"Amazed" author packs off to Raurimu

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 304, 12 September 1989, Page 4

"Amazed" author packs off to Raurimu

Like the title of his first novel Ohakune author William Taylor last week packed up, picked up and took off.

He left his home and quarter acre section in 'downtown' Ohakune, where he has spent the past eleven years, to settle on a small 10acre farm property near rural Raurimu between National Park and Taumarunui. But he has no intention of taking up farming as a career. This former primary school teachcr - who was principal of National Park School for four years and then Ohakune Primary School principal and Ohakune's mayor for seven years - will continue to devote most of his time to writing but is also keen to involve himself in local government once again. For that reason he has allowed his name to go forward to next month's election to the Ruapehu Constituency

of the Manawatu-Wan-ganui Regional Council. From a total of eight nominations two representatives will be selected to represent the Ruapehu area on the District Council which will be based in Palmerston North. When asked if he'd not alrcady "been there, done that" (serving on a local authority while mayor of Ohakune) Bill Taylor replied that, if elected, it would in fact be a new challcnge for him because, while the smaller district and community councils would be responsible for providing services to their local communities, the responsibility of the regional councils was to make sure the smaller councils got their fair share of the resources available.

Young fiction Whether successful or not in the October 14 local government elections he will continue with his writing of fiction for young people. His first book 'Pick Up, Pack Up and Off was published in 1983 while he was principal of Ohakune Primary School and this earned him the Choysa Bursary for Children's Books in 1985. Now, only four years later, he has just finished working on his twelfth title since he resigned from teaching to take up full-time writing . . . he wrote three books while on a 2-term leave of absence following the Choysa Bursary award. Aimed at the 11-15 year age group each book is set in a New Zealand context and all are providing immenscly popular overseas with between a

quarter-million and half-a-million currently in print world-wide. He has been told by his publishers that he is New Zealand's largest-selling author aftcr Keri Hume who wrote 'The Bone People'. Published variously by Reed Methuen, Heinemann Reed and Penguin in Australia and the UK both in hard-cover and paperback, the stories have been translated into several languages including French, German, Swedish/Danish and are widely read in the UK and USA. In these latter two English-speaking countries only minor changes have been necessary - for instance the title of his second novel 'Possum Perkins' was changed to 'Paradise Lane' because

possums/opossums are an Australasian marsupial unknown in America and England. Bill Taylor admitted to 'amazement' at his success as a children's

book writer "I seem to have created a new local industry", he said. His most recent novel 'The Kidnap of Jessie Parker' published by Heinemann Reed in

June this year received very favourable reviews in Wellington's Evening Post, Rotorua's Daily Post and Auckland's New Zealand Herald.