Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Banquo's Son - Auckland Launch, 10th October


Tania's sister Sharon, Tania, and, mother Joy.

Most of us, writers and readers, think that a writer’s lot is a solitary one; however TK Roxborogh’s latest novel, ‘Banquo’s Son’, launched by Belynda Smith, Children’s Librarian at Takapuna Library on 10 October, we were enlightened. For this novel to be in bookstores now, the relationship between the publisher (Vicki Marsden from Penguin Group), the writer and her critique circle – a group of astute students from Columba College, was a crucial one in the writing process. From the time that Tania sent an email to Vicki in November 08, with ‘What I’m working on’ in the tag line, to Vicki picking it up in December 08 and saying to Tania, ‘120,000 words by March 2009’, an intense, exciting and challenging 3-way bond developed and the outcome is ‘Banquo’s Son.” Tania was also grateful for the input from Fleur Beale, another well-known New Zealand writer who helped with the final editing.

Tania, a writer of over 20 books and teacher of Shakespeare for over 20 years has come up with an interesting angle – what happened to Fleance, the son of Banquo? Remember – the witches prophesised that Banquo would not be king, but his lineage would.
As always, Tania, a gifted speaker as well as a wonderful writer, entertained a select audience of over 50, including ex- students, teaching colleagues, publishing personnel, family and friends, with how the novel came about and left us all wanting to hear more – about the novel, about its planned sequels and about the writer.
One to watch, I prophesise.
Jeannie McLean

1 comment:

Fiona Mackie said...

I was thrilled to see Tania at the launch,and learning about the genesis of the book has made it all the better!
Fiona Mackie.