Magpie Hall

Description

"There were two rumours surrounding my great-great-grandfather Henry Summers: one, that his cabinet of curiosities drove him mad; and, two, that he murdered his first wife." Rosemary Summers is an amateur taxidermist and a passionate collector of tattoos. To her, both activities honour the deceased and keep their memory alive. After the death of her beloved grandfather, and while struggling to finish her thesis on gothic Victorian novels, she returns alone to Magpie Hall to claim her inheritance: Grandpa's own taxidermy collection, started more than 100 years ago by their ancestor Henry Summers. As she sorts through Henry's legacy, the ghosts of her family's past begin to make their presence known.

Awards

Shortlisted for PANZ Book Design Awards: Best Cover 2010.

Author description

Rachael King has worked for various magazines, including Rip it Up, Staple and Pavement, and for bFM, where she was a sales rep, DJ and host of the Culture Bunker for a brief period in the early 90s. She also played bass guitar in several Flying Nun bands until the mid-90s. She grew up in Auckland but for the last few years has made Wellington her home, where she now writes full time. She is the recipient of the 2005/06 Lillian Ida Smith award and was writer in residence at Canterbury University in 2008. This is her second novel, her first The Sound of Butterflies was a best seller.