Is She Still Alive?

Description

In 2003 Tessa Duder spent six months in Europe as the recipient of the Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship. Internationally renowned for her superb childrens' and young adult novels, Tessa used her time in Menton to write something very different. The result is a superb collection of thirteen stories for women who have moved beyond youth and into maturity, who have seen and experienced much of what life has to offer, and wear their years with pride. The wonderful, wise and witty women she has created will strike a chord with their tales of loves and dreams they have lived and lost, their tragedies and their triumphs and most of all, their enduring spirit and often unexpected strength. Is she still alive is the question women of a certain age hear all too often - in Tessa Duder's wonderful new stories the answer is a resounding yes.

Tessa Duder trained as a journalist and raised four daughters before publishing her first novel in her late thirties. Some fifty books have followed, for both adult and young readers: novels (notably the best-seller Alex quartet), short story collections, non-fiction, biographies, anthologies and plays. Her writing shows her deep love of the sea - in 2013 she crossed the Tasman Sea under sail on the tall ship Spirit of New Zealand - and a life-long interest in early New Zealand history, particularly of the Auckland region. Her awards have included multiple children's book prizes, the University of Waikato writers' residency, the Katherine Mansfield fellowship to Menton, France, an Artists to Antarctica fellowship, the OBE and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Waikato. She lives in the sea-girt city of Auckland, New Zealand.