Huia Publishers are in the spotlight this week. They are launching what looks like a spectacular book – Showband! Mahora and the Maori Volcanics. The press release yesterday says ‘if you like your Maori culture in a cocktail glass, then this is going to be your kind of book!’ (LP, right, available from Real Groovy).

It’s a joyous history of the showband era as told by Mahora Peters (only female band member) with James George (award-winning Maori writer). Mahora was with the Maori Volcanics band during its forty-year career and saw many famous Maori entertainers come and go, including Prince Tui Teka and Billy T James. The band endured and was an international success, ‘from Whakapara to Japan to Las Vegas’.

Showband! is a hardcover, annual-style book with lots of photographs and even a bonus CD. It should be in the shops towards the end of the month - a snip at $59.95. My dad would have loved this …

Meanwhile Huia haven’t had the chance for a knees-up launch party yet as they’ve been organising the Maori Writers Festival which starts tomorrow in Wellington.

Kelly Ana Morey and Hinemoana Baker will appear as part of this year's Festival at Te Herenga Waka Marae on Kelburn Parade at 12.30 pm, this Friday 30 September. Other Maori Writers Festival events include 'Speed Dating with the Writers', 'Maori on the Web' and 'Beyond the Piu Piu and Poi', a look at Maori characters in film. If you can’t download a programme (as a pdf on the Huia website), get one from the New Zealand Book Council or in locations around town.