This Town & other writings is a miscellany of stories, both fiction and non-fiction, and a few poems written by fourteen members of the Feilding Writers’ Group. I started reading it during a short-haul flight, from Auckland to Wellington, and finished it that evening. It was a quick, relaxing and very enjoyable read!
This Town & other writings is called after a macabre brief thriller named This Town by Sue Bakker. Hers is the first story in the book. In the pieces of work which follow the mood changes from spooky to humorous, heart-breaking, romantic, nostalgic, mysterious, and touching.
Some of the authors have been widely published elsewhere, for others it is the first time they will have seen their stories or poems in print. It mirrors the inclusive nature of the Feilding Writers’ Group. Both experienced and beginner writers are welcome to join in, to gain inspiration and constructive feedback and to grow their writing talent.
Being a romantic at heart I was drawn to Gary Dell’s How Far Would You Go for the One you Love, a touching story in which he has reimagined how his great grandfather Sydney swam every day across the Whanganui River to court his great grandmother Alice.
But there are also some despicable males in this book. In Rachel Dore’s poem Men My Age her companion tells her she’d be the perfect woman for him if only she were beautiful and thirty years younger! She responds with:
He says that!
He says that,
and he’s sitting there with a face like a smashed typewriter!
My Driving Test: by Maxine Millar is a hilarious account of how she borrowed her friend John’s five- tonne truck, an old wreck which despite its current warrant of fitness was far from road worthy, in an attempt to gain her Heavy Trade License.
In Felicity Logan’s short story Last Rites, a woman who develops a strange obsession for attending funerals of random males who are aged over 50 eventually makes a very disturbing discovery.
Patricia Dunmore’s The Cat Lady is a heartwarming story about an eccentric cat lady and a young boy, and what happens to her hordes of vagrant cats when she dies.
In all there are 49 short stories and poems to choose from in This Town & other writings. So, it is a great book to dip into at any time of the day when you have just a little time to yourself. It’s a very engaging and relaxing read.
Reviewer: Lyn Potter
Heritage Press