AVAILABLE NOW. 'The Artist as an Old Man (Self-Portrait)'

The artist returns to Auckland 

After twenty years in London a somewhat notorious Kiwi  artist returns home when his life falls apart as a result of fraud, death and depression. The Artist as an Old Man (Self-Portrait) is a personal hour-by-hour journal of the day of his first New Zealand exhibition.

Accustomed to always being busy, the restless artist — eccentric, irritable and ageing — suddenly has nothing to do until the exhibition’s evening opening. And so we follow him and his sometimes angry and unreasonable thoughts, including lingering doubts about his own work, through the long day.

Having experienced financial relief before the exhibition, an unpleasant encounter at the exhibition, and sadness after it, he returns home at the end of the day ready to face his new life, alone and lonely, in Dunedin. 

The Artist as an Old Man (Self-Portrait) is available now from Amazon and Kindle and from my website soon. 

 

The first review of 'The Fable of Flitcroft Point is in. It's five-star. Very perceptive. And it's from Germany.

 

It says, in English (according to Herr Google): 

"The acting persons [the characters] are very lively and you feel with them. This is not just a made-up story but could have happened several times - for the Maori in New Zealand and everywhere in the world."  

My new novel 'The Fable of Flitcroft Point' is now AVAILABLE

 

Yes. The Fable of Flitcroft Point will be available soon is available now in New Zealand paperback and internationally from Amazon and Kindle. 
Set in the distamt future, it's like nothing  else I've ever written. 

HERE IS THE COVER BLURB: 

 Early in the twenty-first century a series of viruses killed eighty percent of the world’s population. Famine loomed.

In New Zealand there was plenty of food but too few people to process it. The surviving city folk therefore fled to the countryside where they provided labour to the remaining farmers in return for a share of the food they helped produce. As a result the country’s towns and cities were abandoned.

Into this vacuum came the invading Vandiers, so numerous and wealthy they dominated the small Kiwiland population whose traditions, culture, religion and language they despised.

The Fable of Flitcroft Point is set in a typical Kiwiland village where, in 2177, the land-grabbing Vandier government has taken village land for its own purposes. The Kiwilanders, angry and frustrated, want their land back. But can their feeble protest succeed against the overwhelming power of central government? 

 

At last. Now ALL my books are available internationally as Amazon paperbacks and Kindle e-books.

Yes. All eleven of my books are now available here in paperback (ideal for posting as gifts to anywhere in the world) and Kindle downloads.

'Jacko. One Bloke. One Year.' Paperback now available to New Zealand readers.

 

Only $34.50 from my website. 

Or email me here and pay online to my bank account 060 583 0891406 00. 

Kindle version available here. 

See all my books on my website or on Amazon/Kindle.

My new book. Ready for printing and publishing. Kindle available now.

 Here it is. Now available from Kindle. Paperback available soon. 

Jackson Fearnsby’s fiftieth year began badly, ended better, and was in between punctuated by a series of seasonal events and anniversaries shared with his friends and family. Set in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1950, this story follows the life of an ordinary man in an ordinary job living an ordinary life with his ordinary family in an ordinary city — then no more than a large town — while struggling with the doubts and anxieties which came with middle-age to an already troubled mind.

Download the Kindle file here.   

One of the benefits of the Covid lockdown: my new book.

Writers can usually only dream of being able to lock themselves away to work uninterrupted by the 'real world'.  But my dream came true over the lockdown period. I started my new book on May 1 and it's finished.

It's called: 

Jacko. One Bloke. One Year.  

Here's the cover blurb: 

Jackson Fearnsby’s fiftieth year began badly, ended better, and was in between punctuated by a series of seasonal events and anniversaries shared with his friends and family. Set in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1950, this story follows the life of an ordinary man in an ordinary job living an ordinary life with his ordinary family in an ordinary city — then no more than a large town — while struggling with the doubts and anxieties which came with middle-age to an already troubled mind.

It's with readers now, the cover's being designed, so I should have it up on Kindle by the end of October and paperbacks available to New Zealand readers by the middle of November.  Email me now to reserve an early copy. 

Another nice review.

