Peter Wells, the writer and filmmaker, has inadvertently but neatly summed up what LeafSalon is all about:

I was in a bookshop recently trying to locate a New Zealand novel. The assistant, failing to find it in the New Zealand section, went to look for it in what she called “normal” fiction. This is a neat encapsulation of the position of New Zealand fiction in its own country.

Local fiction has a small and dedicated band of followers, but for most people the quintessential New Zealand writer is still Barry Crump, or his contemporary relation, Alan Duff. Janet Frame could be called Crump's fairy, slightly dotty, godmother. But for most New Zealanders, the New Zealand novel is still an uninspected motel, somewhat guiltily driven past on the way to more glittering diversions.

LeafSalon is a direction-finder to Wells’ uninspected motels, for there are many hidden gems in our countryside.

Peter Wells :: New Zealand Herald :: 16 November 2003