easy. Her father was a rough and tough newspaper man and she eventually followed him into that world, the world of journalism. But he was a difficult man to please and a deeply misogynistic individual. So she grew up both with him and in the newsrooms of Australia at the time. And I don't know how she survived it, because I'm damn sure that I wouldn't have anyway. She eventually came to New Zealand and married here and had kids and had a really good career. But one night she got a phone call from her elder sister who cracked opened something that had been festering for forty years, which was the fact that when those two were children, their father interfered with them and they suddenly had to front up to the reality of what had happened to them and how they were now going to deal with it. And it was compounded when she discovered that her nephew had also been abused by her father. So obviously there were very dark elements to this book, but I will say she writes beautifully and incredibly courageously, and it's the story about how you confront this stuff, and if they'd done something about it earlier, would her father have received a different kind of justice, And would their relationship with their mother, who protected him, have been different And the kind of relationship their mother in her later years was desperate to have with her daughters, to have them close again, but everything had been so fractured that it wasn't possible. It's a very brave book to have written, because at the time of writing her parents are both.

Alive, just about to ask that if.

Alive, just about to ask that if.

Father just wants everything to go back to the way that it was before, but of course for Allie and her sister, it's just not possible, and they're finding ways to live with this. And of course, as many will know, Allie's gone on to help so many women who found themselves in similar very difficult positions. I thought it was a very i'm going to say, deep and meaningful book, and despite that fame, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Father just wants everything to go back to the way that it was before, but of course for Allie and her sister, it's just not possible, and they're finding ways to live with this. And of course, as many will know, Allie's gone on to help so many women who found themselves in similar very difficult positions. I thought it was a very i'm going to say, deep and meaningful book, and despite that fame, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thank you so much. Joan so Alimow's memoir is no words for this, and the first book that Joan spoke about was See Change by Jenny Patrick.

Thank you so much. Joan so Alimow's memoir is no words for this, and the first book that Joan spoke about was See Change by Jenny Patrick.

For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen live to news Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio

For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen live to news Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio