Rotorua Daily Post
  • Rotorua Daily Post home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Residential property listings
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Rural
  • Sport

Locations

  • Tauranga
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō & Tūrangi

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales

Weather

  • Rotorua
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Rotorua Daily Post

Historic read for Taupō author Andrew Lacey's debut Bridge Of Honour

Laurilee McMichael
By Laurilee McMichael
Editor·Taupo & Turangi Herald·
10 Jun, 2020 05:00 PM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Taupō author Andrew Lacey has just published his first novel, Bridge of Honour. Photo / Supplied

Taupō author Andrew Lacey has just published his first novel, Bridge of Honour. Photo / Supplied

At the relatively tender age of 18, Taupō writer Andrew Lacey drafted his first novel - and now it has become reality.

Bridge of Honour, a historical fiction novel set in Wales in 1282, during the last major conflict between the English and the Welsh, tells the story of two men, one Welsh and one English, and the unlikely bond that arises between them.

Andrew, 22, followed home-schooling in Taupō with a history and English degree at Waikato University and after that trained as a teacher of English as a second language. But with the bottom having dropped out of the international student market since March, he has returned to Taupō and used his time productively to finish his book.

READ MORE:
• Top five favourite NZ novels named
• Premium - Canvas book reviews: Novels to inspire and entertain
•Taupō authors finalists in NZ Book Awards for Children & Young Adults

Andrew drafted the book during a gap year after finishing high school. He was working and saving money for university.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"I love making up stories and coming up with ideas and I got this idea for a story. I was telling Mum about it and mapping it out in my head, and she said 'it sounds lovely, come back when you've finished it'.

"I worked on it for a couple of hours each day and I managed to whip out a draft over the next couple of months. Refining it for the next couple of years and the cover design was the hard bit."

With publishing in New Zealand almost impossible to break into for new authors, most are turning to self-publishing and by teaching himself how to self-publish, format and using expert contacts for the editing, Andrew has done a lot of work and research to get his book to the point where he has only had to pay for the photographs used as his cover images.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Part of the front cover of Bridge of Honour by Taupō  author Andrew Lacey.
Part of the front cover of Bridge of Honour by Taupō author Andrew Lacey.

He says he chose to set his book in Wales in the 13th century because he has always been a big fan of history.

"Mum used to read to us a lot growing up and I think UK history became - and still is, to be honest - my favourite area of history; and I found that the Celtic lands and their histories really appealed to me.

"The story is based around the final conquest or absorption of Wales by England and that really fascinated me. I thought it would be a cool idea to have a story set around that time."

For his research Andrew studied maps and read many books about England and English characters.

Discover more

Your picture here - Taupō's post-lockdown project

29 May 02:48 AM

Taupō upholsterer's creative lockdown challenge

27 May 05:00 PM

Free Covid-19 testing still available in Taupō district

03 Jun 05:00 PM

Free 2021 Ironman entry for two Taupō volunteers

03 Jun 07:00 PM

"I tried to figure out different prominent characters [from the time] and where their movements were because I tried to match historical characters and events and then try to weave my characters around those events.

"There's a lot in the story that's real. Quite a few of the characters were living at the time, quite a few of the English knights and lords and Welsh princes Dafydd and Llywelyn, and the Mortimers, but the three main characters are all made up."

GOLOCAL
GOLOCAL

The book explores the strong sense of Welsh cultural identity as well as the idea of honour. Andrew says to some extent there is an ethical message in the book.

"When authors write books, to some extent it's an expression of their own views and definitely I like stories to be entertaining but have some sort of grounding in ethical or moral values, otherwise it's like eating junk food."

Andrew enjoys writing and was involved with creative writing while at university. He says he finds descriptive writing easy, and has to keep in mind that readers do not like too much description - and when it comes to dialogue, which can be tricky to do, he tries to match it to the situations and the characters. He says in Bridge of Honour he used some archaisms to reflect the time the book is set, but kept it accessible to the audience.

The book is on Amazon and can be downloaded as an e-book for $4 or in hard copy, which is printed on demand and sent to the buyer. Now the book is finished and he has a hard copy, Andrew says the hardest part is the marketing.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Andrew says though family have strongly suggested he should write a sequel, he's already drafted up his next work, a historical fiction novel set in Renaissance Italy.

You can find out more about the book at Andrew's website barrowsandbooks.blogspot.com.

Review

I've been given quite a few self-published books by locals, or people with a link to the Taupō district to read over the years, with a view to writing an article promoting them and their tome. I'm happy to say that apart from a couple of real stinkers, most of what I've been given to review has been eminently readable, and a few - including

Bridge of Honour

- have been deserving of a much wider audience. Andrew Lacey has come up with a yarn that deftly weaves together the narrative of the two main characters and places them in a real-life historical setting amidst a chain of events that actually occurred. It helps that he writes evocative descriptions and has a good ear for dialogue as well.

Bridge of Honour

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

opened a chapter on to a period of history (the final conquest of the Welsh by the English in 1282) and brought it to life. At 300-odd pages it's short enough to knock out over a weekend and long enough to satisfactorily develop the plot. If you're a fan of history, have a bit of Welsh ancestry or just like your novels with a few swords and arrows, give Bridge of Honour a go and support local talent. It's on Amazon as an e-book or hard copy, or via barrowsandbooks.blogspot.com.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

Rotorua Daily Post

Home-schooled students ride 755km to Parliament for equal sports access

10 Jul 11:07 PM
Rotorua Daily PostUpdated

Heavy rain warning issued for Bay of Plenty, up to 140mm expected

10 Jul 10:57 PM
Rotorua Daily PostUpdated

Light truck rolls on SH36, one seriously injured

10 Jul 10:45 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

Home-schooled students ride 755km to Parliament for equal sports access

Home-schooled students ride 755km to Parliament for equal sports access

10 Jul 11:07 PM

Amelia Twiss and George Fisher made the journey over 10 days.

Heavy rain warning issued for Bay of Plenty, up to 140mm expected

Heavy rain warning issued for Bay of Plenty, up to 140mm expected

10 Jul 10:57 PM
Light truck rolls on SH36, one seriously injured

Light truck rolls on SH36, one seriously injured

10 Jul 10:45 PM
'Give Paea a chance': Wife's tearful plea for Tongan overstayer

'Give Paea a chance': Wife's tearful plea for Tongan overstayer

10 Jul 08:02 PM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Rotorua Daily Post e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Rotorua Daily Post
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP