We were lucky enough to hear from author Anthony Byrt as he was going to be visiting Aotearoa to promote his spy thriller book Dying Days as well as his new release book covering the art of Shane Cotton. He signed our copies of Dying Days and we asked him some quickfire questions while touring the warehouse!
Dying Days is an espionage thriller set near the end of the Second World War. There were rumours circulating around missing New Zealand soldiers which a British M16 agent and New Zealand intelligence officer begin to uncover the truth. If you love a thrilling historical fiction (which maybe based on truth) then this one is for you. Anthony's newest release, Shane Cotton, looks into and covers the amazing art and process of Shane's paintings over 30 years. This is a beautiful hardback filled with the wonderful art pieces from this Aotearoa artist, a great gift this Christmas.
Quickfire Questions with Anthony Byrt
- Tea or Coffee? 100% coffee
- All time favourite spy movie? Probably the first Bourne film I reckon
- Who's your favourite author? I have so many but one of the biggest influences on this book, Dying Days, is a guy called Peter Temple who is an Australian crime writer.
- Fiction or Non-Fiction? Fiction
- Where's your favourite place to write? The State Library of Victoria in Melbourne. It is a very beautiful building.
- Who's your favourite character in Dying Days? Interestingly when I started writing it, I thought it was going to be Alex Madigan but it turned out to be Mark Donnelly by the end of the book.
- What are you reading at the moment? I've just finished a book by Patricia Highsmith called The People Who Knock at the Door, it was fantastic. Very dark and typical Patricia Highsmith but really a wonderful book.
- What do you listen to while writing? All my books have slightly different soundtracks. So bizarrely even though this book was set at the end of WW2, the soundtrack was Goldfrapp and St.Vincent for most of the writing.
- Are you listening to any podcasts at the moment? Do you know what, I'm not really a podcast guy because I'm old but I should really do a lot more of it than I do. I will take that as a prompt to go and find some good podcasts to listen to.
- What is your time favourite spy TV Show? Maybe I'm gonna go with The Americans cos it's so quirky.
- Give me three phrases to describe Dying Days? Spy thriller, possibly true but maybe better than the truth.
Anthony had a go at packing a customer order of his brand-new book, with our very own warehouse hero Dom showing him the ropes! Of course, we couldn't resist putting him to the test and timing him to see where he'd land on our packing leaderboard. He clocked in at a very respectable 34 seconds! Not bad at all for his first attempt. We might have to get him back for another shift!
Signed copies of Dying Days are available now so get in quick while stocks last!
