Press release:

Published by Bridget Williams Books, The Dreaming Land is a frank and lyrical evocation of a childhood and adolescence spent in rural New Zealand in the 1950s and 60s, richly coloured with details that resonate across generations.

Martin Edmond’s early life was shaped by his schoolteacher father’s developing career and the moves it dictated: from Ohakune, to Greytown, to Huntly, to Heretaunga. The Dreaming Land depicts a slice of New Zealand history from a very personal perspective. Edmond documents the people, places and events that made lasting impressions on him over the course of this peripatetic upbringing. He charts too his mental landscape – a terrain marked by curiosity, empathy and acute observation.

Coming from one of New Zealand’s finest writers, The Dreaming Land makes a significant contribution to the New Zealand literary canon. It adds not only to the extensive body of Edmond’s own work (in art criticism, biography, essays and screenplays) but also to the catalogue of prose writing about people and place in New Zealand.

Martin Edmond’s writing has been recognised by the Michael King Fellowship and the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement (Non-fiction, 2013); other awards include 3rd prize at the 1993 Goodman Fielder Wattie Book Awards for The Autobiography of my Father, and the Biography Award at the 2005 Montana New Zealand Book Awards for Chronicle of the Unsung.

Martin Edmond will be in New Zealand between 14 and 26 October to speak at launch events for The Dreaming Land and to receive the Michael King Fellowship. He is available for interviews throughout this time.

Launch events

WELLINGTON
Thursday 15 October, 6pm
Unity Books
57 Willis Street

AUCKLAND
Tuesday 20 October, 5:30pm
Central City Library
44-46 Lorne Street

Both launch events for The Dreaming Land will feature a reading by Martin Edmond