Week One
Official festival launch by former Prime Minister, Jim Bolger, followed by Jim Bolger in discussion with David Cohen, author of the new book of Bolger’s reminiscences titled Fridays with Jim: Conversations about our country.
For six months the pair sat down on Fridays to reflect on Bolger’s life and times, our nation and the world. Fridays with Jim reveals a quintessential Kiwi man who is fully in sync with New Zealand today.
Venue: Copthorne Solway Park Hotel
Time: 7pm
Price: $20 Adult / $10 Student (includes refreshments)
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Pūkaha National Wildlife Centre is the perfect backdrop for an event that delves deep into the meaning and wisdom of Māori whakataukī (proverbs).
Respected Māori psychiatrist Dr Hinemoa Elder explores what these whakataukī can teach us as told in her new book Aroha – Māori Wisdom for a Contented Life Lived in Harmony with our Planet.
Following the presentation, attendees are invited to spend time in the Pūkaha forest, connecting with nature and exploring the last remnant of Te Tapere nui ō Whatonga (The great domain of Whatonga) and its inhabitants.
All book sales in support of the Pūkaha Forest Restoration Project. Ticket price includes free entry into Pūkaha park following the talk.
Venue: Pūkaha National Wildlife Centre
Time: 11am (ticket price includes a free bus leaving Masterton at 10am from the Church St Bus Stop)
Price: $10
The Little Doctor Book Launch, the previously unpublished autobiography of Dr Guy Scholefield, author of the first NZ Dictionary of Biography.
Launched by Chris Szekely, Chief Librarian, Alexander Turnbull Library. Hosted by the Wairarapa Times Age in conjunction with Fraser Books.
Venue: Masterton District Library
Time: 3pm
Price: Free event
Rose Carlyle’s edge-of-your-seat, number one bestselling thriller The Girl in the Mirror is addictive, intoxicating and the kind of book you cancel plans for. Rose will speak in conversation with Lucy Cooper about what it’s like to have your debut novel create an international publishing sensation, optioning Hollywood film rights as well as her life as a keen adventurer.
Venue: Ata Rangi Vineyard, Martinborough
Time: 11am (with author signing at noon)
Price: $15 Adult includes a glass of Ata Rangi wine
Stacy Gregg tells her Pony Club Secrets and entertains from her new book The Forever Horse.
Venue: The Historic Barn, 121 Humphries St, Greytown
Time: 2pm
Price: $8 Adult / Free Student
Wellington Chef Monique Fiso is a modern-day food warrior, taking Māori cuisine to the world and breathing new life into the ancient knowledge of foraging and kai Māori through her award-winning restaurant and new book Hiakai. In conversation with Cuisine columnist, Martin Bosley.
Venue: Greytown Town Centre
Time: 4pm
Price: $20 Adult / $10 Student
As a gala precursor to this year’s Yarns in Barns Festival we are excited to have teamed up with Bubbles & Inspiration to bring the wonderful Chelsea Winter to the Wairarapa.
Chelsea’s new book, Supergood is a super addition to your Chelsea Winter collection. If you have enjoyed her previous recipes, are curious about plant-based eating or you have someone at home with special dietary requirements – this is a night (and book!) not to miss.
Venue: Carterton Events Centre
Time: 7pm – 8.30pm (doors open 6.15pm)
Price: $20 (includes a glass of bubbles)
Week Two
Author and Pipi chef Alexandra Tylee and illustrator Giselle Clarkson celebrate the release of their wonderful new cooking book for kids, Egg & Spoon with an illustration workshop, author signing and pizza party.
Venue: Masterton Library
Time: 4pm-5pm illustration workshop.
5pm-6pm book signing.
4pm-6pm Pipi’s Pizza truck on site for pizza sales to the public.
Price: $5 for the illustration workshop / book signing free.
Join us for the ultimate book club night! Former Books and Culture editor of The Listener, Guy Somerset, will chat to three of NZ’s most exciting novelists about life, writing and what it takes to create page-turning stories.
Award-winning short story writer and Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellow, Carl Nixon’s The Tally Stick is an atmospheric thriller set on the rugged West Coast. Stephanie Parkyn’s Josephine’s Garden tells the story of a woman who is a budding young botanist – and Napoleon’s wife –during the French Revolution. Wellington-based author, Charity Norman’s supremely well-written thriller The Secret’s of Strangers is unputdownable.
Venue: Hedleys Books, Masterton
Time: 7pm
Price: $10 Adult / Free Student
Journalist Don Farmer shares his experiences as a young boy growing up in a small Wairarapa town in the 1950s, the subject of Walking Back to Happiness – A Wairarapa Boy’s Story, his first book.
