COMP CLOSED | Book Giveaway | Max Gunn’s Pay Book.

We are very pleased to be giving away two copies of Graham Lindsay’s book ‘Max Gunn’s Pay Book.’, to our GrownUps members.

All you need to do to enter the draw is be a GrownUps member, make sure you’re signed up to our newsletter and fill in your details near the bottom of the page!

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About Max Gunn’s Pay Book

Max Gunn is a thoughtful and idealistic youth who leaves New Zealand in 1940 to fight fascism in Europe. His experiences there over the next five years will shadow him for the rest of his life.

Max Gunn’s Pay Book. is part memoir, part historical novel. It is a work of creative non-fiction in memory of the author’s father, William Lindsay (1914-1989).

‘In the late ‘80s, when my father died, I was so busy with funeral preparations I ran out of time for preparing a eulogy,’ says Graham. ‘As a result, I told myself I’d do the job properly when I got time. In this sense Max Gunn’s Pay Book. is a kind of eulogy.’

‘In the ‘70s I began keeping notebooks in which I penned snippets of some of his stories, with the help of research I was able to piece these stories together and elaborate upon them.’

Though born in Wellington, raised in Porirua and Havelock North, Lindsay has spent his adult life in Dunedin, Christchurch and now is Northland-based. He spent a decade in Essex, from where he travelled throughout Europe and the Mediterranean, visiting sites that feature in this novel.

‘During our decade in England, I was able to visit the remains of some of the POW camps my father had been in as well as do research at Kew Archives in London. We visited the remains of POW camps in Italy and Germany that my father had been in for three-plus years. While in different stages of disrepair, the holes in the block walls by which the POWs had pegged their Red Cross cartons to make cupboards were still there.’

‘The camps in Greece were harder to find: one site (a transit camp of about a month’s duration) had seemingly disappeared and the locals — hard-pressed by the political and economic circumstances — could only shrug. And so we could only make best guesses based on the drawings by one of the South African POWs that showed a similar outline to the hills in the background.’

Where the facts are known, they are scrupulously adhered to — the full stop in the title is a follow up from the full stop used on soldiers’ service and pay books in WW2 — where they are not, dots are joined for the sake of the story.

Graham’s careful attention to detail brings the past to life in Max Gunn’s Pay Book. It is a fascinating, thought provoking read.

About Graham Lindsay

Graham Lindsay is the author of seven poetry books and the one-time editor and publisher of a literary periodical. He has a degree in English, a diploma in teaching, and was the Ursula Bethell Resident in Creative Writing in 2004. Max Gunn’s Pay Book. is his first novel.

Terms and conditions

1. 1. You must be a GrownUps member and receive our newsletter to be eligible to win.
   2. Competition closes on the 27th March 2024, winners will be notified via email by 28th March 2024.
   3. It is your responsibility to ensure you correctly enter a New Zealand postal address where the prize can be sent. GrownUps will not take responsibility for prizes sent to incorrect addresses.
   4. Winners are drawn at random by the GrownUps administration team.
   5. GrownUps employees and family are not eligible to enter.
   6. By entering the giveaway, you approve for GrownUps to use your name on social media as winner of the competition.
   7. One entry per household.
   8. Prize in non transferrable.
   9. You must reside in New Zealand – the prize can only be redeemed within New Zealand.
   10. You must be over 50 years of age to enter, please check your details are correct in your membership dashboard.