1. How are you spending your time during lock-down?
Gillie, Ruby (four month old puppy) and I seem to have a routine where Ruby wakes us about 6:30am and we have our first cup of coffee before slumbering on, while checking social media for messages, videos etc from the children and grandchildren, plus the national and international news sites.
We have lovely neighbours who allow us to do a 20/30-minute circuit through their fields, although we keep clear of the horse paddocks now after Ruby took a liking to the horse pooh!
The highlight of the day as it appears for many is to watch the 1:00pm briefing by the very cool Director General of Health who seems to be reaching star status. The PM is very good too and a great deal better than the White House circus.
2. Have you read any good books lately?
Gillie is enjoying very much Hilary Mantell’s latest, The Mirror and the Light. Having watched the interesting but very violent Vikings on Netflix I chanced to find in Messines Bookshop before I closed it, a copy of England Before the Conquest which delves into primary sources to trace the settlements of the Vikings up to the Conquest. It’s not a book to read page by page – at least not for me – but it is very intersting to see how far the Viking settlement spread.
3. Have you listened to any good podcasts or music?
Enjoying many of the various lockdown music recitals by artists alone and/or collected together by social media: Chicago and New York symphony orchestras, Bocelli (Easter of Hope). And a wonderful wiata by local Featherstonian, Makayla Mainini, found on the local Featherston Facebook page
4. If you could have your own Mad Hatters tea party, catered for by the Featherston Booktown Country Tea and Cakes volunteers, which writers would you invite and what would you most like to eat?
What hat would I have to wear? Wendy Campbell’s cheese scones.
5. Do you have a favourite author or genre at the moment?
Robert McLean’s newly published collected poems, Enduring Love is stunning. ( Robert and Kate are soon to leave Featherston sadly) .
6. In a perfect world who would you most like to hear speak at the next Featherston Booktown?
Tilly Lloyd , internationally reknowned book seller and great speaker.
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