Te Awamutu Courier Thursday, April 4, 2019 Inspirational Writer, Speaker
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Te Awamutu Next to Te Awamutu The Hire Centre Te Awamutu Landscape Lane, Te Awamutu YourC community newspaper for over 100 years Thursday, April 4, 2019 0800 TA Hire | www.hirecentreta.co.nz Close shave Author inspires raises funds More than $20,000 has been raised for Leukaemia and Blood Cancer New Bestseller Zealand following a Shave for a Cure event at the O¯ torohanga Club on Friday. takes time out Te Awamutu woman Shelly Allen was one of 13 people bravely shaving her to return to hair for cancer. O¯ torohanga District Mayor Max Baxter also shaved his hair. her old school The funds raised will support patients and their families living with a blood BY DEAN TAYLOR cancer or a related blood condition. When Heather Williamson left Te Awa- mutu College ‘some decades ago’ to make a Change time bit of money and then escape small town New Daylight saving ends when Zealand to see the world, she would never clocks go back by one hour at have dreamed of coming back to her old 3am on Sunday, April 7. school as an international bestselling author Daylight saving starts to address students. each year on the last Sunday But this week that is exactly what hap- in September and ends on the pened. first Sunday in April. Heather is the author of The Tattooist of International Auschwitz, an historic novel which has bestselling author of Fire and Emergency New The Tattooist of Zealand is reminding people topped sales around the world since its release last year — including 20 weeks atop Auschwitz Heather to check and test their smoke the New York Times bestseller list. Morris speaking at alarms this weekend. So far it has been translated into 46 her alma mater — Te Battery-operated smoke languages and more than two million copies Awamutu College. alarms have a limited battery sold into 49 countries — and counting. Photo / Dean Taylor life, hence the call to check “I’m very proud it has been translated into them when daylight saving Fasi,” says Heather. “And later this year it starts and ends. will be released in Russia.” Change the batteries The Tattooist of Auschwitz has also been every time you change the made into an audio book — which is how I clocks. ‘read’ it as all Waipa¯Library copies were out and booked. Feeling arty? Read by Richard Armitage, it won a 2018 Te Awamutu children are Earphones Award — given by AudioFile to’ invited to create a beautiful, truly exceptional titles that excel in narra- stained glass kowhaiwhai tive voice and style, characterisations, suit- using cellophane and paper ability to audio, and enhancement of the in a workshop at the Te text’. Awamutu Library. Heather spoke to about 75 Te Awamutu The free workshop is on College Year 11-13 English and history students in the school library on Monday Wednesday, April 17 from morning. 1pm – 2pm. She was home to be with family in It is for children aged six between a busy schedule which takes her to and over, who must be America next, then South Africa after she accompanied by an adult. returns home to Melbourne for the birth of a A kowhaiwhai is a form of grandchild. Ma¯ori decoration that takes The touring has already taken her around the form of abstract curved the world, with no sign of slowing up. pattern work. The talk on Monday was mesmerising for To register contact students according to English teacher Karen [email protected] Dowle, who organised the event. ■ Continued page 2 2 Te Awamutu Courier Thursday, April 4, 2019 Inspirational writer, speaker This newspaper is subject to NZ Media Council procedures. A complaint must fi rst be directed in writing, within one month of publication, to [email protected]. If not satisfi ed with the response, the complaint may be referred to the Media Council PO Box 10-879, The Terrace, Wellington 6143. Or use the online complaint form at www.mediacouncil.org.nz. Please include copies of the article and all correspondence with the publication. Te Awamutu College Year 11-13 English and history students being addressed by author and college old girl Heather 14,045 Morris. Photo / Dean Taylor 14,045* ■ From page 1 It started in 2003 over coffee with a Completed, she optioned it to an Ameri- CIRCULATION 14,045* “Heather was truly inspirational — she friend, who said “My friend Gary, whose can studio for three years and they tried to spoke from a place of experience and passion. mother has just died, asked me to find put together a deal to make the film. ” — Antoinette Cole (Year 13 student). someone his father can tell a story to”. After three years, with no deal, Heather “It was humbling to see how a former Te The only criteria was it had to be a non- signed up for another three years — but the Awamutu College student has impacted so Jew. result was the same. many people’s lives around the world with Heather says she was immediately inter- It was when she was staying with her her writing. ested. brother and his wife who lived in Los “Heather gave us a real life look at the “I’d had been doing some writing and Angeles that she changed her plan. trials and tribulations of being an author.” preferred reading stories based on real “I was complaining about the useless — Kyra Loomans (Year 13). people, so I said yes,” she says. bods up the road (in Hollywood) over [email protected] “It was interesting to hear about the A week later Heather was at the home of dinner,” says Heather. March of the Living at Auschwitz, an annual Lale Sokolov — the tattooist of Auschwitz. “My sister-in-law told me to ‘get over event that students around the world partici- She says he was an elderly gentleman, myself and just write the bloody book’ — so pate in of similar ages to ourselves.” — still grief-stricken over the death of his wife I did.” [email protected] Mckenzie Heaslip (Year 13). Gita who he had met in the prison camp. It wasn’t plain sailing — “I’m no Karen says teachers who attended the They had been married 60 years. overnight success,” says Heather. [email protected] event commented how utterly absorbed It was his story of love and survival that Her Australian publishers wanted a students were for two hours while Heather formed the basis of the historic novel she ghost writer, but she refused so they said [email protected] spoke. was about to write — albeit that it did not they would give her a chance. “It was a powerful and moving experi- hit the shelves until 15 years later. Heather locked herself away, wrote a ence for all who attended,” says Karen. Heather would go to Lale’s home regu- book and sent in the manuscript. [email protected] “We were extremely lucky for Heather larly over the next three years and listen to Their reply was “Yeah. So you don’t to return to the college and generously offer his stories. know what you are doing, do you?” her time to share her stories with us.” She says listening was the key — she Heather started again, took some advice [email protected] Heather grew up in Pirongia with her didn’t interview him or write copious notes. and eventually came up with her novel. parents Jock and Joyce and four brothers. “I never tried to drag the details out of The story told in The Tattooist of She attended Pirongia School and Te him,” says Heather. Auschwitz describes how the camp guards Awamutu College, worked in town for a “As a social worker, I know you’re never gave Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew fluent in five couple of years and at 18 headed across the going to get someone to tell you something languages, the horrific job of tattooing Tasman. if they don’t want to. numbers on the arm of every person who Heather met her future husband, Aussie “I had to be patient.” arrived at Auschwitz. Steve Morris, and for a while they moved to Lale also never told his stories in His ability to communicate made the Christchurch where they had family. chronological order, so Heather would take long lines of doomed prisoners move more [email protected] Steve worked in IT and was headhunted her notes then do her own research and quickly. back to Australia in 1987, where they have marry Lale’s recollections with known facts One day he tattooed a beautiful young lived since. Heather worked in social and events to create the story. woman, Gita. services within the medical profession — The two formed a bond, they met each The two fell in love and somehow mostly at Melbourne’s Monash Medical other’s families and sometimes socialised. managed to survive survive the horrors of Centre. They remained close friends until Lale’s Auschwitz until its liberation in 1945. The couple have three children. death in 2006 — and as she came to grips Even then they were parted, and it was We’re online at nzmecommunitynews.pressreader.com She has always been a keen reader, and a with her grief, Heather began to write. only determination on Lale’s part that movie lover, but nothing prepared her for Initially though it was to be a brought them back together. the journey of more than a dozen years that screenplay, because she loved movies and ■ 2016 led her to international fame.