Come visit us at 14 St Mary Street in Thorndon on Labour Weekend Sunday for our annual Open Day.
Enjoy homemade afternoon tea and listen to a programme of readings from a wide-ranging group of prose and poetry writers. Buy a raffle ticket for a bundle of books.
All welcome, free entry, koha appreciated.
14 St Mary Street
Sunday 25 October
1.00–4.00pm
Part of the 2026 Wellington Heritage Festival.
As we move past the shortest day of the year and look optimistically towards Spring and Summer, here are two dates for your calendars:
Sunday 25 October from 1 to 4 pm: Annual Open Day at Randell Cottage, 14 St Mary Street, as part of the Wellington Heritage Festival.
Come along on the Sunday of Labour Weekend to visit the Cottage, enjoy delicious home-made afternoon teas under the garden gazebo and listen to a full programme of readings by our current writer-in-residence and other authors and poets. Relax in our pretty garden and hope to win a parcel of books in our raffles.
You can also join the Creative and Historic Cottages Walk around Thorndon. Make a day of it and see the Katherine Mansfield House and Garden in the morning, stop in one of the local cafes for a snack and then make your way to Randell Cottage, Rita Angus Cottage and Lilburn House during the afternoon.
Wednesday 25 November 6-7 pm with light refreshments from 5.30: Randell Cottage Writers Evening in the Archives Library NZ auditorium
This is your chance to hear from our exciting new writer, essa may ranapiri, who is living in Randell Cottage with their family from July to December.
We’ll also share the two latest videos, made as permanent records of the style, aspirations and experiences of our recent French and New Zealand residents.
More to come closer to the time!
A video recording Tahitian writer Titaua Peu‘s stay in Wellington was launched on 3 December.
Titaua describes the explorations she undertook during her residency in Randell Cottage on the historical and cosmological links between Indigenous peoples of Polynesia. She foreshadows her planned dystopian trilogy, beginning with the forthcoming novel Disruptive – a tantalising prospect.
French Cultural Counsellor, François Bockel, shared the first showing of the Embassy’s video at a Randell Cottage writers’ event at the National Library.
Don’t miss the highlight of our Randell Cottage writing year!
Come along to the National Library on the evening of Wednesday 3 December to hear from our fascinating current writing Fellow, Saraid de Silva, as she shares early glimpses into her second novel, following the critical acclaim of ‘Amma’.
You’ll also meet the new French Cultural Counsellor, François Bockel, who’ll introduce a video capturing the experience of our first resident from French Polynesia, Titaua Peu.
For those whose memories are still vivid from last year’s evening with Hinemoana Baker, you’ll love seeing her again in our video in which she reflects on time well spent at Randell Cottage.
Join us from 5.15pm for light refreshments, raffles, and conversation, with the main event running from 6 to 7 pm.
6–7pm, Wednesday 3 December
National Library Auditorium, Wellington
Friends of Randell Cottage are reminded that there will be a brief Special General Meeting in the auditorium immediately afterwards.
RSVP: info@randellcottage.co.nz by 5.30pm, 1 December.
Koha (suggest $5 pp) would be appreciated. Please bring cash for book raffles.
A Zoom link is available here.
See the attached flyer for more details and send us your RSVP.
Our congratulations to Rachel O’Neill, the Randell Cottage New Zealand Writer-in-Residence in 2023, who has been awarded the prestigious Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago. We have just had the pleasure of featuring Rachel as one of the guest readers at our annual Open Day, held as part of the Wellington Heritage Festival.
Sunday 19 October from 1–4pm is Randell Cottage’s Open Day, in conjunction with Wellington Heritage Festival.
Considered one of the principal French-speaking writers of the Pacific, Peu is known for work that considers Polynesian society today with attention to the effects of colonialism. Here she talks with Mark Amery of Culture 101, who visited her at the colonial cottage in Thorndon.
The Midnight Plane has landed in Unity Books and other good bookshops around the country.
Dame Fiona Kidman has just launched her collection of selected and new poems at Unity Books, Wellington.
The Randell Cottage Writers Trust is delighted to announce that renowned author Dame Fiona Kidman has agreed to become one of its two Patrons, alongside the Ambassador of France to New Zealand, H.E. Laurence Beau.
Two specially-tailored boutique tours have been developed for Friends and supporters of Randell Cottage: to Christchurch from 18 to 22 July and to Northland from 28 August to 1 September.