Grace enters the world of non-fiction

BY REBECCA THOMSON - KAPI-MANA NEWS

Award-winning Plimmerton novelist Patricia Grace has turned her pen to non-fiction.

Her latest book, Ned & Katina, takes place on the island of Crete during World War II.

It tells the story of Ned Nathan, a wounded Maori Battalion soldier, who meets and falls in love with a Cretan woman, Katina.

Ned and Katina Nathan's children asked Grace to tell their parents' story.

"When they told me about the lives of their parents I became very interested and wanted to see if I could write something about them, and I could," says Grace. "It was a gift they gave me, but a responsibility too, to get everything right.

"What I was aiming to do was to get to know the people I was writing about."

In some ways she finds writing non-fiction is easier than fiction.

"The plot is all set out and you know where you're going, but there's still fitting it altogether."
However, writing Ned & Katina still required a lot of work.

Grace said she had to research the war as well as Ned and Katina's story.

"I found out a lot about that era. I had heard of the Battle of Crete, but I never knew what had happened there."

The Battle of Crete began on May 20, 1941, when Germany launched an airborne invasion of Crete.
For 12 days New Zealand, British, Australian and Greek troops, assisted by Cretan civilians, tried to repel the German assault.

More than 2000 New Zealanders were taken prisoner; more than 650 died.

Ned was one of many badly injured soldiers, forced to stay behind, relying on the shelter of the local community.

Grace, who is of Ngati Toa, Ngati Raukawa and Te Ati Awa descent, is known for her focus on Maori stories found herself drawn to Ned's tale.

"The idea of a Maori man and woman from a village in the mountains in Crete, that's intriguing to me."

Ned and Katina's family helped with Grace's research, supplying documents, letters, photos and stories. She said the family's involvement was critical and she couldn't have done it without them.

"The family had the resources; the cuttings, photos and all of their [Ned and Katina's] things. No matter how the book sells, it would not be a success if the family did not like it.

"They were very supportive. From their point of view, it's their parents' story and it's about what was going on during that era.

Also, they can give this to their children and grandchildren."

Although Grace enjoyed writing Ned & Katina, she says it was hard work, especially writing appendices and photo captions, and ensuring all her references were correct.

"It's not something I plan on doing again," she says.

Grace is now working on turning her novel Cousins into a movie script.

She has received numerous national and international awards, including the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize for fiction and the Deutz Medal for Fiction.

Last year she won the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, widely considered the most prestigious literary prize after the Nobel.