What does the decorous lawyer Walter Dove inventively sailing the globe solo have in common with the lonely sponster Rose Lightfoot busy with her paintbrush beside the canals of Venice And what has either to do with the outback Boer War veteran Jim Bird The answer is love of a luminous kind
Galery
It’s a touch dated in that it was published in 1998 but given it is historical fiction that small detail doesn’t matter at all In my opinion Maurice Shadbolt is one of the finest fiction writers we have in New Zealand and I am now on a crusade to read and re read his worksDove on the Waters is a set of three short stories linked by a framing first person narrative and centres around the fascinating life of the narrator’s great Aunt Alice and her acuaintances A gentleman lawyer in turn of the 1920th century Auckland takes off on a solo circumnavigation of the world; a spinster painter in Venice; and a Boer War veteran and his true love Laurel living in exile in the Coromandel regionTypical masterful storytelling by Shadbolt I was kept enthralled from beginning to end and my only complaint would be the two covers were not spaced far enough apartMaybe a touch light and too short for some of you but even if it keeps you entertained for an afternoon it will be a few hours well invested