Mangawhai book launch

Debut novel launched in Mangawhai

The adventures and mis-adventures of a bunch of baby boomers is the theme of the first novel of Mangawhai author Roy Vaughan, which was officially launched at Bennetts Chocolates last month.
The Mereleigh Record Club Tour of New Zealand is described as a fast-paced, bold story with an unlikely hero. It takes a group of rock-n-roll baby boomers and puts them in the middle of an international drug-smuggling operation.
Roy has already completed the second Mereleigh book, which he hopes to release at the end of this year, and has started on the third and final book in the trilogy.
“A recent visit to Britain and a surprise reunion with some old adolescent era friends prompted me write a novel,” Roy says. “We were all members of a very informal record club at Marlow.
“The friends wanted me to organise a tour of New Zealand but the recession killed any chance of it happening so I simply invented a tour and the events in the book.
“It was a pure labour of love and I hope it will help promote New Zealand as a tourist destination. Primarily I hope the books are a good read and that someone may also see a film potential in the stories as there is plenty of action and some great scenery along the way.”
Roy and his wife Jane (nee Worsfold) settled permanently in Mangawhai from Auckland, although Jane’s earliest NZ ancestors landed in the district in the 1840s. Roy was originally from Britain and Mereleigh is based on a small Thames Valley town.
A man of many talents, Roy worked as a deck officer in the British and New Zealand Merchant Navies, and it was a job with the Union Steam Ship Company that brought him to NZ. He worked as a journalist for the NZ Herald, started an Expo Association and did a stint in Fiji setting up a PR and information section for the South Pacific Forum.

Image: During the Mangawhai book launch, Ann Parnell takes the opportunity to get a signed copy Roy Vaughan’s first novel.