Another fantastic Wellington lunch time event with Dame Fiona Kidman tomorrow timed for the release of her new historical novel The Captive Wife. Dame Fiona will be talking to Barbara Else – two top shelf writers indeed.

The book is based on a true story of the wife of a whaler who was kidnapped, with her two children, by a wild bunch of Taranaki Maori in 1834. There were questions asked after her rescue regarding how her relationship developed with the chief. The book is also apparently a great portrait also of the sexual politics of the time, which as we know from Slow Water were often not all as they seemed.

The New Zealand Portrait Gallery, together with the NZ Book Council, (to whom we are, as ever, hugely indebted for their in-depth biographies of writers) are your hosts from 1pm–2pm on Thursday 1 September 2005 at Shed 11, Queen’s Wharf, Wellington. It’s free, but if you have a group going, email events@bookcouncil.org.nz so they put enough chairs out.