Memoir
Barbara Ewing on her coming of age memoir
New Zealand actor and novelist Barbara Ewing has written a memoir about life as a young woman in Wellington and Auckland in the 1950s and early 1960s, before she headed off to study in London. One… Audio
Book review - Best of 2019
Jenna Todd of Time Out Bookstore with her favourite books of 2019: Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellman (Text Publishing) and Childhood by Tove Ditlevesen (Penguin). Lucy Ellmann's Ducks, Newburyport is… Audio
Kiese Laymon: a memoir of secrets & lies
Kiese Laymon is an author and academic whose memoir about his childhood in Mississippi has been described by reviewers as "astonishing" and "an act of truth telling unlike any other". Heavy: An… Audio
A former All Black captain on when the crowd stops roaring
Neven MacEwan played provincial rugby for Wellington and then wore the black jersey from 1956 to 1962, at no 8, prop, but predominantly as a lock. He had 52 matches for the All Blacks, including 20… Audio, Gallery
Porochista Khakpour - Sick
Former refugee Porochista Khakpour was born in Tehran in 1978 and raised in the Greater Los Angeles area. Her debut novel Sons and Other Flammable Objects (2007) was a New York Times Editor's Choice… Audio
Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman: Milli Vanilli on the violin
Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman thought she'd achieved a lifelong dream when she landed a job as a professional violinist but she was unwittingly part of a musical sham. Audio
Kate Camp - Robert Scott and The Worst Journey in the World
Kate Camp is the author of six collections of poetry published by Victoria University Press, the most recent of which is The internet of things (2017). She's won the New Zealand Book Award for The… Audio
Jessie Cole - Staying
Australian author Jessie Cole had an idyllic childhood - in the late 1970s her parents left suburbia to live in an isolated part of northern New South Wales, where Cole and her brother Jake ran free… Audio
Ethiopian memoir reveals 'a life painted in tears'
Aida Edemariam's grandmother was born in Ethiopia around 100 years ago. She was married very young (aged 8) and lived through remarkable changes in the country's history. From a deeply religious… Audio
Nelson Mandela's posthumous memoir
Former South African president Nelson Mandela died in 2013 aged 95. One of his regrets was not having published the memoir of his life after his incarceration on Robben Island, which he'd begun… Audio
Jimmy Barnes: from boy to man
Australian rocker Jimmy Barnes’ first memoir, Working Class Boy, recalled a childhood tainted by alcoholism, abuse, violence and poverty in Glasgow and then Adelaide. The book ended with Barnes, a… Video, Audio
Kim Hughes: 'You have to have a sick sense of humour'
In 2009, British Warrant Officer Kim Hughes defused 119 Taliban IEDs in Afghanistan, the next year he dismantled seven bombs in a single day. He talks about the confidence and sense of humour it takes… Audio
The Mighty Franks
Michael Frank is the author of The Mighty Franks: A Memoir - a captivating look into the lives of a family so incredibly intertwined that it tests the boundaries of family life. Brother and sister… Audio
Writer of Tongan Rotuman heritage awarded Fulbright scholarship
A writer of Tongan and Rotuman heritage gets a Fulbright Creative NZ residency in Hawaii. Audio
The Walking Stick Tree
Lynn Freeman speaks to Trish Harris who has written a memoir of growing up with rheumatoid arthritis. The Walking Stick Tree chronicles her life after being diagnosed with the disease at six years of… Audio
Kate Holden - In Her Skin
Australian writer Kate Holden's first book In My Skin is a brutally honest memoir of her time as a prostitute and heroin addict in Melbourne. She is New Zealand for the Christchurch Word Festival and… Audio
Red Dust Over Shanghai
Tyl von Randow takes us on a journey back in time to his childhood, as the son of the German Consul in Shanghai, growing up in the shadow of World War Two. His first book is Red Dust Over Shanghai, a… Audio
Taking My Mother to the Opera
Poet Diane Brown has made good use of her private life in her writing over the years - much to her mothers' chagrin, who probably wouldn't appreciate her new book much, either. Taking My Mother to the… Audio
Martin Edmond's barefoot years
Expat writer Martin Edmond has a crystal clear memory of his childhood growing up in small town New Zealand, and he shares those memories with us in his memoir The Dreaming Land. Martin is this year's… Audio
British journalist and author Damian Barr
Damian Barr's first book Get it Together: A Guide to Surviving your Quarterlife Crisis. He interviewed 200 people in their twenties, showing that for most, their attitudes to work were their main… Audio