Some more reader feedback for 'My Marian Year'

My Marian Year keeps making friends. 
I received this email yesterday which contains typical reader sentiments. 

Hi Robert

I have just read “My Marian Year” and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was not sure if it was an auto-biography or a novel based on your life, or just a novel, but nevertheless I related to everything. Although older than you and a child of the war years, I could relate to all of what you wrote – even the small details like wrapping kitchen waste in newspaper and placing it in the steel rubbish bin.

I also enjoyed the tussle with the church. Living near St Michaels as a child it brought things home to me. I think we were a more affluent family than Johnny Boy as we had a car and even a beach house. However we were not allowed to fall in love with Catholics, even though at dancing class they were the prettiest girls with their black hair and a touch of the Irish. The reason we had to avoid them was because of the then discipline of the Catholic Church – fish on Fridays, the rosary, grace before meals, Mass every Sunday, confession etc. We therefore had to go to the more relaxed St Marks.

Where I lived it was a big neighbourhood with a big gully to play in. The war years meant an air raid shelter where boys smoked, and where there was a horse, sheep, bush tracks and huts and even the occasional unashamed nudity. I wrote a novel about it which is on Kindle and trickles out. It was called “The Par  Rem Kids.” It has not the detail of your book though. It just touches on the times. Your book retains the times for posterity.

The other books I have written are based on ruraldom. I ended up a farmer for many years with a tourist side to it and wrote for magazines from time to time among other things.

My older brother also enjoyed your book. He said it brought back his childhood very pleasantly.

Regards

Stuart Chambers

A nice afternoon at Point Chevalier Library

Many thanks to Cristen and Ruth and the team at the Point Chevalier library, and the great turn out of people for my author's talk about 'My Marian Year' and my other books at the library yesterday (Saturday) afternoon. I enjoyed it very much. 

My Marian Year to feature in my library talk at Point Chevalier library, from two o'clock on Saturday 15 September, 2018

From the Auckland Libraries website...

Free PDF previews for downloading

PDF previews of seven of my books are now available for download from my website . 
I haven't provided previews of my short stories --what would be he point? -- but I'll do For Viktor next. 

Go HERE for a downloadable PDF preview of The Fine Art of Kindness 
Go HERE for a downloadable PDF preview of Underneath the Arclight 
Go HERE for a downloadable PDF preview of To the White Gate
Go HERE for a downloadable PDF preview of Six Murders? 
Go HERE for a downloadable PDF preview of My Marian Year
Go HERE for a downloadable PDF preview of The Tapu Garden of Eden 

Go HERE for a downloadable PDF preview of The Boltons of The Little Boltons

Library events

As Six Murders? is entered in the 2018 Ngaio Marsh New Zealand crime fiction awards I've been invited to one of the 'Murder in the library' events which the awards organize around the country. I've never  doe one of these before -- or even attended one -- so I'm not sure exactly what to expect but, whatever else, it should be interesting.
So, I'm booked at Takapuna Library on the evening of Wednesday April 11.

Meanwhile Point Chevalier library wants me to do an author talk about My Marian Year. The date is somewhat distant -- 15 September -- so more news here when I know more details.
  

My Marian Year': Wonderful feedback from an Australian reader: '...one of the best books I have read in my life...'

I receive a lot of feedback about my books but My Marian Year generates more than most.

And today I received a wonderful message from an Australian reader which I am happy to reproduce here in full. It reads:

‘I just want to let you know how much I have enjoyed your book ‘My Marian Year’. It was on my son-in-law’s bedside table and I just picked it up thinking it would be a light read, perhaps not so interesting as I do not know a lot about New Zealand's past, but what a treasure trove of memories I found! Although not raised in a Catholic school I converted and taught in Catholic schools for many years. The stories of the sisters were so real as was the devotion of so many parents - so intense. So many rules!! I loved the games the children played, jacks, chasie and French cricket. I loved the Rawleighs man (one used to visit us on the farm). I loved the visits to the city and the cinemas. It was like a repeat of my life. Perhaps saddest yet loveliest story was of your mum and dad’s marriage and working so hard to make it work after having spent so many years apart and becoming such different people, yet obviously creating a magical life for you! I cannot explain how I felt about the Epilogue. Tears of joy and sadness, such beautiful words, so beautifully expressed. I think I have just completed one of the best books I have read in my life and I am an insatiable reader. Thank you so much.'
With much respect.
Jackie 

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.

A truly amazing coincidence

My book My Marian Year is about growing up in Auckland in 1954. The photo on the cover was taken by Graham Stewart who was a tram enthusiast and a staff photographer on the New Zealand Herald. I found the photo in one of his wonderful books called Around Auckland by Tram in the 1950s and used it with his permission. The tram in the photo -- tram number 221 -- was standing at the Three Lamps terminus at the end of Ponsonby Road one Sunday morning in the early 'fifties. 

Just the other day I received the following email from Lorna Hambleton, a friend who lives in the Waikato: 

"I have just taken a look at your website and I noticed that the front cover of your book ‘My Marian Year’ has a picture of a tram on it.  We happen to own a tram in the Te Puru Holiday Park (Thames Coast) which has been converted into a holiday home.  The number belonging to our tram is 221, the very same tram which is on the front cover of your book.  How co-incidental is that. Bryan’s grandparents were among the first families to purchase trams back in the 1950’s after they had been transported from Auckland to Thames for use as holiday homes. We believe at least 30 were relocated to the Te Puru Holiday Park (which was previously known as the Boomerang Motor Camp).  25 still remain.  My sister-in-law owned the grandparents tram until she sold it in 2007 and moved to Australia.  Bryan and I purchased our tram in 1995 and we holiday there frequently during the summer months."

A truly amazing coincidence. 

Nice to meet a keen reader

I was in the kitchen one Saturday morning last month, about to make a cup of tea, when I saw a man and a woman coming down the path. I didn't know them, I wasn't expecting anyone, and they looked suspiciously like they were selling something, probably a fringe or cult religion.

'What do you want?' I asked, somewhat impatiently I suppose, through the open window, not yet willing to go to the door.

'Are you Robert Bolton?' asked the man.

'Yes. What do you want?' A bit rude I suppose.

'Did you write the book My Marian Year?'

Now I was intrigued. I went to the  door and opened it.

It turns out this very nice man had read a copy of My Marian Year taken from the library in Whangarei, where he lives, and he liked it so much that he wanted to buy his own new copy.

'He absolutely loved that book,' said his wife. 'He really did.'

Of course he could have bought a copy online, or ordered a copy from any book shop, but he chose instead to track me down in Auckland all the way from Whangarei. Evidently it wasn't easy: we're in the phone book as 'Bob and Kath', and he didn't know the address, but eventually he found me in the electoral roll.

I signed his book and gave him a hefty discount for his trouble.

It was nice to meet such a keen reader.

My Marian Year is available online for $NZ22.00.