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Renée

Guest writer

Renée is an Ōtaki author who has written numerous plays and novels. Her memoir These Two Hands was published by Makaro Press in October 2017. Renée was born in 1929 in Napier.

(Photo: Sarah Hunter with permission of Playmarket; Design: Tina Tiller)

Life stories: Renée on the transformative power of learning to read

The 92-year-old playwright and novelist describes her childhood, and the year books became a force in her life.

By Renée | 10th November, 2021

(Photo: Getty Images)

Lockdown letters #28, Renée: A crime novel

Writing a crime novel’s easy, right?

By Renée | 23rd April, 2020

Photo: Getty Images

Lockdown letter #23, Renée: A wild patience

'My patience, never a very strong part of my character, is being stretched a bit so thinking of something else is preferable to throwing all the cups on the floor.'

By Renée | 18th April, 2020

Ships lying idle in Wellington Harbour in 1951 (photo: NZ History)

Lockdown letters #18, Renée: 1951 and the dictator’s to-do list

'Illegal bulletins by Rona and Chips Bailey and cartoons by Max Bollinger continued in spite of police raids'

By Renée | 13th April, 2020

Schoolchildren line up for free issue of soup and a slice of bread in the Depression, Belmore North Public School, Sydney, 2 August 1934 (From the collection of the State Library of New South Wales www.sl.nsw.gov.au)

Lockdown letters #13, Renée: Suffer little children

'Yes, it's endearing that the PM said that the Easter Bunny is an essential service but I wondered how many kids had a hope in hell of seeing three good meals a day let alone a chocolate egg.'

By Renée | 8th April, 2020

Pantry with fish, eggs, asparagus by Jacopo Chimenti (1551-1564), oil on canvas. (Photo: DeAgostini/Getty Images)

Lockdown letters #8, Renée: Cleaning out the store cupboard

In which another lockdown milestone is reached – tackling the kitchen cupboards.

By Renée | 3rd April, 2020

Even most fruit and vegetables are grown in a way that kills or displaces wild animals, uses fish meal and blood and bone to fertilise plants, or requires killing ‘pests’ like mice to protect crops and grain stores (Photo: Getty Images)

Lockdown letters #3, Renée: Help yourself to my rhubarb

In our new series some of NZ's best writers tell us what they’ve been up to in the days of alert level four. Today, Ōtaki author Renée.

By Renée | 29th March, 2020

Mahia Beach on Te Tairāwhiti (“the coast upon which the sun shines across the water”) (Photo: Getty Images)

Renée: Te Tairāwhiti blue

In the final of a special travel writing series, playwright and novelist Renée reflects on the past and ponders the future on a road trip up the East Coast.

By Renée | 12th January, 2020

Memoir: The night she left her husband for another woman

Memoir: The night she left her husband for another woman

A memoir of the end of a marriage by playwright Renée.

By Renée | 24th October, 2017

Renée (Photo: Sarah Hunter by permission of Playmarket)

The Mervyn Thompson Affair: ‘I was both angry and hurt at the way I’d been dumped in it by the women who were responsible for the attack’

All week we revisit the Mervyn Thompson Affair - the strange, powerful 1984 incident when six women abducted an Auckland university lecturer, chained him to a tree in Western Springs, and labelled him a rapist. Today: a memoir by playwright Renee, who became victimised after the attack.

By Renée | 14th September, 2016