Former journalist Stacy Gregg began writing children’s stories about horses almost 20 years ago, with Mystic and the Midnight Ride arriving in 2007, the first in her Pony Club Secrets series. Gregg (Ngāti Mahuta, Ngāti Pūkeko, Ngāti Maru) has since written numerous books in the successful Pony Club Secrets and Pony Club Rivals series. Last year, she took home the highest accolade in children’s publishing, her book Nine Girls winning the Margaret Mahy award at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. It was the bestselling locally published junior fiction novel in 2024. Now living in Auckland, she’s also a screenwriter; her credits include Mystic and local series My Life Is Murder, starring Lucy Lawless.
What is your earliest memory?
My nan giving me a bath, which she’d decided to do for some unknown reason in the laundry sink, and there was a wasp on the wall beside me and I wanted her to get rid of it. “It won’t bother you if you don’t bother it,” she said dismissively. It promptly flew down and stung me. Life lesson: sometimes, even if you do your best to mind your own business, someone will go out of their way to fuck you up.
What did you want to be when you were a kid?
A horse vet. Or an international diplomat. I ran into an old family friend from childhood a couple of years ago and asked him what he did now for a crust and he said, “Well, I was a horse vet but I’ve since become an international diplomat …” You have no idea how furious I was that he had stolen both my dream careers and didn’t even seem that fussed about it.
When are you happiest?
The day I send off a finished manuscript to my editor.
What makes you unhappy?
The day I get the notes back from my editor outlining in painful detail exactly what’s wrong with my manuscript and how much work it still needs.
What’s your greatest fear?
Oh I worry about everything! I am the Black Hawk Down of helicopter parents. My daughter is 25 now though so mostly I fret about my Burmilla, Pusskin. He’s too charming and handsome for his own good. I wish he were more of a home body instead of boulevarding about and seducing the neighbourhood. My new book, The Last Journey, is narrated by a fictional version of him. He’s a special little guy, really starry – like, seriously, the George Clooney of cats.
What trait in yourself do you least like?
I realised recently that all the pursuits I’m driven to (riding dressage, learning to speak Māori, writing novels and creating TV shows) involve people telling me how rubbish I am at it. In dressage they literally mark you down based on every tiny thing you do wrong. And don’t even get me started on the inherent rejection attached to writing for a living. It can’t be a coincidence so I figure I must subliminally believe that constantly having criticism heaped on you is healthy. This is my long-winded preamble for the fact that I’m aware I myself can be really, really critical.
What trait in others do you least like?
Pretentiousness. Especially flowery, dorky writers who write as if it’s still the 80s and flounce about on the page using words like “sojourn” and “scintilla” when a normal unfucked-with word would do the trick. Gah! So dated.
What characteristics do you most value in your friends?
All my friends are funny, talented, brilliant, genuine, erudite and reliably speak their minds to a fault. I would be lost without them.
When is it okay to lie?
Pretty much never when it comes to kids. It’s not big or clever to use them as unwitting pawns in adult games by fabricating nonsense to amuse yourself. I’m thinking specifically here of the opening sentence of Nine Girls: “I was six when my goat left home to go work for Santa.” That’s a true story. My parents wanted to get rid of my goat. Their solution was to lie to me and say he was working for Santa. It became an excruciating long con for them because every Christmas I was looking out for Twinkle pulling the sleigh. And yes, I’m aware of the irony that I write fiction and even did a book about the Easter Bunny. My excuse is that what I do is creating a magical world to unleash imagination – totally different.
What is your most treasured possession?
I lost all my clothes in the 2023 flood including my favourite pair of Prada heels, which I bought at Fred Segal in LA. They were constructed of this incredible bamboo-like scaffolding, and they were so iconic my daughter got one of them tattooed on her arm to make up for the fact that she never got to inherit them, which cheered me up enormously.
What was the last book you read?
Catherine Chidgey’s The Book of Guilt. It is the best book of 2025. She’s a superstar.
Who are your favourite writers?
I have a theory that, just as everyone continues to dress as if they are stuck in the era when they were in their prime, our literary tastes are stuck in similar aspic. Every year there are so many great books but if I had to make a desert-island list it would be the authors that shaped me in my YA and 20s reading era: Bret Easton Ellis, Donna Tartt, Tama Janowitz, Richard Adams, Douglas Adams, Emily Brontë.
Who are your favourite characters of fiction?
Adrian Mole, Scout and Patrick Bateman.
What book do you recommend to others to read?
Māori Made Easy. Tēnā koe i tō mahi hirahira, Scotty!
