4 Aug 2010

Biography award for Patricia Grace

6:43 am on 4 August 2010

Author Patricia Grace says she's thankful of the trust placed in her by a whanau who wanted their parents' story told.

Her book Ned and Katina, which tells the love story of how 28 Maori Battalion member Ned Nathan returned home from World War II with a bride from Crete, has won the biography section of the Nga Kupu Ora Maori Book Awards.

Ms Grace told Waatea News the Nathan whanau shared stories and produced their parents' old photos and letters.

It was her first non fiction work. Ms Grace, who lives at Plimmerton, says it is now in reprint and she's back in more familiar territory working on a novel.