The extraordinary memoir of an Italian-Chinese New Zealander is full of misery, miserliness and affairs. She arrived by flying boat in a land where houses smelled like mutton and cauliflower and women dressed badly.
At the age of 86, Meme Churton is still beautiful and exotic. Photo / Brett Phibbs
At the age of 86, Meme Churton is still beautiful and exotic. Photo / Brett Phibbs

On Wednesday morning, Meme Churton came to the door of her Mission Bay townhouse impeccably made up, exquisitely groomed and accessorised from head-to-elegantly clad toes. She is 86 and still beautiful.
She has always been beautiful, and exotic. She is half-Italian and half-Chinese and has lived, on and off, in New Zealand since the day she arrived here, by flying boat, at Evans Bay in Wellington, on December 21, 1950.
Read Michele Hewitson's intervew at the New Zealand Herald