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. 

Why don't all schools know this about music?

Last week Scots College’s director of music Andrew Stopps warned that a focus on maths and science — at schools and universities — is sapping talent from the humanities. He said that music was always put up against a second science subject and he had a hard time convincing parents that music wouldn't harm their kids' chances at university. 

Evidently he received support from professors at the country’s medical schools and law schools including Auckland University’s Professor John Fraser who said that some of the most successful and skilled doctors he knew had continued their musical interests. They all spoke passionately about how arts helped with the constant pressures of practising medicine.

‘To be able to tell your interviewers when applying for medical entry that you are a skilled musician does no harm at all,’ he said. 

He didn't go far enough 

In my opinion he should have gone further: being a musician — skilled or otherwise — should actually help you in your interview. Here’s why:

It is acknowledged by educationalists around the world that learning a musical instrument, and learning the musical theory that goes with it, dramatically enhances a student’s ability to learn in all subjects. No one knows  exactly why but the guess is that musical theory is unique enough to open new neural pathways in the brain while learning an instrument involves linking music on paper with physical coordination and dexterity: no other subject combines mind and body in the same way. 

The fact is learning music and an instrument (but not just listening to music) actually reshapes the brain.  

For example see this and this.  

Personal experience   

The only reason I’m writing about this now is that I have some personal experience. As well as being a  writer I am also a musician and a music lover. As a music lover I wrote a short book based on Modest Mussorgsky’s suite, Pictures at  an Exhibition (see For Viktor.)  
Writing For Viktor led to my meeting  and friendship with Maestro Ashkenazy
This little book came to the attention of the famous Russian pianist and conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy — incidentally a famous interpreter and arranger of Mussorgsky’s original music — who wrote a wonderful letter endorsing my book as a powerful educational tool.

His letter includes the following and quite remarkable paragraph (bold emphasis is mine):  

‘I know of numerous examples of how children react being exposed to well presented lessons based on this kind of music and the results are absolutely astounding; apart from the fact that as they grow up they almost never abandon their affection for the serious music, they perform much better in all other subjects of their curriculum than those children who were not exposed to the same musical appreciation program. I know first hand of these examples in many countries - from the U.K. to Russia - having been a part of such programs.

 

(You can read the whole letter on my website here.) 

Now why don't all schools know this about music? 

My Name

Bit of stink last week because the minister of education, Hekia Parata, accused school teachers of mispronouncing the names of their Maori and Polynesian students. And the teachers didn't like it.

Fancy that: teachers didn't like being told off by someone in authority. Thought they were being patronized.

Interesting that I met a Maori man, long ago, who told me how he had to change his name in primary school because his teacher said she couldn't pronounce it. I turned that into a short story and included it in my book Nana's Special day and other stories.

Email me and I'll send you a PDF copy of that story.  

The story behind 'The Tapu Garden of Eden'

I am often asked about the inspiration for The Tapu Garden of Eden. In fact the story came to me complete and in an instant. Here’s how it happened: 

One day in 1970 I visited my grandmother, who lived in Sandringham, and saw that she had a old tin-framed sepia portrait of a handsome Golden Labrador on her kitchen wall. Where did it come from? Why was it there?

Well, for many years, for as far back as I could remember as a child, she had had a rather eccentric old man for a neighbour. His name was Mr Hogard — that’s what she always called him — and he was Danish. He was tall and thin with long white hair, a long white beard and bright blue  eyes. He lived alone in a tiny one-room cottage set in one corner of his quarter-acre section. The front third or so of the rest of the land was set aside as an orchard while the back was dedicated to a vegetable garden carefully laid out like a mini market garden. It was a very productive vegetable garden, on beautiful volcanic land, that produced more fresh and beautiful fruit and vegetables than one old man could ever eat. So he gave away most of his produce and my grandparents were frequent beneficiaries of his generosity.

But back to the dog photo: Mr Hogard died; his cottage was to be demolished and his orchard and garden uprooted by his heirs to make way for a new full-sized house. (Now, though, the whole section is occupied by an ugly block of flats.) Feeling sad about her lovely old neighbour’s death my dear, kind grandmother made a final visit to the cottage late one afternoon, when there was no one there, and found the old framed photo lying undamaged on the floor amongst all the debris of the demolition. She hadn’t seen the photo before — had never in fact been inside Mr Hogard’s cottage — but she sensed that the dog must have been important to the old man and so saved it from being lost forever.

When my grandmother died I took the picture from her kitchen wall— nobody else in the family knew the story — and it has hung above my desk ever since.

The story of The Tapu Garden of Eden came to me in a flash but it needed writing out in full. The Danish Mr Hogard was my model for  the Norwegian Olav Kirsten, my grandmother the model for Mrs Wihongi and of course the unknown but handsome Golden Labrador dog became Brian, Olav’s beloved Black Labrador. 

I once had two publishers interested in The Tapu Garden of Eden but eventually they both rejected it. And so I published it myself in 2006 and continue to receive wonderful feedback from readers all over New Zealand.   

A trip to Ngaruawahia High School

Following such a special success at Tokoroa High School in May I was invited in August to talk to senior English students at Ngaruawahia High School about The Tapu Garden of Eden. It's always a privilege and a buzz to talk to real readers of my books and get first-hand feedback.  

Tokoroa teens love 'The Tapu Garden of Eden'

Last month (May 2009) I was invited by the English master at Tokoroa High School to talk to his students about The Tapu Garden of Eden which they had been studying. What a privilege it was to be able to see and hear how moved the students were by my story. They really loved it.

The local paper even printed a story about  the visit. Here's part of what it said under the headline NZ novelist visits Tokoroa High.

'New Zealand novelist Robert Bolton visited Tokoroa High School earlier this month.

Teacher Keinan Ngapo said the students had recently studied Mr Bolton's novel 'The Tapu Garden of Eden' and it touched on many aspects of culture and loss of identity and the effect that the land can have on a person.' 

The impact and motivation of Mr Bolton's speech and workshop illustrated to the students that literacy is crucial. Mr Ngapo said Mr Bolton provided a fantastic workshop and the students really gained great insight from his presentation. The students had earlier welcomed Mr Bolton with a powhiri, giving him a taste of Tokoroa.