An Outside View

The latest book by acclaimed British author, Jenny Diski – On Trying to Keep Still – opens with her visit to NZ in 2004 for the NZ International Arts Festival’s Writers and Readers Week. Less a travel memoir than a series of personal reflections while on the road, the book follows a diverse itinerary from NZ to Somerset to Lapland. In an interview with the NZ Herald’s Sunday magazine, Diski speaks about her controversial account of Maori haka in the book. “I don’t think it was a criticism, I think it was simply a discussion of how it appeared to me. The haka is an act of aggression, no question about it. Historically it is about war, and it’s a funny way to greet people.” Despite her reservations about the welcoming wagon, Diski describes her time in NZ as “one of the great trips of my life.”