Hold the Line: The Springbok tour of '81, a family, a love affair, a nation at war

(Paperback)

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Description

It's 1981 and New Zealand is about to host the Springboks from apartheid South Africa for a national rugby tour. The well-supported protest movement pitches against a nation of die-hard rugby supporters. Despite growing public protest, the Government and Rugby Union are adamant the tour will proceed. Beth returns from London. Her World War 2 veteran father is a rugby fanatic, her brother becomes a protestor embroiled in street violence. She studies law and meets Viktor who, unknown to her, is a member of the notorious Police Red Squad. What will happen to their polarised relationship in a country where the very survival of civil order is at risk In this fast-paced novel, the nuances and tensions of the infamous 1981 Springbok Tour are probed and laid bare.

Reviews

Forty years after the event, the 1981 Springbok tour has received all too little scrutiny in our fiction. Kerry Harrison takes this nation-defining event and brings it to electric life on the page. She defeats expectations with narrative choices that are frequently surprising and a style that propels the action with an almost majestic sense of inevitability. (Review by Paul Little, journalist, publisher and former editor of NZ Listener)

Author Bio

Auckland based, although she grew up in Wellington, Kerry is a graduate of the Masters of Creative Writing programme at AUT and has taught English and drama for many years. She's had poetry and a number of short stories published in literary magazines, several in Landfall. Kerry has been a semi-finalist in the Sunday Star Short Story Competition. Her novel, Wahine was published in 2011. Married, with three children and several grandchildren, her interests are gardening, writing, swimming, politics and the environment. She was involved in the 1981 Springbok Tour and, like most New Zealanders at the time, had friends on both sides. In researching for the novel, she realised the lasting impact the Tour had on New Zealand society and the awareness of racism.