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Dunedin a City of Literature
Topic Started: Dec 3 2014, 01:27 AM (1,413 Views)
Caro

I could have put this under "Books" I suppose, but here it is. In the last couple of days my closest city and my university town has been made a City of Literature by Unesco. It came on the top of winning a Gigatown competition to give a package of extra broadband so Dunedin is happy at the moment.

Dunedin was one of the four newly designated Cities of Literature - the others were Grenada, Spain; Heidelberg, Germany; and Prague, Czech Republic, the news report said, and they join existing Cities of Literature Edinburgh, Melbourne, Iowa City, Dublin, Reykjavik, Norwich and Krakow. I think I read the others supported Dunedin's bid with the exception of Krakow (we don't have enough connections with Krakow apparently). Edinburgh is a sister city of Dunedin so Dunedin was pleased with its support (but wouldn't it have been odd if a sister city didn't support you?). Dunedin does have quite a strong literary tradition with relatives of Robbie Burns settling there early and a big statue of him in the centre of town. The university also supports authors annually for a year's Fellowship and they usually have quite a high profile.

I gather it is expected to mean we have more literary conferences and visiting authors etc. Better news than the normal bickering over the cost of the covered sports spadium (which our family is very happy with but (a) we don't pay rates in Dunedin and (b) we can afford rates more than some people) and reports over whatever business has left town leaving 400 people out of work.
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waiting4atickle
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I think I've mentioned before that Mrs Tickle's mum and dad used to be good friends with Mr & Mrs Norman Taylor, parents of the 2012 New Zealander of the year. One of my MiL's last trips abroad was to visit them in NZ. That must have been a good while ago because she hasn't been well enough to undertake trips like that for a good few years. I think Mrs Taylor has departed this world since then. At any rate, Norman was over in the UK on his own a few years ago and visited MiL. Mrs Tickle and I spent a pleasant afternoon with him in Henley. He was rather saddened by the state of Mrs T's mum and her negative outlook on life. He was over here again this year, but MiL didn't want to see him - or rather, didn't want him to see her as she was then. Mrs T had the rather awkward task of explaining this to him. Needless to say, he was a little upset.

Over the last few days, Mrs T has had the sad task of informing people of her mum's death - including Norman, of course. He sent her a lovely email in reply and extended an invitation to visit him. Norman's daughter sent an equally lovely email, with a similar invitation. Who knows? maybe we'll fit in a visit to NZ in the next year or two. We have friends in Oz that we haven't visited for 29 years, so perhaps we could go and see them as well. At least we will have more freedom of movement now. But I think we might struggle to afford it - Mrs Tickle's inheritance may be enough to pay off our debts, but no more than that, I fear. Still, we can dream.

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waiting4atickle
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<crikey> Mrs Tickle has even received a message of condolence from the WETA Workshop master himself. Mind you, I get emails from Ann Summers all the time - although, tbh, I'm not sure why.


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May-Cee

I live in Dublin - which is definitely a City of Literature.
The only city to have produced three Nobel Prize Winners for Lit:
Shaw, Yeats, Beckett

Oddly enough, not James Joyce - who is *the* great Dublin writer.
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rumbaba
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Re Joyce, rejoice!
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May-Cee

Everytime I walk the wonderfull streets of Dublin, I think about yer man, James Joyce.
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Caro

NZ doesn't have any Nobel Literature awards, though Janet Frame was I think nominated. Or whatever you do. And her links are with Dunedin.

W4aT, sorry to hear of your mother-in-law's death, though from what you say, she may have had enough of her life. Money mounts up more once children leave home, we have found, so who knows, you might make it here eventually. If you do, I live in a less-visited but very beautiful part of the country, the Catlins. (Often described as "New Zealand's best kept secret".) It's worth coming to if you like a few short walks and outdoor attractions of beach and bush and waterfalls. [What is 'bush' in Britain - forest?) And aren't fussy about the weather.
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