What I’m celebrating

Three items of good news from the book world:
1. Jack Lasenby has won the Storylines Gaelyn Gordon Award for a Much-loved Book for 2012, for Uncle Trev which was the first in a series of five collections of yarns about rural New Zealand and, frankly, how much fun it is lying to children. That’s Jack above at the launch of Uncle Trev at Unity Books in Auckland in 1991. Kevin Ireland is on the right, launching the book; Christine Cole Catley, the publisher, is on the left.

2. Paul Thomas has gone straight into #1 in the NZ bestseller list with his new novel Death on Demand (Hachette). I thoroughly recommend it – it’s a cracker. I hope he is now writing a sequel. 

3. The shortlist for the NZ Post Children’s Book Awards includes several friends and Tina Matthews. If the name rings a faint bell, she was the Tina Weymouth of her day – she played bass in the Crocodiles, with Jenny Morris (vocals), Tony Backhouse  and Fane Flaws (guitar), Peter Dasent (keyboards) and Bruno Lawrence (drums). They made great records but boy, you should have seen them live.

So here are the Crocodiles one more time (any excuse will do) with “Tears”.  That’s Tony B on the left with the Strat, Fane F on the right with the Gibson Les Paul goldtop. It’s pretty clear which one is Peter D, which is Bruno L and which is Tina M.