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Book Event - 'A Fabled Land' - Mesopotamia Station

 

 

Book Talk Event:
 

Thursday 11th October 2012
 

7.00pm
 

Timaru District Library, 56 Sophia Street, Timaru
 

Free Admission
 

A Fabled Land - Bruce Ansley and Peter Bush
 

Legendary rugby photographer and celebrated journalist team up to tell high country station’s legendary story.
 

If anything could rival Peter Bush aka Bushy’s love of rugby, it’s Mesopotamia — the magnificent and historic South Canterbury station which lies in the Rangitata high country, hard against the Southern Alps.
 

Bushy first crossed paths with the Mesopotamia runholders, the Prouting family, almost 50 years ago, when they ended up rescuing his brand new rental Land Rover from the clutches of the mighty Rangitata River. He and a hunting mate had pitched their tent on what they thought was a track, the heavens had opened during the night, and they’d got caught in a flash flood. With the water level rising, they had to abandon the submerged vehicle until it could be towed out once the water level had dropped. Despite this ignominious start — he’s been the butt of endless "North Island townie" jokes ever since — Bushy has remained firm friends with the family.

Bushy’s photos — taken on a series of visits over the years— beautifully capture the great musters of days gone by, the dignity of the shearing gangs, the majestic country, and the distinctive and determined characters who’ve been part of the great Mesopotamia story.
 

In this stunning new book, A Fabled Land, celebrated journalist and Cantabrian, Bruce Ansley has teamed up with Bushy to reveal a vivid portrait of this truly special, awe-inspiring and seductive place, where 150 years of station life have been played out within the great amphitheatre of the mountains.
 

Ansley has brilliantly captured the spirit of this great sheep station: from the early pioneers who first braved its harsh winters and searing summers to the ingenuity and drive of the present-day owners, the Prouting family. His description of the landscape is at once poetic and immediate and magnificent, taking the reader right to the heart of the high country and offering a rare insight into the highs and lows of high country life.
 

This is a man’s country, where the women who wish to stay have to hold their own; a country where the past is echoed in the present and in this fascinating book we ride the ‘curious tide of extremes’ that farming embodies: the heartache, the exhilaration, the grandiose, the bombastic, the gracious, the laconic
humour.
 

In this epic country, the mountains have as much personality as the station’s various owners, from the Proutings, who have now been there for the past 70 years, stretching right back to the station’s founding in 1860 by Samuel Butler in 1860. Escaping the demands of his over-bearing English vicar father, Butler arrived full of wanderlust in 1860, just 24.

The vast, empty and silent landscape cast its spell over him, as it has done with the subsequent custodians. Butler was soon to purchase a large holding, which he grandly named Mesopotamia, the Greek word for the land between two rivers. Butler did well out of ‘Messie’, as the Proutings call the station. When he sold his holding of 24,000 hectares three years later to return to England, he doubled his money. Butler immortalised
Mesopotamia in his novel, Erewhon, which he wrote after returning to Britain.

 

And, A Fabled Land features another ‘character’ too: the Rangitata River, which flows like a rogue throughout the book. Ansley says that he, like generations of southern folk, grew up captivated by the intoxicating romance of the vast and remote high country stations and the rich stories that lay in the land. He’d wanted to write the Messie story for some time butwould only do it with the Prouting’s blessing. “I knew about the Proutings as masters
of their mountain kingdom, successors to Samuel Butler, and I knew too that they were a very private family, wary of outsiders.

“Bushy had once produced an unpublished photo essay on the Mesopotamia muster and I asked him whether he’d be interested in a book. He jumped at the chance. without mentioning that he’d known the family for half a century. When I eventually spoke to Laurie Prouting about a book he said, “If you’ve got Bushy with you it’ll be OK by me.” And that was the first I knew of Bushy’s history with the station. So, in hindsight, it was meant to be.”

Ansley says that he also had a strong sense of how the book would come together. “I didn’t want the book to be a straight, linear history. It needed to also to relate the modern Mesopotamia to Butler’s embryo station, retracing his footsteps, comparing his life with the present, constantly referencing the station’s history while dealing with its present. ”

The new generation’s fight to restore the station’s fortunes against the backdrop of hardship and this harsh, beautiful country is a dominant theme, he says. “Last year current run holders, Malcolm and Sue Prouting returned a razor-thin profit of $13,000. They were delighted: they were back in the black."

Books will be available for purchasing and signing on the night.

  

New Zealand Poetry Day Winning Poems

Here are the winning poems from our New Zealand Poetry Day Writing Competition.
Thank you to everyone who entered and congratulations to our winning entries.

Adult Section:
1st Prize - Jean by Jan Hill

Jean

she looks small and frail
r arm in plaster
but carries with her
innate strength
and dignity of a modest life well-lived

it’s a brave thing to do
this memorial service
after the crash
and then the crash
crash upon crash

gathered at the Sound Shell
are those who’d love this man
he’d taken them to his heart
the Craighead Choir sings alleluia

a helicopter dips a salutation
a white dove is handed to her
she bravely holds on while it struggles
then comes the moment of release

silvered balloons rise up on thermals
if only it were that easy

2nd Prize - Cat Spring by Jan Hill

Cat Spring

The daffodils are out and the cat’s out
stalking unsuspecting birds
who’ve been lulled by the warmth
after the frosts of winter.

