A Presentation by Charlotte Grimshaw – The Novelist, and Memories of a 2010 Visit to the Pike River Mine
The membership of U3A Ponsonby enjoyed an engaging presentation from our own U3A member Judith Crimmins who was on a family visit to the West Coast in November 2010 where she took the opportunity to visit the processing operation and adjacent underground mine of Pike River Coal. This was just days before the disastrous mine explosion of 19 November 2010 when 29 miners were killed. It was a sad reminder that even with today’s technological advances, such events can happen. Judith’s personal account of close family links to the disaster were indeed harrowing.
Our main speaker was Charlotte Grimshaw, the 2025 President of Honour of the New Zealand Society of Authors, who is well known to U3A members through her publications and her excellent regular contributions to the Listener magazine. Charlotte has authored 11 critically acclaimed books to date encompassing novels, short stories and a memoir. Her most recent novel, a psychological thriller, is entitled The Black Monk.
Charlotte gave a delightful account of the six months that she recently spent in Menton, France as the 2024 recipient of the prestigious Katherine Mansfield Fellowship. She explained that Menton is in the far east corner of France and is indeed sited at the border railway crossing between France and Italy. The writers’ studio where she was based had a window that overlooked the Menton Railway Station. During her visit, the station platforms were heavily policed due to the number of migrants attempting to cross from Italy to France, ultimately aiming to gain entry to the United Kingdom.
Charlotte contrasted the incredibly polite manner of the French police towards residents and legally approved visitors with the need of the border police to ferret out and send back to Italy any travellers who lacked the necessary documentation to legally visit or reside in France. She contrasted those issues with her delight in being able to walk along the foreshore from Menton to Monte Carlo where she enjoyed lunching in a decadent setting amongst the mega rich and famous from all over the world.
Charlotte also compared her 2024 sojourn in Menton with the year she had spent there in 1972 as a child, when her father CK Stead was the recipient of the Katherine Mansfield Fellowship. The audience was amused by Charlotte's statement that even now the smell of dog faeces evokes some nostalgic memories of Menton as a child. Today, the local people collect dog litter in plastic bags.
Recently, Charlotte delivered the Janet Frame Memorial lecture in Wellington at the Alexander Turnbull Library, in horrendous weather. As part of her delivery on the state of Literature in New Zealand, Charlotte dwelt on a personal battle for authenticity excerpted in the 28 October Listener. The most recent recipient of the 2025 Katherine Manfield Fellowship is Fiona Samuels who was the screen writer for the recently released Pike River movie, providing an interesting link to our first speaker of the day.
U3A Ponsonby activities for 2025 will close with a Christmas function on 12 December and reconvene in February 2026.
NEXT MEETING: Friday 13 February 2026
GUEST SPEAKER: JACKY MCLENNAN: The Penan Tribes of Borneo and Borneo Bags
VENUE: Herne Bay Petanque Club, Salisbury Reserve, Salisbury Street, Herne Bay
ENQUIRIES: Bronwen Hughes, President, Ponsonby U3A. www.u3a.nz
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