Award-winning writer to attend Prospace Billy Webb Centennial Challenge Dinner - 1/12/2008Wellington author and winner of the 2009 New Zealand Post Mansfield Prize, Jenny Pattrick, will be an invited guest at the Prospace Billy Webb Centennial Challenge Dinner on Friday, December 5, in Wanganui.
The dinner is one of a host of events in the lead-up to the rowing show-down between Olympic Champion Olaf Tufte and World Champion Mahe Drysdale. Together with a 'wild-card' competitor, they will race in the Billy Webb Centennial Regatta along the Whanganui River on Sunday, December 7.
Pattrick's most recent novel 'Landings' is a historic novel set on and around the Whanganui River, around the time that Billy Webb raced 100 years ago. At the dinner, she will read an extract from the novel which makes reference to the historic race.
Philippa Baker-Hogan, Council spokesperson for Sports and Recreation and the leading figure behind the Centennial Challenge race on Sunday, is delighted Jenny Pattrick will take part in the weekend.
"I first met Jenny at the launch of her book 'Landings' in Wanganui. A conversation I had with her that day, about the river and Billy Webb, was one of the inspirations for the Prospace Billy Webb Challenge event. It's great she will be here to meet both Mahe and Olaf and be able to be part of the event which she was influential in conceiving."
Copies of Pattrick's book will be on sale at the dinner and over the weekend at various outlets, including Poppies book shop. A percentage of sale proceeds from 'Landings' sold at Poppies will be given to support rowing in Wanganui. This will also apply to sales of transatlantic rower and event organiser Rob Hamill's book, 'The Naked Rower'.
Tickets for the dinner cost $95 and are available from Wanganui i-SITE. | 
