Catherine Robertson

Guest writer

Catherine Robertson is the author of seven novels and Penguin has just published Spellbound, the third in her Gabriel's Bay series. She has an MA in Creative Writing from the IIML and has served as vice president of Romance Writers of New Zealand. She lives in Hawke's Bay, and in 2020 she founded the Good Books store in Wellington, with Jane Arthur.

Catherine Robertson’s four-chili rated romance novels.

What it’s really like to be a romance writer

'I’m a pretty capable, intelligent person, but I swear I have not felt so much at sea since sixth form maths. Which I failed.'

By Catherine Robertson | 10th August, 2024

All of Nicky Pellegrino’s novels. (Image: Tina Tiller)

Every Nicky Pellegrino novel, ranked and reviewed

Nicky Pellegrino's food and romance-filled novels are a staple of summer reading. But which is top of the pile?

By Catherine Robertson | 19th December, 2023

1987, Thorndon: Catherine Robertson, a few months before the abortion (Photo: Supplied)

Thank you for the abortion, Dr Sparrow

The story of an abortion – and the woman who performed it.

By Catherine Robertson | 9th January, 2023

L-R: Terry Pratchett’s biography A Life With Footnotes; Catherine Robertson (Image: Archi Banal)

Everything I have in common with Terry Pratchett

Beard? No. Trademark black fedora? Also no. But this Pratchett fan finds many other similarities in the beloved author's new biography.

By Catherine Robertson | 29th November, 2022

1987, Thorndon: Catherine Robertson, a few months before the abortion (Photo: Supplied)

Thank you for the abortion, Dr Sparrow

The story of my abortion – and the woman who performed it.

By Catherine Robertson | 3rd May, 2022

1974: women campaign on the steps of Parliament for the right to legal abortions. NZ’s first abortion clinic opened this same year (Photo: Evening Post via the Alexander Turnbull Library)

Loop Tracks: a novel about choice, consequence and male control

Ahead of their appearance together at Verb, Catherine Robertson reviews Sue Orr's new novel.

By Catherine Robertson | 19th October, 2021

Jeanette Winterson says she was “incandescent” when she burned her own books (Photo: Twitter)

Notes on a book burning – and a defence of readers of ‘wimmin’s fiction’

When Jeanette Winterson burned her own books she was also belittling readers.

By Catherine Robertson | 8th June, 2021

Catherine Robertson had to nearly entirely rewrite Spellbound, the third in her Gabriel’s Bay series (Images: Supplied)

If it doesn’t sell, you’re screwed

Behind the scenes of a bestseller.

By Catherine Robertson | 6th May, 2021

Inside Good Books of Wellington (Photo: Supplied)

A brazen case of bookstore censorship

Two writers teamed up to open the book store of their dreams – and that means no bigots allowed.

By Catherine Robertson | 19th November, 2020

Wellington’s Unity Books on December 14. Madness! Image: Instagram.

Remembering the 80s heyday of New Zealand bookstores

Right now the country's booksellers are gasping, frantic, knackered – and still dealing politely with the rest of us at our worst. We at the Spinoff thank you for your service. Please enjoy this nostalgic hug of an essay by Catherine Robertson.

By Catherine Robertson | 17th December, 2019