Book description
In 1854, a group of settlers established a community at Waipu in the
northern part of New Zealand. They were led there by a stern preacher,
Norman McLeod, whose harsh leadership meant that anyone who ran counter
to him had to live a life of secrets. The community had followed him
from Scotland in 1817 to found a settlement in Nova Scotia, then
subsequently to New Zealand via Australia. Their incredible journey
actually happened, and Fiona Kidman breaths life and contemporary
relevance into the facts by creating a remarkable story of three women
entangled in the migrations. Fiona Kidman has written more than twenty
books, mainly novels and collections of short stories. Her most recent
novel, The Captive Wife, was a joint winner of the Readers' Choice Award
and a finalist for the Deutz Medal for Fiction at the 2006 Montana New
Zealand Book Awards. Trouble with Fire has been shortlisted for the 2012
NZ Post Book Awards and the Frank O'Connor Short Story Award. She has
been awarded a number of prizes, honours and fellowships, including the
Mobil Short Story Award, the Victoria University Writers Fellowship, and
the OBE for services to literature. In 2006 she was the Meridian Energy
Katherine Mansfield Fellow in Menton, France. In 2008 she was the
Creative New Zealand Michael King Fellow. Fiona Kidman is a Dame
Commander of the New Zealand Order of Merit, a Chevalier de l'Ordre des
Arts et des Lettres, and a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honour. She
lives in Wellington.
