Maggie Rainey-Smith Photo: John Rainey-Smith
Photo: supplied
Many of us may remember sitting around the good old Formica kitchen table back in the 1960s and 70s.
Eastbourne-based poet Maggie Rainey-Smith takes us back to those times in her new collection, Formica.
The poems are grounded in post-World War Two New Zealand, where Maggie's family, like so many, faced hard times.
But the oatmeal-coloured Formica table was always a centrepoint for the family, where Maggie's mother regularly recited poetry as she prepared dinner.
Formica follows Maggie from childhood through to her 70s, from daughter to grandmother, and it celebrates the lives of women - and the occasional household appliance! Maggie Rainey-Smith explains to Lynn Freeman that the Formica table has a special place in the collection:
Please note that in this interview there are references to suicide.
Formica by Maggie Rainey-Smith is a Cuba Press publication.
