Author Saige England has taken on a rather uncomfortable subject in her new book about the early days of colonial New Zealand.
While researching the whaling trade, she came across details of much murkier one - the trade in the preserved heads of Māori. Saige says it was a history that shocked her and she's woven a young Māori woman's resistance to it in her new novel The Seasonwife.
Saige has an MA in Creative Writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters, and has worked as a journalist both here in New Zealand and in conflict zones overseas.