Well, the Chocolate Fish Sessions are proving to be a hit with young and old as they say. We think it’s such a brilliant idea, we’re going to try and do a regular spot for them every Monday letting you know what’s on for this week (it’s always going to be a Wednesday, 7-9pm at Jubilee Hall, 545 Parnell Road, Auckland, $10 door sales only includes a glass of vino and nibbles).

Now then, this Wednesday we have Susan Jacobs, who spent nine years studying Italian and teaching English in rural Umbria and Tuscany during the 1970s and 80s, has a PhD in Italian from the University of Auckland, and currently lives in Auckland with her partner and four daughters. She will be discussing her first book, Fighting With the Enemy.

It’s the story of around 450 New Zealand POWs who were interred in Italy in the Second World War, and of the incredibly brave Italian Resistance partisans, together with ordinary Italian families, who helped them escape. My Grandad was one of them – not a Kiwi, but English, and he ended up walking over the Italian Alps in the middle of winter, virtually all the way back to Yorkshire.

That fact, together with a recent DVD we saw, Monsieur Batignole (see the ‘current consumption’ column on the right, scroll down) will make me a keen punter this week with the Chockie Fish team. Watch this space for next Monday’s instalment.