Hatched on a poultry farm

Author Joy Cowley’s novel Chicken Feathers is reviewed this month in The Boston Globe, her storytelling described as “effortless mastery”. Sweden had Astrid Lindgren, and France its Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Each great writer possesses the genius of his or her own place, and Joy Cowley can lay fair claim to New Zealand’s literary landscape. Cowley grew up around animals, and continues to write beautifully, affectionately, and accurately about them in Chicken Feathers, paying fond homage to her fine feathered friends, especially in the weird and eccentric heroine, Semolina, a talking, slightly alcoholic hen. Cowley has written over 600 books. She lives in the  Marlborough Sounds.