Vivienne Lingard

Websitehttps://viviennelingard.net

Genre:

  • Adult Fiction

Skills:

  • Freelance Writing
  • Illustration
  • Reviews

Branch:

Auckland

Location:

Publications:

The (almost) true story of a man called jack

The book was published in August but launched on 20 September, owing to Covid restrictions. It is now available from RealNZBooks, Unity Books (Auckland & wellington), Women's Bookshop, Paradox Books and Time Out Bookstore plus online platforms. 

The (almost) true story of a man Called Jack is about my father, John Frederick Lingard Fowlds. I decided to write this as a fictionalized memoir, combining the genres of fiction and memoir. By altering names and events, I could write about my family as ‘other’, enabling me to write more objectively of the personal events involved.

The story recounts Jack McPhee’s life through the nineteen fifties and sixties with his family in Silverstream, in the Hutt Valley north of Wellington. The McPhees live in a dilapidated old villa which would in today’s terms be known as ‘the worst house in the best street’. Thigh-high weeds are the garden, crazed concrete is the front yard. The four children share the one bedroom, and the parents sleep in the lounge. But Jack has a plan to renovate. Jack always has a plan. He tries his hand at signwriting, singing, acting and art, filling every minute of his short life.

 

Pocket Money & Other Stories

Pocket Money & Other Stories: published 2022 by Artistry Publishing

Blurb from cover: An academic and his wife are on holiday in Rome. He has a secret to reveal, but as he has yet to discover, so does his wife. A retired New Zealand businessman, lost in the middle of New Delhi, is dealing with crippling anxiety. A jilted bride takes her honeymoon alone, and finds peace through meeting a giant owl. Every story takes the reader on a journey as these richly painted characters solve mysteries, betray friends, battle bullies, all the while finding resilience and purpose in their lives. Spanning countries, cultures and characters, this delightful collection of stories is irreverent, surprising, and touching.

Mrs Forsythe

Mrs Forsythe was published in March 2025. It is available through Nationwide Distributors and New Zealand bookstores.

The back cover blurb: 

Mrs Forsythe, reluctant wife and mother has yearned for the time she can be on her own, and finally the day has come. It is 1970s Wellington, and the city beckons her to explore a different life, where her options and choices are based on her talents and intellect rather than on societal norms. But will Majorie's brittleness with family and friends soften when she finally has, as Virginia Woolf says, 'a room of one's own', and opportunities arise to be more than mere housewife or mother? Will she ever  be able to give and receive the love she needs and others wish for?