COMP CLOSED | Book Giveaway | The Spanish Garden

One day, one life, one hundred years – this moving multi-generational novel by New Zealand author and journalist Cliff Taylor will appeal to lovers of The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje or Postcards by E Annie Proulx.

Set on a single day in 2016, this novel tells a story of memory and loss, the fatal history shared between two families, Pākehā and Māori, and a man’s enduring obsession with love.

In his Spanish garden overlooking the Kaipara Harbour, Sidney King reluctantly prepares to mark his hundredth birthday. At the same time, a discovery is made in Spain which could unlock a mystery which has haunted him since he fought in the Spanish Civil War.

As the tides come and go and visitors arrive and depart, the old man walks with his ghosts and makes peace with the past.

Author Note

‘The Spanish Garden is about memory, how it serves and deceives us. It is about the casualties of war, both the dead and the living, and the need to acknowledge the unnamed and the disappeared.

It is about the bad blood which can be passed down through generations and the blood which can mingle in our veins without us knowing. It is about buried secrets and their patient wait to be told.

And it is also about the beauty of places, which unite people, and how we are marked for life, even into our last days, by the youthful experience of intense love and passion, even, or especially, when it is lost.’

About the Author

Cliff Taylor is an author and journalist who has lived and worked in numerous places around the world. He was born on Auckland’s North Shore and later grew up on a small dairy farm at Makarau, attending Mahurangi College in Warkworth. He completed the journalism course at Auckland Technical Institute (now AUT) and began his journalistic career aged 17 as a reporter on the Auckland Star.

Cliff has travelled widely, sailing around Indonesia and Borneo, riding an old Enfield motorcycle 7000km around India, trekking to the source of the Ganges, buying an olive grove in Spain, living in Barcelona and Brighton, and working as a freelance journalist in Uganda. He has written for a variety of publications including UK daily The Independent, various newspapers in Africa, the Herald on Sunday and the Sunday Star-Times. He also worked as a journalist and producer for eight years at the BBC World Service in London and Africa. The Spanish Garden is his fourth novel.

Cliff enjoys trail running, walking in the mountains, and gardening, and is a keen forager for wild food. He currently lives in Baddeleys Beach on the Tāwharanui Peninsula.

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 30th May 2023, winners will be notified via email by 1st June 2023.
   3. It is your responsibility to ensure you correctly enter a New Zealand postal address where the prize can be couriered. 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 is non transferrable.
   9. You must reside in New Zealand – the prize will only be posted within New Zealand.
   10. You must be over 50 years of age to enter, check your details are correct in your membership dashboard.