Originally titled Where’s The Brick?, a title taken from a particularly eventful Hastings Boys’ High School sports day where Frizzell had to retrieve a brick from the bottom of the school’s pool.
“It’s a bit of a mad moment and ‘Where’s the Brick’ became this kind of catch cry,” Frizzell laughs.
“Then my very canny editor ... Nicola Legat, said ‘I don’t know Dick, everyone’s going to say what does that mean and your interviews will get bogged down in this story of the brick’.
“I was a big fan of those Boys’ Own papers growing up ... Then my editor had this canny idea of changing the emphasis to Hastings: A Boys’ Own Adventure and away we went.”
The book is a collection of 30 short stories, conjuring a world within a moment as seen through Frizzell’s eyes.
Adorning the cover of the book is Frizzell in the sidecar of a motorcycle driven by Stiffy Merton at the Hastings Blossom Festival, a man whose stories Frizzell shares in the book.
“It was the year before the riots, I know that much,” recalls Frizzell.
“It was the year before it all turned to s**t.”
Frizzell is on the cover of the book in the sidecar of a motorcycle driven by Stiffy Merton at the Hastings Blossom Festival.
Despite the title, Frizzell doesn’t call the book a love letter to the district, rather a collection of stories taken from his time growing up in the area during the 1950s, and 1960s.
“Oh, thank god for editors,” Frizzell says.
“Nicola said at some point near the end I think we need a story about Hastings itself, so you can establish the geography and the sense of the place so that people know from the get-go where they are.
“I think that’s when it started to turn into this thing about Hastings, as like I am a gormless sort of reporter watching from the corner.”
A young Dick Frizzell at a Hawke's Bay A&P show in Hastings.
To launch the book, Frizzell will be speaking at Hastings Library on March 13, the day before Hastings’ first-ever Meatball Festival.
Even though Frizzell grew up in Hastings, he has never indulged in one of the region’s delicacies.
“It’s a cultural clash there,” laughed Frizzell.
“I mean the meatballs hadn’t been invented when I was a boy. There’s no mention of meatballs in the book.”
The Dick Frizzell design for the Hastings Meatball Festival T-shirt.
Despite his scepticism about the delicious breaded gelatinous balls and their alleged history, Frizzell has designed the official T-shirt for the festival and is available to be purchased from the Hastings isite, with signed copies of his book.
Frizzell is “tremendously excited” about the release of his first book, which is “not just about art”, and is looking forward to people reading it.
“Everyone’s been reading review copies of it and ringing me up about it,” he says.
“The buzz, I’ve never come across anything like it. I’ve written a few books but I’ve never struck anything quite like this.
“It seems to have hit some sort of nerve. I’m digging it, it’s great fun.”
Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and spent the last 15 years working in radio and media in Auckland, London, Berlin, and Napier. He reports on all stories relevant to residents of the region.
