What does the author of one of the best books of 2024 wish for next year?

It takes a talented writer to dive into the issue of retirement village living and create a subtle, funny novel that both readers and reviewers rave about. Wellington novelist Damien Wilkins managed that feat in 2024 – but what does he want for 2025? He names five things.

This year was full of unwanted insight into how our care systems work or don’t work for older people. So-called ‘community care’ is so under-resourced as to be a vicious joke. My father’s ‘care plan’ looked lovely on paper and in the same breath as the health co-ordinator handed us the paper, we were told that none of this was likely to be put into effect because the staff were so overworked. That proved to be the case. How about primary care then? On another occasion, at the suggestion of an appalled after hours doctor, we made a formal written complaint about the ED wait my father had to endure. He was 98 at the time. The response from the clinical manager was thorough and fair, spoke of the unsustainable and dangerous clinical environment and ended with a sentence affirming that his ‘basic patient rights had been infringed’. Strange and disturbing to read an official response to a complaint which was also a cry for help. But that is where we are. I wish for better next year. Dad turned 99 in December. He climbed with Sir Edmund Hillary in the Himalayas in 1954 when Hillary was one of the most famous people on the planet. Dad likes chocolates, track pants and watching test cricket with his chair up very close to the TV. The players in white still shine through the shadows of his macular degeneration.

Whakamaru is the new shelter facility run by the Wellington City Mission. In one of those juxtapositions which seems very New Zealandy, the handsome new building sits just below the Governor General’s residence by the Basin Reserve and along from a petrol station. Whakamaru has 35 residential apartments for long-term transitional housing, a social supermarket, a kōha-based cafe, and social support workers. There’s a dental surgery, a podiatrist. Its existence improves lives and, beyond that, it’s a powerful sign that if we approach seemingly intractable problems with fresh thinking, new possibilities emerge. He Manu Taupua City Missioner and main driver of the project Murray Edridge talks about building a community where there’s no us and them. In an excellent interview on Bernard Hickey’s ‘When the Facts Change’ podcast, Murray says that you can come to Whakamaru whether you have something you need or something to offer and you will be treated exactly the same. He uses the word ‘dignity’. What a word for these times.

From the ‘I can’t think what to do about the apocalypse except sing’ corner of my life... I’m announcing a new set of songs! From 2011-2014, I recorded three albums of original songs under the name The Close Readers. The third received an A- from legendary US reviewer Robert Christgau and it sneaked on to his 2015 Dean’s List at the 85th best album of the year! How could I top that? Ten years on, the song-writing urge has struck again. I’ve got the ace rhythm section of Tom Callwood (The Phoenix Foundation) and Olivia Campion (Mystery Waitress) on this new record, with guest spots from Luke Buda, young piano star Felix Bornholdt, David Long, and clarinet player (!) Andy Horwood. I think it’s my best and I was happy to come up with these two lines about the return of a prodigal brother who arrives home for Christmas to see his sister’s family for the first time in years: ‘It was about time to see the sprogs/Because you prefer puppies to dogs.’

It’ll be a big birthday year for my wife and we’re hoping to visit Japan for the first time. One of my nieces is teaching English near Osaka and her Insta feed is full of artistic leaves and cute toys. Whenever I try to think of Japan, the enduring classic essay from the 1930s called In Praise of Shadows by the great novelist Junichuro Tanizaki is ready to help. My private wish will be to find the shadows Tanizaki considers a key difference between Western and Japanese ways of being: ‘If light is scarce, then light is scarce; we will immerse ourselves in the darkness and there discover its own particular beauty. But the progressive Westerner is determined always to better his lot. From candle to oil lamp, oil lamp to gaslight, gaslight to electric light—his quest for a brighter light never ceases, he spares no pains to eradicate even the minutest shadow.’ I’m sure my niece will be into candles.

A thousand of us streamed up the hill at 4am the other week to Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington for the opening of an astonishing new building, Ngā Mokopuna. It’s the new home of Te Kawa a Maui, the School of Māori Studies, and a place for everyone to use. Ngā Mokopuna has been designed and built to be self-sufficient to its site. It can generate all its own electricity, collect all required water, and manage all its own wastewater. It’s on its way to achieving Living Building certification, one of only thirty-odd commercial buildings in the world which meet that standard. I bumped into one of the building’s architects Ewan Brown. I asked about its high tech features and Ewan said that actually they’d gone back to basics. Instead of massive air con, you can open windows! Once we were inside, the wooden surfaces were being stroked by everyone. In the Hub afterwards, it was open mic. ‘It’s the Māori way,’ said the MC, smiling, ‘and we know that can sometimes go wrong. So I remind all speakers to take into consideration where they are.’ A kaumatua told us that when he’d attended Vic sixty years before, there were five or six Māori faces. I looked around. We were tucking into the kai: little bowls of yoghurt and muesli, pastries, donuts. Pākehā were outnumbered. It was very tense. A tray came towards us. Who would get the last donut?