Welcome to my new Website!

On it you will find information about my background and my work, and - when I get

around to it - what I’ve been up to and what I hope to be doing. From time to time I will add more detailed information about my books and samples of my work. 

The new website will reinstate my blog and will allow for interactivity once more.

I will be adding information about three new books which have been released or are about to be released.

The first of these is my tenth poetry collection Deadpan which was released last year by Otago University Press. The cover features the great Buster Keaton - not only because the title poem references him, but also because the deadpan attitude

Buster Keaton made famous informs so many of the other poems and prose poems in the book.

The book opens with a long sequence Poor Yorick a riff on the jester whose skull Hamlet meditates on in his famous soliloquy in the graveyard scene in Hamlet, and thereafter the book is made up of sections gathering poems under various

headings. I love the design of this book and the production standards are great.

I was especially pleased that Otago picked up the book, given the quality of its publications. Also from Otago and not far away from delivery to the printers is a major anthology of Aotearoa / New Zealand poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction and art: Ko Aotearoa Tatou / We Are New Zealand. I feel very privileged to have helped edit

this book with co-editors Michelle Elvy and Paula Morris. The book is a celebration of diversity in Aotearoa / New Zealand and showcases representative voices of the many different communities and cultures that make up our nation. The pieces

are lively, funny, enlightening, impassioned and often deeply moving. They are complemented by a large number of colour illustrations curated for us by David Eggleton. This looks to be a handsome and important book and once again Otago

University Press is taking tremendous pains with its production.

Thirdly, I must mention my latest children’s fantasy Mallory Mallory: The Revenge of the Tooth Fairy under the Puffin imprint of Penguin Random New Zealand. This book, peppered with great illustrations by Emily Walker who also illustrated the cover, is scheduled for release in September but you can read about it on the Penguin Random NZ website and listings in on-line book stores. It is funny and wild. Here is the blurb from the back of the book:

A cunning kidnap and blackmail plot . . . what could go wrong?
When Mallory and her sidekick Arthur kidnap the tooth fairy, they get more than they bargained for in this sparkling fantasy adventure novel for children.
Mallory is a nasty piece of work. Her one friend is Arthur, who only puts up with her because he has no one else. When Mallory loses a tooth, she comes up with an evil idea to capture and blackmail the tooth fairy for an endless supply of money.
But it’s never a good idea to meddle with a magical creature, and Mallory and Arthur are about to find out just how bad it can get.

With James Norcliffe's signature magic and humour, and Emily Walker's equally magical illustrations, The Revenge of the Tooth Fairy will delight fans of the Harry Potter series, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the Wizard of Oz and top-quality

fantasy adventures.

Finally, a huge thank you to Felicia Forbes of Tag Design, web designer, who has taken the refurbishment in hand so efficiently and imaginatively.

And, now, perhaps, we could get on with it…

All best 

James

#authors #jamesnorcliffe #emilywalker