I did not set out to write The Forgotten Coast. The book began as a story about two men – my father, Bob, and a great-uncle, Dick, who studied at the Irish Pontifical College in Rome and was ordained a priest at the age of 22 – but became about something much bigger than either of them. The story contains many characters: armed constables, stroppy Irish matriarchs, academic prodigies who were also good boxers, and a quiet man who grew up in an orphanage in Masterton. Mostly, though, it is about parts of a settler-colonial family’s history that were quietly forgotten, how I benefitted from the silence, and what I think might be gained by ending that selective historical amnesia.

If you’d like to learn more about the book and to read reviews written by Rachel Buchanan, Paul Diamond, David Hill, and others, please visit the publisher's website.