'Cook book' scores double-header at Montana Book Awards

By MARGIE THOMSON books editor





The biggest surprise at last night's Montana Book Awards was historian Anne Salmond's win of both the history and the overall non-fiction prizes for what she jokingly refers to as her "Cook book", The Trial of the Cannibal Dog: Captain Cook in the South Seas, over Michael King's bestselling Penguin History of New Zealand.

King, who died in March, held a unique place in the hearts and minds of New Zealanders, and his History has had unprecedented commercial success, selling more than 70,000 copies since December.

His great popularity was reflected, though, when he won the Readers' Choice award by an overwhelming majority of votes.

But Salmond, a distinguished professor of Maori studies and anthropology at Auckland University, has a down-to-earth style and strong following belying her position in academia. While the judges deemed her winning book "scholarly", they also agreed that "non-fiction this good outpaces much New Zealand fiction in its narrative drive and powerful prose".

Salmond, a Dame Commander of the British Empire for her services to history, won Book of the Year twice in the now-defunct Wattie Book Awards.

Accepting her award Salmond paid tribute to her friend and colleague Michael King.

"History is such a collegial thing. My honour is the honour of all of us."

The Deutz Medal for Fiction also provided a great surprise when favourites Maurice Gee, Elizabeth Smither and Peter Wells were beaten by the less well known Annamarie Jagose, whose novel Slow Water, about a homosexual love affair during the long voyage from England to Australia in the 1830s, showcased writing that was "limpid, precise, never self-conscious, often surpassingly beautiful", the judges said, adding that Jagose "ranks among New Zealand's best novelists".

Jagose, an associate professor in Auckland University's School of Television and Media Studies, is a supremely modest woman who seemed genuinely thrilled and humbled to find herself on a shortlist with writers whom she has long admired (the fifth finalist was first-time writer James George).

Slow Water is her third novel, based on the real-life story of missionary William Yate, who fell in love with the ship's third mate during his voyage out to New Zealand via Australia, and was persecuted for the affair once the ship reached Sydney.

There are gaps in the known facts about the case, and Jagose therefore felt fiction was the perfect form for exploring the story, although she says "I tried never to write anything that I knew couldn't be true".

Friends had told her she was the dark horse, the wild card in the awards.

"Darkness and wildness have a lot to recommend them," Slow Water was also shortlisted in Australia for the Miles Franklin Award, alongside writers such as Peter Carey, J. M. Coetzee and Shirley Hazzard.

The judges - convened by historian Tony Simpson, with Victoria University lecturer Paul Millar and poet and publisher Anne French - noted the diversity of styles and content among the 42 novels submitted, but drew attention to "three notable features, all of which seem to us signs of literary maturity: the number of books set entirely outside New Zealand with no connection to this country, the careful and colourful exploration of gay themes, and the many works that drew on extensive historical material to produce richly satisfying fictions".

The 188 books submitted this year were variable in quality "as might be expected over such a large field", the judges said, but the final selections were drawn from a pool of high-quality titles and publications from "a mature writing community and publishing industry".

The winners

The 2004 Montana New Zealand Book Awards winners are:

Deutz Medal for Fiction: Slow Water by Annamarie Jagose (Victoria University Press). Runners-up: Iridescence by Peter Wells (Vintage) and The Scornful Moon by Maurice Gee (Penguin).

Montana Medal for Non-Fiction: The Trial of the Cannibal Dog: Captain Cook in the South Seas by Anne Salmond (Allen Lane/Penguin).

Poetry: Sing-song by Anne Kennedy (Auckland University Press).

Reference and Anthology: Whetu Moana: Contemporary Polynesian Poems in English edited by Albert Wendt, Reina Whaitiri and Robert Sullivan (AUP).

Illustrative: Central by Arno Gasteiger (Viking).

Lifestyle and Contemporary Culture: Classic Fly Fishing in New Zealand Rivers by John Kent and David Hallett (Craig Potton Publishers)

History: The Trial of the Cannibal Dog: Captain Cook in the South Seas by Anne Salmond (Allen Lane/Penguin).

Biography: Mason: The Life of R A K Mason by Rachel Barrowman (VUP).

Environment: Deep New Zealand: Blue Water, Black Abyss by Peter Batson (Canterbury University Press).

NZ Society of Authors (NZSA) Hubert Church Best First Book Award for Fiction: Bloom by Kelly Ana Morey (Penguin).

NZSA Jessie Mackay Best First Book Award for Poetry: The Adulterer's Bible by Cliff Fell (VUP).

NZSA E H McCormick Best First Book Award for Non Fiction: Tai Tokerau Whakairo Rakau: Northland Maori Wood Carving by Deidre Brown (Reed).

A W Reed Award for Contribution to New Zealand Literature: Joy Cowley.