Times Like These

A stunning collection of moving and beautifully written personal essays from Michelle Langstone.

“"There are moments in life that blindside us, rob us of context and take away our ability to put experience into words. . . . Langstone's debut book, a collection of essays, coaxes these moments to pause and be captured, and more: Beguiles them into speech. . . . Times Like These enters into a dance with the emotions surrounding loss. She gives her father a literary Viking funeral, crowding her memories of him onto the boats of her childhood holidays and lighting them into a glorious funeral pyre. . . . Langstone doesn't drag us through the mire without offering us something valuable in return. In her willingness to enter into the vulnerability of sadness, the sordid and sublime details of approaching, then receding, death, she finds communion with something bigger. Not something spiritual necessarily, but human: The swell of love underneath the little boats of daily life and family concerns, deeper than the sea." -- Stuff”

"There are moments in life that blindside us, rob us of context and take away our ability to put experience into words. . . . Langstone'​s debut book, a collection of essays, coaxes these moments to pause and be captured, and more: Beguiles them into speech. . . . Times Like These enters into a dance with the emotions surrounding loss. She gives her father a literary Viking funeral, crowding her memories of him onto the boats of her childhood holidays and lighting them into a glorious funeral pyre. . . . Langstone doesn't drag us through the mire without offering us something valuable in return. In her willingness to enter into the vulnerability of sadness, the sordid and sublime details of approaching, then receding, death, she finds communion with something bigger. Not something spiritual necessarily, but human: The swell of love underneath the little boats of daily life and family concerns, deeper than the sea." --Stuff

Michelle Langstone is a well-known actor in both New Zealand and Australia, and has featured in multiple film and television roles, including recurring roles in One Lane Bridge, 800 Words and McLeod's Daughters.

Michelle won the award for Best First Person Essay at the Voyager Media Awards in 2019 and the award for Best Interview or Profile at the Voyager Media Awards in 2020. She is a regular contributor to North & South, The New Zealand Herald and The Spinoff website.

Michelle lives in Auckland, New Zealand.

Childhood, family and death; anxiety and release; grief and the hope of new life: these are some of the themes that underpin Michelle Langstone's debut collection of personal essays.

Tender, poignant and moving but never sentimental, these elegant essays are perfectly formed and feature personal observations as well as those of the wider world.

Says Michelle: 'Mostly when I think about it, it feels like a collection of essays about living and dying. My life as it was before Dad left us, and after. They are as different as night and day, those two lives.'

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