Whanganui writer Wendy Ward's The Kingfisher's Nest manuscript finalist at book awards

Wendy Ward has now been a two-time finalist at the Ashton Wylie National Book Awards. Photo / Bevan Conley

Whanganui writer Wendy Ward's new book The Kingfisher's Nest has earned her fourth place in the 'unpublished manuscript' section at the recent Ashton Wylie National Book Awards.

The manuscript focuses on the 14 years she and her husband spent on a lifestyle block in the King Country, and blends psychology, spirituality, poetry, nature writing, and memoir.

"We were living in Whanganui, and then my husband became the editor of a newspaper up in Taumarunui," Ward said.

"I went up to house hunt and this particular lifestyle block just spoke to the pair of us. It didn't really make sense at the time, but we just went with it. That eventually became Foxglove Farm."

Farming had been a lifelong ambition, Ward said, but her time at Foxglove Farm also became "a spiritual journey as well".

"There's much more to stock animals than just 'walking meat', for example. I really developed this relationship with the land itself, and realised that land needs sanctuary from what we humans are doing to it.

"That was quite a revelation to me. I went in with this sort of 'Western' idea that you do things to the land in order to make a profit, but I discovered that there's a reciprocal relationship between that land and the animals, and yourself.

"We each have a place in the world and in nature, and we just need to respect each other and give each other space. From there, things will work out."

Ward, who has also written a children's book called Tiger and the Talking Pond, said it wasn't until she returned to live in Whanganui that she thought of writing about her time at Foxglove Farm.

"I wrote really consistently for about eight or nine months and I absolutely loved doing it. There was an interweaving of my various passions, from the land to the spirituality associated with that.

"As a child I lived in rural Norfolk in a house on a clifftop, and I think what was set in place within me during that time was this love of the natural world.

"I was an only child, and I also started writing around then too. I had to use my imagination a lot for play and things like that."

Ward said that wherever she'd been throughout her life, she had always chosen to live "as rurally" as she could.

"Even now in retirement, we live close to paddocks and hills, and there are pheasants, pukeko and hawks. I can hear sheep and lambs and cows, and the only difference these days is that they aren't my responsibility."

The next steps in the manuscript's journey would be a final rewrite and the securing of a publisher for it, Ward said.