Just saw another five-star review on Amazon for The Fine Art of Kindness

Charming Novel 
This is a charming and endearing novel that you will be delighted to read.
Although set in a small town in New Zealand the themes in this story are universal. It touches on social issues in a thought provoking but tender manner.
The relationship between the two elderly characters, as it develops is lovely.

'The Fine Art of Kindness' gets its first Amazon review. And it's a FIVE-STAR.

The Fine Art of Kindness

I sold my first copy of The Fine Art of Kindness at Parnell market yesterday and I told the buyer that  although he wasn't the first reader he was definitely the first sale.  Anyway, he  emailed me today to tell me how much he had  enjoyed the book -- he had read it in one sitting -- and that he had reviewed it on Amazon. 

His five-star review follows:

A thoughtful tale, well told. You will be entertained and richer for the experience. Don't miss it!

A touching story of 2 older folks reunited after 70 odd years and their time together, until one passes. Robert has done an excellent job of introducing us to the characters and unraveling their secrets over 234 pages. Having met the author I was surprised at the depth of his perception of the character of the subjects. A little challenging at first but the story evolved quickly into a chance encounter which for Jack carried many past memories of kindness and comfort. For a little boy who had a rough upbringing. He briefly experienced a world more nurturing than his own and this had a profound influence on his life's path and the impact of the meeting in later life. The character Betty in contrast experienced huge wealth and poverty in her life, latterly influenced by a medical event early in her married life. This drove her to become what she became and do what she did. Without people like Betty in our world, we would all be that much poorer. Her contributions both financially and physically to children's hospitals and her community were astounding, when you consider the heights her life experienced. While this is a work of fiction one cannot help but wonder if there really was a Betty out there. Judging by the contributors to this narrative it seems our lives are blessed with people like Betty, large of heart and small of profile. Robert has done an excellent job of drawing the reader into a "slice of life" story and telling us who the characters were. He makes us all, perhaps, look at our lives in a different way. An entertaining read. I completed the whole story in one sitting. Fascinated with who these people were and what was coming next. I have no hesitation in recommending the book and its author to all thoughtful readers.

Amazon is now stocking 'The Fine Art of Kindness' for sale anywhere in the world.

Yes. The Fine Art of Kindness is now available here from both Amazon and Kindle.   

FREE HOLIDAY READING FOR YOUR KINDLE

To mark the holiday season, when people like to kick back and enjoy a good read, I'm making Kindle copies of four of my books available FREE to the first twenty people who email me with their choice. I have written and published ten books four of which are available from Amazon (paperback and Kindle). Choose one of these four from my website, email me your choice, and I'll send you a Kindle download voucher by return email. Sorry but I have to limit it to the first twenty (20) responses.

A lovely coincidence

On Saturday, at the Mt Eden Craft Market, I sold a copy of The Boltons of The Little Boltons to a dear lady who bought it because she 'got married in St Mary The Boltons in 1971'. The Boltons is the posh street in Kensington, next to The Little Boltons, and we could see the spire of St Mary The Boltons from our bedroom window. 

A couple of relevant extracts from The Boltons of The Little Boltons follow: 

"The Boltons, running parallel to The Little Boltons, was one of the most elegant avenues of the record reign. Its houses were mansions, on land more generous than the properties in The Little Boltons, with driveways and stables and detached cottages for servants set in spacious gardens. At one end, in the measured middle of its width and within a courtly iron-fenced ellipse, stood Saint Mary The Boltons, the little church whose grey spire we could see from our top-floor room across the ways. There was a chipped and faded sign wired to the church’s black iron fence. This fence was a relatively recent replacement for the original which was removed during the war by churchly patriots as a contribution to the country’s drive for metal. Who knows into what great machine, armament, ordnance, ship, aeroplane, weapon or missile went that iron in the cause of war? And did anyone care, I wonder, that church materials were used for such an awful purpose?

"There was only one window, much smaller than those on the other floors, but it looked down over the back garden — the same garden I had been looking at from the ground floor — from a great height providing a long view across the neighbouring gardens, through a forest of leafless trees, to the sharp needle steeple of Saint Mary The Boltons. I paused there: it was a beautiful and tranquil scene. Beside the window stood a porcelain sink, with old brass taps and exposed plumbing below. But the room was spacious and yet had an intimate and friendly atmosphere, quite different from the other rooms in the house; I felt comfortable in it at once. 

