In Conversation - David Hastings and Iain Sharp

I N   C O N V E R S A T I O N DAVID HASTINGS AND IAIN SHARP ‘Dreadful murder at Opunake’ said the Taranaki Herald in November 1880 when a young woman called Mary Dobie was found lying under a flax bush on the Taranaki coast with her throat cut.   David Hastings will talk with Iain Sharp about his book The Many Deaths of Mary Dobie which is a murder story, starting as a whodunit then becomes a whydunit.  It takes the reader back to the social and political tensions before the invasion of Parihaka in 1881: Pākehā feared it was an act of political terrorism, Māori thought it would be the cue for the state to use force against them.   David Hastings is a former editor of the Weekend Herald. He wrote Over the Mountains of the Sea: Life on the Migrant Ships, 1870–1885 and Extra! Extra! How the People Made the News. In his day job Iain Sharp is a manuscripts librarian in the Sir George Grey Special Collections at Auckland Library. He is well known as a reviewer, writer and poet. SUNDAY 28 AUGUST From 3pm Entry by koha ($5) KERR STREET ARTSPACE Kerr Street at the foot of Takarunga Mt Victoria Devonpoort RSVP appreciated P: 09 445 8451 administrator@writerscentre.org.nz