Iris and Me

This is the story

of a long journey
and a true friend.

It is the story of other things, too:
sisters (three)
ships (many)
secrets (a multitude) …

I don’t have a name of my own,
but my friend does.
Her name is Iris.

So begins the story of Iris Wilkinson, who wrote poetry, novels and journalism under the pen name Robin Hyde. In January 1938, she left New Zealand for England. On the way, intrigued by glimpses of China, she ventured inland despite the war raging there, becoming one of the first women war correspondents – a feat that was all the more remarkable because she struggled with mental health and suffered a disability that meant she had a lifelong limp. Robin Hyde doesn’t tell her story – it is narrated by a loyal but mysterious companion who asks the reader to guess the secret.

Iris and Me is an imaginative account of the adventures of one of Aotearoa’s most significant writers, presented in a form that Hyde herself would have loved – the verse novel.

Written by Philippa Werry