Tea, coffee and finger food will be available. Copies of the book will be on sale (cash only).
Venue: Greytown School Hall
Time: 5pm
Price: Free event
Pathologist Dr Cynric Temple-Camp talks about life and death, crime and forensics from his recent book The Quick and the Dead.
Venue: Carterton Courthouse
Time: 12 noon
Price: $10 Adult / $5 Student
Anthony Byrt talks about Billy Apple, David Hockney and Ann Quin from his new book The Mirror Steamed Over: Love and Pop in London, 1962 in conversation with broadcaster Noelle McCarthy.
The Spirit of the 60s: The Photography of Michael Cooper Exhibition provides a fitting backdrop to this conversation and will be open to view from 6pm hosted by exhibition curator, David Hedley.
Venue: Aratoi Wairarapa Museum of Art and History
Time: 7pm
Price: $10 Adult / $5 Student
An unsentimental yet lyrical love letter to the land, in This Farming Life, Tim Saunders shares the joys and the harsh realities of farm life over five generations.
Book Cobblestone’s famous morning tea to enjoy after the talk for an additional $7.50. This offer is only available to ticket holders and must be booked and paid when purchasing your event tickets.
Venue: Cobblestones Museum
Time: 10am
Price: $8 Adult (+$7.50 for morning tea) / $5 Student (+$7.50 for morning tea)
In Wild at Heart Miriam Lancewood explores the dangers and delights of a nomadic life.
Miriam’s first book ‘Woman in the Wilderness’ told her story of living for 7 years in the NZ bush with her husband, hunting and gathering, and roaming the bush as nomads. She now recounts a sequel story in remote parts of Europe seeking a simple life unfettered by society’s norms.
Miriam will speak in conversation with Sally Round.
Venue: Strang’s Woolshed, Gladstone (4km on the right, south of the Gladstone intersection)
Time: 1pm
Price: $10 Adult / $5 Student
This year’s iconic Yarn in the Barn event features world renowned animal trainer and behaviouralist, Mark Vette, telling stories from his life from Buddhism to Hollywood and all the puppies in between as told in his new memoir Zen Heart: What I have learnt from Animals and Life. In conversation with Gareth Winter.
Yes, there will be puppies.
Venue: Strang’s Woolshed, Gladstone (4km on the right, south of the Gladstone intersection)
Time: 3pm
Price: $10 Adult / $5 Student
In his new book Searching for Charlie: In Pursuit of the Real Charles Upham VC and Bar Tom Scott uncovers the true story of the most highly decorated soldier in the Commonwealth forces of WWII, and arguably the bravest soldier of the war.
Tom Scott in conversation with Defence Minister Ron Mark.
Stay for a light lunch after Tom’s event and enjoy Wendy Campbell’s famous cheese scones, home baking (as well as gluten free treats) along with tea and coffee provided by the Featherston Booktown Country Tea & Cakes volunteers team. $5 for a hot drink and either a sweet or savoury item of food. From 12-1pm before the second event with Ian Trafford at 1pm. Both events are in association with Featherston Booktown.
Venue: Anzac Hall, Featherston
Time: 11am
Price: $20 Adult / $10 Student or Featherston double header price $30/$15 includes the Ian Trafford event at 1pm.
Into the Unknown is a personal account of WW1 from the diaries of a Gisborne farm boy, shaped into a gripping narrative by the diarist’s grandson 100 years later.
Come at 11am for the first event with Tom Scott, then stay on for a light lunch featuring Wendy Campbell’s famous cheese scones, home baking (and gluten free treats) along with tea and coffee provided by the Featherston Booktown Country Tea & Cakes volunteers team. $5 for a hot drink and either a sweet or savoury item of food. Both events in association with Featherston Booktown.
Venue: Anzac Hall, Featherston
Time: 1pm
Price: $20 Adult / $10 Student or Featherston double header price $30/$15 includes the Tom Scott event at 11am.
This year, the ever popular Poems on the Vine event features passionate poet, Tim Wilson with poet-painter Rebecca Hawkes who holds NZ Pacific Studio’s Ema Saiko Poetry Fellowship, RAK Mason Fellow Jenny Powell reading from her ‘Meeting Rita’ on the artist Rita Angus, and James Brown reading from his newly published Selected Poems of James Brown.
Venue: Gladstone Vineyard
Time: 2.45pm
Price: $15 Adult includes a glass of Gladstone Vineyard wine or juice.