The Marlborough Book Festival

Diana Wichtel: Driving to Treblinka

Diana Wichtel is an award-winning journalist, well known for her media commentary for the New Zealand Listener.

Diana's family memoir Driving to Treblinka has been described as a "beautiful, profoundly moving search for her father and also for memory, in a story that clings to humour and love". 

In this session from the 2018 Marlborough Book Festival, interviewer Tessa Nicholson adeptly draws out the humour and love in Diana's deeply moving personal stories. 

Jenny Pattrick: weaving fiction with historical fact

Jenny Pattrick is one of New Zealand's best selling novelists.  In this conversation with Tessa Nicholson at the 2018 Marlborough Book Festival, Jenny reflects on the art of historical fiction while sharing her personal story.  The pair discuss why Jenny chooses to write historical fiction, how she picks her subject and the importance of developing a unique voice for each novel.

Selina Tusitala Marsh and Glenn Colquhoun: a love of poetry

New Zealand Poet Laureate Selina Tusitala Marsh and doctor, award-winning poet and captivating orator Glenn Colquhoun shared the stage at the 2018 Marlborough Book Festival to discuss their shared love of poetry.

Tom Scott and Diana Wichtel: writing about family

Tom Scott and Diana Wichtel, who both published books about their families in 2017, chat to journalist Nikki Macdonald about the possible perils of writing family memoirs, the insistence of memories, and the importance of family in determining who we become.

Atholl Anderson: Tangata Whenua

An eminent archaeologist and historian of Ngai Tahu descent, Atholl Anderson was one of three authors behind the multi award-winning Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History. 

Atholl joined us at the 2018 Marlborough Book Festival with Marlborough based historian, Ron Crosby to delve into what's known and what's yet to learn about our country's fascinating past.

MoreFM radio interview

In 2017, The Marlborough Readers and Writers Charitable Trust won the supreme Marlborough Trustpower Community Award.  Trustee and founding Marlborough Book Festival committee member Sonia O'Regan spoke to Tash from MoreFM after our big win was announced.

Poet Brian Turner: an incredible life

Brian Turner is a New Zealand poet, essayist, biographer and editor, as well as an ardent and accomplished sportsman, conservationist and champion of our wild places.

In this conversation with Mike White, Brian, a previous New Zealand Poet Laureate, talks about growing up in one of New Zealand's most famous sporting families and representing New Zealand; ocean sailing, climbing, cycling, fishing and golf caddying; his love of the environment and his battles to preserve it; and how it's all played a part in a half century of extraordinary writing. 

 

Digging for dinosaurs with John Pickrell

John Pickrell is an award-winning journalist, the former editor of Australian Geographic magazine and the author of Flying Dinosaurs, How Fearsome Reptiles Became Birds, and Weird Dinosaurs, The Strange New Fossils Challenging Everything we Thought we Knew.

John joined us at the 2017 Marlborough Book Festival for two sessions in conversation with Mike White, including this one at Spy Valley Wines, where he discussed his books on fascinating new dinosaur discoveries, fossil hunts from the Australian Outback to Antarctica, and his experiences digging for dinosaurs in Australia and Mongolia.

 

The beer geek and the winemaker

Is beer pong an Olympic sport? What does beer made with stag semen taste like? Author of How To Have A Beer Alice Galletly provides answers to such pressing questions and offers tips on how to get the most out of every glass of beer, in conversation with wine maker Ben Glover at the 2017 Marlborough Book Festival. 

Dame Anne Salmond in conversation with Peter Jerram

Dame Anne Salmond makes history intriguing, exciting and highly relevant. An eminent anthropologist, historian, writer and environmentalist, Anne shares her understanding of the Māori experience and how it shapes us all as New Zealanders.

As Marlborough prepares to celebrate 250 years since Cook first visited the region, local author Peter Jerram, a long-time Cook enthusiast, spoke with Anne about two of her incredibly detailed and gripping books, Two Worlds, Between Worlds, and The Trial of the Cannibal Dog, Captain Cook in the South Seas onboard the Marlborough Tour Company’s MV Odyssea in the Queen Charlotte Sound.