Authors have long drawn on local stories to engage the reader. In his new family history, John Curry draws on the experiences of his ancestors to explore an experience of settlement in Akaroa. Marie Connolly celebrates a half century of the arts in Te Pātaka o Rākaihautū Banks Peninsula in her book about the Orion Powerhouse Art Gallery’s fifty years of service to their community, and Ant Bentley’s cookbooks capture the tastes and beauty of the Banks Peninsula. Ant, John and Marie talk with Morrin Rout about the ways in which history, art and culture are represented in three very different genres.