Graeme Lay

Guest writer

Graeme Lay is the author of more than 40 books of fiction and non-fiction. His latest work is 100 Days that Mapped a Nation (New Holland, 2019). He’s currently working on a novel based on the life of the young Joseph Banks. Photo credit: The Listener

Pitcairn island (Image design: Archi Banal)

Essay on Sunday: The sense-defying magic of the Pitcairn Islands

These tiny, remote islands have witnessed the best and worst sides of humanity.

By Graeme Lay | 29th January, 2023

Graeme with Sebastian (Photo: Supplied)

Losing the clot: the story of how I nearly died, by Graeme Lay

One of our foremost writers on his very near miss.

By Graeme Lay | 23rd August, 2020

Summer reissue: The curious case of the strangest ever winner of a book award in New Zealand

Summer reissue: The curious case of the strangest ever winner of a book award in New Zealand

Ahead of the Ockham national book awards in May, Graeme Lay shuddered to recall the time the award for best novel went to a bogan - and Steve Braunias barges his way in at the end of the story, and adds a highly unusual postscript.

By Graeme Lay | 30th December, 2016

Dearly departed: Auckland’s now-demolished Downtown Shopping Mall and Queen Elizabeth Square

Auckland’s new waterfront: a Downtown lament

Graeme Lay bids a belated farewell to the Downtown Shopping Mall, central Auckland's least glamorous but most useful shopping centre.

By Graeme Lay | 8th December, 2016

The old man and the sea: New Zealand’s most ancient living writer

The old man and the sea: New Zealand’s most ancient living writer

Graeme Lay meets John Dunmore, the 92-year-old world authority on Pacific exploration - who has also written thrillers on the side, like the one about an assassin sent to New Zealand to kill Prime Minister Rob Muldoon.

By Graeme Lay | 29th June, 2016

Ockham national book awards: The curious case of the strangest ever winner of a book award in New Zealand

Ockham national book awards: The curious case of the strangest ever winner of a book award in New Zealand

Craig Marriner! What a dude. He dressed like a "Rotorua pig hunter", apparently, and shocked everyone by winning the 2002 national book award for best novel. Graeme Lay and Steve Braunias have rather different versions of a most curious case.

By Graeme Lay | 9th May, 2016

the blue waves of the ocean

Books: A Thousand Leagues of Blue – An Epic History of the Pacific

Graeme Lay gets to grips with Simon Winchester's epic tale of the Pacific Ocean.

By Graeme Lay | 5th November, 2015

Captain James Cook(1728-1779). Nathaniel Dance. BHC2628

Books: How to Write a Best-Seller

An essay by author Graeme Lay on how he came to write his best-selling trilogy of novels about Captain James Cook.

By Graeme Lay | 22nd September, 2015