Waimarino County and Other Excursions
By (Author) Martin Edmond
Auckland University Press
Auckland University Press
1st July 2007
New Zealand
General
Non Fiction
828
Short-listed for Montana New Zealand Book Awards: Biography Category 2008
Paperback
208
A new work from a master prose stylist, this is a book of essays described as 'elegant discursions on themes of memory, words and travel'. Edmond has developed over four books now an idiosyncratic and utterly engaging way of writing that always draws on himself and his own often quite intimate experience. Yet his writing is never egotistical or self-absorbed; it turns outwards, to the past, to the landscape and the natural world, to other writers and artists, to journeys and distant places. Though held together by a single consciousness the book is divided into four sections, 'Autobiographies', mostly memories of a New Zealand childhood and adolescence, 'Meditations' on subjects ranging from the Rosetta Stone to the late Alan Brunton, 'Illusions', on dreams and visions, and 'Voices', a long essay on the mysterious identity of the writer. Waimarino County confirms the view that Martin Edmond is a major voice in our literature.
The collection is variously stimulating, challenging and, well, plain brilliant."" - New Zealand Books
Martin Edmond writes film scripts as well as works of non-fiction. All three of his previous books with AUP have been shortlisted for major awards and the most recent, Chronicle of the Unsung, won the 2005 national Book Award for Biography. His latest book Luca Antara: Passages in Search of Australia, called by J M Coetzee, 'a book-lover's book, a graceful and mesmerizing blend of history, autobiography, travel and romance.' was published in late 2006.