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Catherine Chidgey in conversation with North & South
11th October 2025
Internationally lauded and best-selling Aotearoa author, Catherine Chidgey, has published her ninth novel, The Book of Guilt. Set in Britain in 1979, it’s a dystopian and sinister story about 13-year-old triplets – Vincent, Lawrence and William – who live in the New Forest home, part of the government’s Sycamore Scheme. After an international bidding war The Book of Guilt was picked up by UK publisher John Murray, who was established in the 1700s and has published, among others, Darwin, Arthur Conan Doyle and Jane Austen. Sarah Daniell caught up with Chidgey on the eve of the book’s launch, to discuss work, words, family and death – and the ‘difficult child’, Tama, the omnipotent magpie star of her novel, The Axeman’s Carnival.North & South: I feel I must ask – how’s Tama?
Catherine Chidgey: He’s furious. He’s absolutely livid at other books taking the attention away from his book. Yeah, he’s not impressed. We’ve just moved house. And basically that was because he trashed the old place. You don’t want to know what state he left it in. So we had to move. Didn’t tell him our new address, but he’s tracked us down. And is bashing at the windows at all hours. It’s pretty ugly.