She’s proudly presented her trophies
yellow feathers scattered over the carpet
a neatly severed goldfinch head on the doorstep.

Today I happen to see her sudden sprint
the pounce in the geranium bed
and I’m out quick as an alligator
forcing her jaw apart.
A surprised sparrow flies away
straight from mouth to tree.

The cat eyes me accusingly but knowingly –
there’s plenty more fish in the sea –
comes in to sniff the Whiskas on her plate,
says can’t you do better than this
stalks out into the sunshine.
Fresh feathered meat is waiting
and is much more fun.

3rd Prize - Canterbury, my home by Faye McGunnigle

Canterbury, my home

Dry, dusty smell of sun-seared grass
A broad, clean river running fast
Rosy smell of wild rosehips
Aussie scent of eucalypts.

Crickets chirrup in a black beech tree
Slow, lazy buzz from the honey bee
Daggy sheep, a whiff of horse
Heady golden-perfumed gorse.

Four seasons that all come together
Snow and rain, brass monkey weather
Lizards flash through yellow broom
Westward, snow-capped mountains loom.

A hint of woodsmoke drifting high
Into a blue and cloudless sky
Wheat and barley, oats and maize
Haymaking that goes on for days.

Long coastline lashed by restless seas,
Sand and driftwood, wind-bent trees
Fresh briny tingle in the air
Seaweedy drifts of mermaid’s hair.

Teen Section

1st Prize - Tattered and torn by Luc Michelle

Tattered and torn

Winter’s grasp takes ahold
chilling me down to my Soul
I’ve called your name a thousand times
but did you ever once call mine
I never hoped to call you my own
my heart feels like a broken bone
but it sinks just like a stone
Pushed & pulled by forces unseen
good & bad, what does this mean?
the silence echoes like a drum
this pain is one that cant be undone
So, here I am, once again,
waiting for this life to end
I’ll help my heart be reborn
flying on wings,
tattered & torn.

Upcoming Library Event...Tuesday 28th August

Upcoming Library Event...Tuesday 28th August

Join Trans-Tasman publisher Dr David Reiter as he launches new works by:

Karen Zelas

The poems in Night's Glass Table are tight and emotionally powerful, and deal with themes such as death, grief and love.

Zelas chooses her words with care, and her poems are always eloquent and evocative. She demonstrates a sound use of conventions, and her writing is well-crafted and technically excellent.

Night's Glass Table won the 2012 IP Picks Best First Book Award.

Sugu Pillay

Sugu Pillay’s thought provoking work shifts effortlessly between New Zealand – with a seamless integration of Maori themes – and Asian locales, especially India, but is also informed by classical thinkers and artists. A challenging read, with its allusiveness, but one with rewards for those open to its startling juxtapositions and time warps.

The title is from Flaubert’s comment: “Human language is like a cracked kettle on which we beat our tunes for bears to dance to when all the time we long to move the stars to pity”.

Previously titled In Medias Res, the collection was Highly Commended in the 2012 IP Picks Best Poetry Awards and is a collection of mostly published poems from 1995 to 2012.

Coming Soon....

COMING SOON…

Timaru District Libraries’ new computer system is launching on 20 September 2012.

There will be limited library services at Timaru, Temuka and Geraldine Libraries from 5pm on Monday 17 September and for two full days: Tuesday 18 & Wednesday 19 September. There will be no lending, renewals, reserves or catalogue available on these days.

Other library services including returns, browsing of collections, in-library reading, newspapers, free Internet and Wifi access will be available.

eBooks may be borrowed and returned as usual via the library website.

Press Display will continue to be accessible from the website.

The Geraldine Service Centre and Temuka Service and Information Centre will provide customer service as usual.

Full library services will resume on Thursday 20 September.

New features will include one-step searching of physical library collections and electronic databases making it easier to access the contents of all of the libraries’ collections and resources.

Honouring Margaret Mahy (1936 - 2012)

Honouring Margaret Mahy (1936 - 2012)

 

Timaru District Libraries will be taking part in a Nationwide Margaret Mahy Storytime in the Timaru Library Children’s Area on Saturday 11th August at 10.30am. Owen Marshall and others will read some of Margaret’s best-loved stories. Everyone is welcome to come along and join in.

Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012)

Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012)

Gore Vidal, the American writer, controversialist and politician manqué, who has died aged 86, was celebrated both for his caustic wit and his mandarin's poise. His public career spanned seven decades and included 25 novels, numerous collections of essays on literature and politics, a volume of short stories, five Broadway plays, dozens of television plays and film scripts, and even three mystery novels written under the pseudonym Edgar Box.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gore_Vidal