![]() ![]() In 2006 was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to literature and film. He spearheaded the saving and restoration of the Civic Theatre in Auckland in the 1980s, and is co-founder of the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival. His short stories, novels, memoirs and biographies have won many awards and accolades. He studied history at the University of Auckland and the University of Warwick, England. ![]() In a personal quest, author Peter Wells travels back into an antipodean heart of darkness and illuminates how we try to make sense of the past, how we heal, remember - and forget. Questions continue to emerge: Was it just? Was it right? Was Kereopa Te Rau even behind the murder? And who was Volkner – was he a spy or an innocent? ![]() But even a century and a half later, the events have not been laid to rest. Regardless, Kereopa Te Rau was hanged in Napier Prison. Sister Aubert and William Colenso - two of the greatest minds in colonial New Zealand - came to his defence. In 1871 he was captured, tried and sentenced to death. One name – Kereopa Te Rau (Kaiwhatu: The Eye-eater) – became synonymous with the murder. ![]() In 1865, Rev Carl Sylvius Volkner was hanged, his head cut off, his eyes eaten and his blood drunk from his church chalice. Part history, part biography, part social commentary, this fascinating book is about infamous events that shook New Zealand to its core. ![]()
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