Author Bio

About the author

Marisa and her younger sister at Christchurch Airport in 1972, shortly before departing on their big OE
Marisa and her younger sister at Christchurch Airport in 1972, shortly before departing on their big OE

Marisa Taylor was born in Dunedin in 1967 into an accentually confused family. Her Glaswegian grandfather had married a nurse from the English Midlands and emigrated to Australia in the 1950s with their five children. After producing two more children, the entire brood came over the ditch to Dunedin, all sporting varying degrees of British and Australian accents.

Not ones for staying still, the family moved en masse to the United States in the 1970s, introducing yet another accentual twist into the family. One of Marisa’s earliest word-related memories is her primary school teacher’s insistence that colour spelt with an -our was wrong, as were all her other British-spelt words. Oh well, she has recovered. Mostly.

Marisa’s family returned to New Zealand when she was a teenager, settling in Christchurch, where she has lived for nearly thirty years.