Writer, editor and writing blogger and teacher Roz Morris hosts The Undercover Soundtrack series, where she invites writers who use music as part of their creative environment, ‘perhaps to connect with a character, populate a mysterious place, or hold a moment still to explore its depths’. In a post for The Undercover Soundtrack (27 April 2016), I write about some of the music that helped … Read more…
The Life + Loves of Lena Gaunt
‘Literary Postcard from Wellington’ for BBC Radio4 Open Book
Prompted by the publication of my novel The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt in the UK this month, BBC Radio4’s Open Book programme asked me to deliver a Literary Postcard from New Zealand, as part of an occasional series they commission from writers based outside the UK. For my Literary Postcard, I decided to focus … Read more…
Lee Randall reviews The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt
Edinburgh-based writer and journalist Lee Randall wrote a lovely review of The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt on her Randall Writes / A History of my Life in 100 Objects blog early in the new year. Lena is the third of three novels Lee reviews in the post Book Reviews: Three for January. Farr’s exploring whether or not we can reproduce … Read more…
Lonesome Reader reviews The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt
Eric Anderson reviews and writes about books on his blog Lonesome Reader. His review of The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt appeared in January. I was thrilled that my novel reminded Eric of Anna Smaill’s The Chimes, a novel I love (see my best reads of 2015 post for Aardvark Bureau/Gallic Books). For [Lena], the rumblings of life … Read more…
The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt published in the UK
Though it’s been creeping into shops (online and bricks-and-mortar) for the past few weeks, and already gaining some glowing early online reviews, today – 9 January 2016 – marks the official UK publication date for The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt (Aardvark Bureau). To celebrate, this is my virtual group hug to all involved, including but not … Read more…
Early reviews of Lena Gaunt ahead of UK publication
The official UK publication date of The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt (Aardvark Bureau) is 9 January 2016, but – thanks largely to advance copies made available by Gallic Books for Aardvark Bureau via NetGalley – there’s been a steady stream of early reviews appearing on NetGalley, GoodReads and blogs. Thanks so much to everyone who’s … Read more…
The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt
A novel which reads like an elegant memoir … Farr’s powerful, sensuous writing brings the rhythm and movement of both the ocean and music to a life rich with art and colour, ambition, love, and indescribable loss. It’s glorious, the water in the morning, when it’s calm like this, when you can just bob on … Read more…
Lena Gaunt and other titles on Aardvark Bureau 2016 list
In his blog post ‘The Aardvark emerges’ [no longer available online], Scott Pack talks about the list of upcoming titles due from Aardvark Bureau in the first half of 2016. The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt (January 2016) is joined on the list by novels from two much-loved Wellington authors: Fiona Kidman’s The Infinite Air (March … Read more…
‘Aardvark author Tracy Farr on her debut novel’ interview
The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt will be published in January 2016 by Aardvark Bureau. In this interview, Tracy Farr speaks about the inspiration behind her debut novel and its unforgettable main character, Lena Gaunt: musican, octogenarian, junkie. I have a complicated relationship with the sea…unlike Lena, I find the sea magnetic and sustaining from … Read more…
Debut novel picked up by new UK imprint
The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt caught the ear and eye of UK publisher Scott Pack in November 2014, and he rated it #2 in his top ten reads of 2014, calling it: An incredible debut and a novel so believable that I wish it were true. In March 2015, Scott launched Aardvark Bureau, … Read more…