"This was the time, too, when I most appreciated our high position looking out over the garden, and those adjacent, to The Boltons beyond. Although at ground level the garden walls were high, they appeared insignificant from our great height. By ignoring them it was easy to imagine being in the country, looking across and through a lightly wooded coppice to a street of houses in a sleepy but prosperous village. The effect was heightened by the sharp needle of Saint Mary The Boltons which pierced the leafiness of the tall horse chestnuts; on hot still days it looked like a pretty picture of Nutwood from a Rupert Bear book."

The Boltons of The Little Boltons is available on my website here. It's also available from Amazon and Kindle. 

Another 5-star review from an Amazon reader. This time for 'My Marian Year'.

Just noticed that an Amazon reader has given a five-star review to My Marian Year. Read it here.

To The White Gate now has THREE five-star reviews on Amazon

Two recent reviews on Amazon have given To The White Gate five stars. A wonderful achievement. That's three five-star reviews for this book. 

The most recent (by 'Shake') on 6 August:

The White Gate, by Robert Philip Bolton, is a gorgeous, saga-like story of one man's grasp on life, growing up and living in Aotearoa (Maori for NEW ZEALAND). Unlike many books about this country which star the country itself, this rich and beautifully told story relies on its finely crafted dialogue and narrative to describe the characters and the locality to such an extent the reader does not want to leave that locality even for 'incidental' happenings such as WW2, so fine is the narrative.

Bolton describes himself as a life long writer. This he ably proves by writing simply and directly, the story of one man growing from childhood to old age, disappointment in love, going to war but having not a clue where or why, just going with the flow; finally, becoming a true fit for his learning, his feelings and his opinions.

But the novel does not meander. With page one the reader is in the safe hands of a master story teller who wastes no words on schmaltz or over-writing emotion. Instead Bolton convinces you of the truth of his writing by making his superbly formed characters achingly real. You want to keep turning the pages of the White Gate not just to see what is next, but because that is what the characters insist that you do. The dialogue and languageing are superb.

This book about Aotearoa, although written with a definite 'national' perspective, exists happily on the international stage of good writing, good characters and superb narrative. An excellent Book Club choice. Strongly recommended.

This one (by 'SusanKL') was posted on 9 June:

Beautifully written, emotionally evocative...lyrical and strong. Felt transported back to the time period; loved getting a taste of life back then, down under. Loved returning to the book every time I put it down; can't recommend it highly enough.

These come after the first (from 'MaxDance') on 6 January: 

This is a great read!

This book takes the form of an elderly man’s recollections, starting with his early teenage years during the 1930s in Auckland, New Zealand.

With a beautiful and expansive public Park, described in exquisite detail, as the anchor or central hub the story gently unfolds through to the turn of the century. There are many observations of the changing nature of life in New Zealand during that period of time and, as an ancient New Zealander myself; I recognised many of them instantly.

Tommy leaves school to work in the Park plant nursery and grows into an intuitive man who is only really content when close to nature in his beloved park. Over the years he befriends a generous mix of flamboyant individuals who mostly have impressive artistic talents. He learns much from them (particularly from one mysterious wee fellow) and the development of knowledge and wisdom that sometimes comes with experience and advancing years is well portrayed.

And the ubiquitous White Gate plays its part with increasing regularity and clarity.Yes, a good well researched book with great attention to detail and many examples of human nature at play in the small group of islands known locally as Aotearoa.

Highly recommended.

'Underneath The Arclight' now available.

My new novel, Underneath The Arclight, is finished and now available on my website as well as at Amazon and Kindle. I'll be emailing my readers within the next few days with a special introductory price offer.  

'The Fine Art of Kindness' is now available internationally from Amazon and Kindle.

My first little announcement on my new blog.

My new book The Fine Art of Kindness is now available internationally from Amazon and Kindle.

The New Zealand paperback version will be available in a week or so and can be ordered in advance from my website here:

It's too early for any reviews but my wife thinks it's the best and nicest thing I've ever written. Isn't she kind.

'To The White Gate' and 'The Boltons of The Little Boltons' now available from Amazon

It took a bit of effort but both To The White Gate and The Boltons of The Little Boltons are available direct from Amazon for sale and shipping anywhere in the world.