Lockdown letters #30, Fiona Farrell: There is no going back to normal
Anzac weekend has always been a time for thinking about our country and during this one, in the quiet that has fallen during lockdown, we can contemplate a new kind …
Lockdown letters #29, Glen Colquhoun: An Anzac memorial
'Can’t see the point in celebrating the day until we can say where we went wrong too.'
Lockdown letters #28, Renée: A crime novel
Writing a crime novel’s easy, right?
Lockdown letters #27, Morgan Godfery: What I thought while I was vacuuming
I told Nan that I’m a historical materialist.
Lockdown letters #26, Ashleigh Young: On celery soup and KFC skin
For a few weeks we haven’t been able to escape each other or ourselves or our own terrible cooking.
Lockdown letters #25, Fiona Farrell: On the sacrifices of great leaders
The greatest leaders from history have made sacrifices in times of need. A look at who, now, is doing that for us.
Lockdown letters #24, Glenn Colquhoun: Chewing the fat with Adam Smith
Letters to Hone Tūwhare and his Travelling Band of Constant Companions, continued.
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.'
Lockdown letters #22, Morgan Godfery: Do you feel powerless too?
We spent years waiting on a moment. That moment is here, but what can anyone show for it?
Lockdown letters #21, Ashleigh Young: Avoiding the loaves
On writing and not writing about bread.
Lockdown letters #20, Fiona Farrell: When fiction falls back
When fiction and reality collide, asking 'What if?' takes on a new meaning.
Lockdown letters #19, Glenn Colquhoun: Jesus pokes a dead stingray with a stick
'I took a walk Easter Friday. Looked out for you everywhere. The churches are down at the moment. All I have is the beach.'
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'
Lockdown letters #17, Morgan Godfery: The ground beneath our feet
'In an ideal world the physical lives we build would speak to the past, but the truth is New Zealanders silence it, building their social and industrial histories literally on top of Māori.'
Lockdown letters #16, Ashleigh Young: On going for a walk
'It feels like there is an inner circle of walking that I can no longer break into, some pleasure I have become too stupid to feel. Maybe it’s the internet’s fault.'
Lockdown letters #15, Fiona Farrell: Read all about it in The Daily Chirp
Responding to sudden, shocking change requires a double lens. Thank goodness for newspapers, real and imagined.
Lockdown letters #14, Glenn Colquhoun: Down the back of the bus
'It is sobering watching what a country can do if it wants to. Having been told for so long that nothing is possible. These are strange times down the back of the bus, John.'
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.'
Lockdown letters #12, Morgan Godfery: Decay, domesticity and doomsday prepping
'Paint is peeling from the old truck workshop walls. Some days you can taste rust on the autumn wind, like swallowing iron and blood and pollen.'
Lockdown letters #11, Ashleigh Young: Reaching for the cherries
'When you reach for the exact same thing day after day, your grasp on everything else in the world loosens.'
Lockdown letters #10, Fiona Farrell: On Ardern and kindness
Fiona Farrell on Jacinda Ardern and leadership.
Lockdown letters #9, Glenn Colquhoun: ‘C’mon OldKing, it’s time for the footy’
Today, writer and doctor Glenn Colquhoun, with the second of his Letters to Hone Tūwhare and his Travelling Band of Constant Companions.
Lockdown letters #8, Renée: Cleaning out the store cupboard
In which another lockdown milestone is reached – tackling the kitchen cupboards.
Lockdown letters #7, Morgan Godfery: Thoughts from under the plum tree
On our best days, time’s passing felt like a melody, embracing every beat and delighting in every pause. But on our worst days time was a cacophony.
Lockdown letters #6, Ashleigh Young: I keep thinking about the beast man
The outside is telling us, ‘I could do that again whenever I wanted. You think about that.’
Lockdown letters #5, Fiona Farrell: Citadels under siege, again
Am I anxious? Of course I am.
Lockdown letters, #4, Glenn Colquhoun: A note to Hone Tūwhare
A letter to poet Hone Tūwhare – and his Travelling Band of Constant Companions
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.