A Strange Beautiful Excitement: Katherine Mansfield's Wellington 1888-1903, by Redmer Yska

A Strange Beautiful Excitement takes readers on a wild ride through the Wellington of Katherine Mansfield’s childhood.

From Thorndon’s grubby, wind-blasted streets to the quiet green valley of Karori, Redmer Yska retraces the world of the young Mansfield. Raised in Karori himself, he brings the sights, sounds and smells of the rickety colonial capital vividly to life.

Through persistent research and encounters along the way, Yska explores Mansfield’s Beauchamp ancestry, her social surroundings and the disease-ridden city she grew up in. His discoveries challenge long-held views of her formative years and lead to a thrilling find.

Weaving together fact and fiction, biography and memoir, this haunting, beautifully evocative book casts fresh light on Mansfield’s childhood and the city that helped shape her

Publisher: Otago University Press
Print publication date: July 2017
Pages: 296
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9780947522544