The WORD book festival is back in Christchurch with a royal twist.
In a New Zealand exclusive, organisers will beam in the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, from her home in Windsor.
The duchess - who was previously married to Prince Andrew - will talk about the new romance novel based on her story and that of her ancestor.
The book was reportedly inspired by Ferguson s great-great-aunt, Lady Margaret Montagu Douglas Scott, but also draws parallels from her own experiences.
With an array of events to challenge, excite and entertain the city, the festival will arrive in late August.
Programme co-directors Nic Low (Ngāi Tahu) and Rachael King have worked together to create a schedule of more than 80 events featuring over 150 speakers and performers.
Non-fiction reviews: Brave New Humans and other titles smh.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from smh.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
JO MCKENZIE-MCLEAN/STUFF
Kyle and Marion Mewburn discuss life in Central Otago after Kyle came out as a woman. (Video first published January 2019)
The conversation began innocently – a familiar face from the pub stretched his arm around the newly-transitioned Kyle Mewburn and told her she looked “f.ing gorgeous.” But the arm remained an uncomfortably long time and the drunk speaker began pouring brutal details of a grim childhood into Mewburn’s ear, followed by unsolicited and unwanted compliments of her body parts. Mewburn sat in stunned silence as the man grew increasingly aggressive, eventually threatening explicit sexual interventions. His parting words were that he would visit Mewburn’s house one day “and I’m not going home”.
by Chris O Connor Faking It: My Life In Transition – A Memoir Book Review Chris O Connor Writing
5
Hope-full
I’m not entirely sure where to start. Kyle Mewburn is quite a fascinating person. Her journey from Queensland suburbia to the picturesque landscapes of New Zealand by way of… well, the world is a captivating read equal parts sad and hopeful.
Biographies can be a mixed bag at the best of times, but occasionally you come across one that is so unabashedly honest and raw that you feel like you’ve been granted access to someone’s soul and it has the power to touch you more deeply than you expect. In Faking it: My Life In Transition, Kyle doesn’t cover anything up… there are moments where she states quite matter of factly that she behaved in an unpleasant way, there’s no hiding the downs to suggest that she was always in the right or that things were easy… quite the opposite.