Author Description

In this wonderful collection twenty-six distinguished New Zealand writers evoke memories of their early years. Their stories and memoirs resonate with love and betrayal, friendship and disloyalty, elation and anxiety. The writing features parents and teachers, peers, siblings and other relatives, the loveable and the unloveable. There are wondrous discoveries of the natural and cultural world and glimpses into the enigmatic realm that is adulthood. From the Victorian era of Katherine Mansfield's upbringing to that of today's multicultural society, the contributions reflect many of the personal and social changes that our society has undergone over the last one hundred years. The collection is packed with emotion as the writers conjure up that never-to-be-forgotten time, 'Way Back Then, Before We Were Ten'. Every contribution has biographical information on the author and a photo of them before they were ten. Prominent New Zealand short story writer, novelist and travel writer Graeme Lay is also one of this country's most experienced anthologists. In this his latest compilation he has selected and assembled a stellar literary cast from our past and present, whose writing provides unique insights into the timeless world of childhood.