Sophie Gee

But New Zealand is really out of left field.

And this is one of the things that gives Nayo Marsh her distinctive voice.

Very stylish, Jonty.

Very nicely done.

No spoilers there.

So I think let's kick it off with a reading.

And I'm curious to see what you've picked for this one, because there's a few key passages that I think we'll get to covering off all our characters, the New Zealand landscape, Indigenous resistance and colonialism.

So this is the one that you've chosen as our sort of sample text for

Everyone had stopped talking.

Alan, in the sudden silence, received a curious impression of eager, dimly lit faces that peered, of a beautiful woman standing with one arm raised, holding the scissors as a lovely atropos might hold aloft her shears, of a fat, white, waistcoated man like a blampied caricature bent over the table, and of a red cord that vanished upwards into the dark.

Suddenly, he felt intolerably oppressed, aware of a suspense out of all proportion to the moment.

So strong was this impression that he half rose from his chair.

But at that moment, Carolyn cut through the cord.

Something enormous that flashed down among them, jolting the table.

Valerie gained screaming, broken glass and the smell of champagne.

Champagne flowing over the white cloth, a thing like an enormous billiard ball embedded in the fern, red in the champagne, and Valerie Gaines screaming, screaming.

Carolyn, her arms still raised, looking down.

Himself, his voice, telling them to go away, telling Hambledon to take Carolyn away, take her away, take her away.

And Hambledon, come away, Carolyn, come away.

Mason got to his feet and came down to the centre of the table.