Skylark (35 page)

JENNY PATTRICK is a writer and former jeweller whose six published novels, including
The Denniston Rose
, its sequel
Heart of Coal
, the Whanganui novel
Landings
, and
Inheritance
, set in Samoa, have all been number one bestsellers in New Zealand. In 2009 she received the New Zealand Post Mansfield Fellowship. In 2011 she and husband, musician Laughton Pattrick, published the children’s book and CD of songs,
The Very Important Godwit
.

Also by Jenny Pattrick

The bleak coal-mining settlement of Denniston, isolated high on a plateau above New Zealand’s West Coast, is a place that makes or breaks those who live there. At the time of this novel — the 1880s — the only way to reach the makeshift collection of huts, tents and saloons is to climb aboard an empty coal-wagon to be hauled 2000 feet up the terrifyingly steep incline. All sorts arrive here to work the mines and bring out the coal: ex-goldminers down on their luck; others running from the law, or from a woman, or worse. They work alongside recruited English miners, solid and skilled, who scorn these disorganised misfits and want them off the Hill. Into this chaotic community come five-year-old Rose and her mother, riding up the Incline, at night, during a storm. No one knows what has driven them there, but most agree the mother must be desperate to choose Denniston; worse, to choose that drunkard Jimmy Cork as bedfellow. The indomitable Rose is left to fend for herself, struggling to secure a place in this tough and often aggressive community.

Eighteen years have passed since the child Rose arrived on Denniston, riding up the terrifying incline on a stormy night. She has now grown into a young woman, intelligent and talented, with an outrageous zest for life. The trauma of her early years seems forgotten, though some recognise its shadow in her often unconventional behaviour. Rose is expected to marry her childhood friend the golden Michael Hanratty, but when dark and stubborn Brennan Scobie arrives back on the hill after a seven-year absence, a challenge is inevitable. At the turn of the century Denniston is still isolated, but all that is about to change. New challenges will confront both Rose and this close-knit society.

On the run from an unfortunate ‘indiscretion’, young Conrad Rasmussen finds refuge in the North Island of New Zealand under the employ of the famous (or notorious) Dane, Bishop Monrad. However, Conrad — a talented and impetuous Faroeman — finds he cannot escape his past. This is Conrad’s story, and that of the unusual woman Anahuia. It is a tale of new lands and old songs, of seafaring and war and the search for love. It is also the story of the Faroe Islands and of Denmark’s early connection with New Zealand. In
Catching the Current
the free spirit is pitted against the forces of tradition.

The Whanganui River at the turn of the twentieth century is a busy thoroughfare, taking sightseers through the spectacular landscape by paddle steamer and acting as highway for the sparse scatterings of settlements along its twisting length. The people who have made it their home are a diverse collection, from Samuel Blencoe, trying to forget his past life as a convict, to the hoteliers at Pipiriki, the nuns at Jerusalem, the Maori families, the Chinese market gardener and the farmers, like Danny and Stella, trying to tame the wild bush. There’s also Bridie, the strange, silent girl, who haunts the banks of the river where the accident occurred that robbed her of her mind. Like the tributaries that trickle down the mountains and join the mighty river, so the lives of these people come together in this vivid and moving tale of a stunningly unique place.

Elena catches a glimpse of her friend Jeanie Roper in a New Zealand art gallery. It is twenty-three years since Jeanie suddenly disappeared. They had been close when Jeanie lived in Samoa with her bullying husband and gentle father. But why is Jeanie hiding her identity? Elena is intrigued to discover Jeanie has a daughter who is unaware of her Samoan ancestry. There are family secrets here — possibly dangerous ones — that Elena is determined to uncover.
Inheritance
is a novel of contrasts: the tropical beauty and exuberance of Samoa in the 1960s; and the dark violence that arises from the conflict between truthfulness and love.

This tender and amusing novel is set in the nineties, with the Springbok tour still a recent memory, and as the country debates whether to change its voting system. Letter-writing is about to give way to email but elderly Grace will resist the trend. Through letters and stories, we learn of her friendships, the interactions of the argumentative bowling club, her growing attraction to and relationship with Max, and the jealousy this engenders in her closest friend, Mildred. As the story unfolds, Grace faces new challenges: the problems of younger people invade her solitary life. Grace touches the lives of many with her warmth, her feistiness, her intelligence and her frailty.