The title of your autobiography would be …
The Pony Book Girl. This should be said facetiously as in “Oh, you’re the Pony Book girl …” Which is what another author once said upon being introduced to me. I wanted to reply, “Uh that is super-reductive. My books are well-researched alternative interrogations of historical events, as seen through the eyes of adolescent female protagonists. They are also heart-wrenching and profound explorations of the power of animal friendship.” But meh, I’ve sold three million copies and written 39 books. So yeah, Pony Book Girl, whatever. Also – the new one is about cats, bitches! (Finger snap.)
What words or phrase do you overuse?
I’m really irritated by language stagnation and like to rotate my pet phrases. Is that weird?
What is your favourite word?
Heoi anō. Reo Māori for “anyway”. Usually said with a resigned sigh and an eye roll.
Do you have a quote you live by?
This year my go-to is, “I’m taking a gun to a knife fight.” It seems to be working out so far.
What is the artwork you could look at endlessly?
I have a John Reynolds in my office that I spend a lot of time staring at when I should be working. I dedicated Nine Girls to his late wife, Claire McLintock, and I think about her every day; she was so inspirational for so many people.
What particular artistic talent would you like to have?
I don’t want to be grabby because I like the one I’ve got, but I do wish I could sing better because we do a lot of singing on noho marae and I can’t hit the high notes.
What is your favourite film?
The original Star Wars.
If a movie was made of your life, which song would be played over the end credits?
Duran Duran’s cover of Lou Reed’s Perfect Day.
Who would play you?
Florence Pugh.
What has been your most enjoyable live theatre experience?
Can I look to the future instead and say, “I’m really excited about seeing Jess Sayer’s MARY: The Birth of Frankenstein at the Auckland Theatre Company later in August?
What has been your most enjoyable live music experience?
The Beastie Boys at The Powerstation.
What are your favourite genres of music?
70s yacht rock, 80s new romantic, 90s rap.
What were your top songs in Spotify 2024 Wrapped?
I only listen to podcasts so Hēmi Kelly’s “Everyday Māori” and the Taringa Podcast would be the two contenders.
What song always gets you dancing?
Literally nothing on Earth will get me dancing so don’t ask.
What is a streaming series or favourite TV show you recommend?
I feel compelled to spruik the latest season of My Life Is Murder since I write for it. Having done three seasons now, I do think it’s our best run yet. As for shows I don’t write? I think Friends from College was underrated, and so was Platonic – both written by Francesca Delbanco. Mike White (The White Lotus) is a genius. And if I am ever feeling vulnerable I dig out old episodes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, so naturally I’m feeling weirded out about the reboot.
If you weren’t an author what would you be doing instead?
I miss my old jobs – being a journalist and a fashion editor were both fun gigs, but I feel lucky to have been in those industries for what will now be looked back on wistfully as the golden era. I know everyone talks a lot about the demise of the business I’m in now, too, but publishing is still okay. In the UK, kids’ books are still going strong. We just need to keep focused on encouraging our kids to read for pleasure. If you want to get them off screens then buy them books. Read them books.
Which talent or skill do you wish you had?
The ability to train my Borzoi. He follows zero commands and every day is a power struggle.
Do you have a skill or ability that might surprise people?
I’m fluent in reo Māori. I’ve been cramming classes at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa since 2020 and graduated Aupikitanga ki te Reo Kairangi (Immersion) last year. I got asked recently if I was finished studying but yeah nah, it doesn’t work like that because even though I can speak now, I could be so much better than I am. Ka whawhai tonu (the struggle continues).
Which three people, dead or alive, would you like to have dinner with?
My mum, and my tūpuna wāhine Irihapeti Te Paea Hahau Te Wherowhero and Hinepau Hahau. So much of the kōrero about our whānau is lost in time. I want it back in the words of the women who lived it.
Where is your favourite place in New Zealand?
Ngāruawāhia.
What is your favourite place outside of Aotearoa?
Iceland.
What is a destination you’d love to visit some time soon?
Post-Trump America.
What is a building or work of architecture that you admire?
The entrance coming into the Waterview tunnel at night at the Maioro Rd end – it’s very Death Star.
A good day starts with?
My partner Brin bringing me coffee in bed.
What can’t you resist on a restaurant menu?
We have a blended family and that means if we all go out together, it’s dinner for six, and once the kids have added on their various extras – “fries for the table” and “mocktails” – we literally have to sell a kidney to pay for it. But dinners are important. Our family go-to is Ponsonby’s Yuzu. I like the grilled eggplant salad.
What is your guilty pleasure?
Watching Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart on The Rest Is Politics.
The Last Journey, by Stacy Gregg (Simon & Schuster, RRP $20.99) is out now.
