Jack Riddell interviews Dick Frizzell, author of Hastings: A boy’s own adventure for Hawkes Bay Today:
‘One of Hastings' favourite sons has created a collection of memories from his time growing up in Hastings, using words rather than his typical paints.
Dick Frizzell, one of New Zealand’s top artists, has temporarily put down the paintbrush and picked up the pen to write his memoir; Hastings: A Boy’s Own Adventure.
Originally titled Where’s The Brick?, a title taken from a particularly eventful Hastings Boys’ High School sports day where Frizzell had to retrieve a brick from the bottom of the school’s pool.
“It’s a bit of a mad moment and ‘Where’s the Brick’ became this kind of catch cry,” Frizzell laughs.
“Then my very canny editor ... Nicola Legat, said ‘I don’t know Dick, everyone’s going to say what does that mean and your interviews will get bogged down in this story of the brick’.
“I was a big fan of those Boys’ Own papers growing up ... Then my editor had this canny idea of changing the emphasis to Hastings: A Boys’ Own Adventure and away we went.”
The book is a collection of 30 short stories, conjuring a world within a moment as seen through Frizzell’s eyes.
Adorning the cover of the book is Frizzell in the sidecar of a motorcycle driven by Stiffy Merton at the Hastings Blossom Festival, a man whose stories Frizzell shares in the book.
“It was the year before the riots, I know that much,” recalls Frizzell.
“It was the year before it all turned to s**t.”’
Read the rest of the interview here.
