WORD Christchurch welcomed Irish author, Niall Williams to a sold-out Tautoru / TSB Space at Tūranga library. The event, a conversation between New Zealand Reading Ambassador Kate De Goldi and Niall Wiliams, focussed on the creative process, and the main themes that pervade his novels.
Niall Williams spoke about his brief stint in New York and the need, after five years in the buzzing metropolis, to get off the commuter’s treadmill and follow his dream to become a writer. He and his wife returned to a remote village in Ireland, where her grandfather possessed a farm. The contrast couldn’t have been any bigger. The seclusion, and the welcoming, older community proved beneficial for their creative endeavours. In the first couple of years, they co-wrote several non-fiction books about their experience in this other-worldly, untouched part of Ireland. These first shared steps into writing formed a solid basis for what would come next: Four letters of Love, Niall Williams’ best-selling novel, was ten years in the making.
Although he has an intuitive approach to the craft, he admitted that for his first novel Four Letters of Love, he had no idea how to continue after the very powerful first sentence:
“When I was 12 years old, God spoke to my father”.
For months, he struggled to come up with the next line, but once he found the right tone, the right voice, the story flowed naturally. The conversation evolved to the recurrent themes that shape and colour his world and by extension, his novels.
The small community, where Williams and his family settled in the mid-eighties, became the fictional backdrop, Faha, where both This is Happiness and The Time of the Child take place. The raw landscape of West Ireland morphed into a character of its own that informs the narrative.
Niall shared fond memories of his father, who instilled the love of books and reading. He recalled their fortnightly visits as a child to the library, where he could choose books without judgment and feel free. A cheeky, subversive nod that is reflected in The Time of the Child, where Williams refers to The Country Girls, a blacklisted novel, by fellow Irish novelist Edna O’Brien.
Niall Williams cited the Latin quote: “HOC EST SED ETIAM” (“This is, but also”), as another red thread throughout his novels. References to Irish society, the weight of the Church and traditions are subtle; he honours the beauty and magic of everyday life.
The hour felt like ten minutes. His enthralled audience and me were carried away by the authentic, elegant way in which Niall Williams pays tribute to the dignity of Ireland’s small, rural communities.
Tanya
Matuku Takotako: Sumner Centre
Read Tanya's previous post about Niall Williams
Niall Williams (Ireland): Capturing Irish Life
WORD Christchurch
Tautoru / TSB Space, Tūranga
6pm to 7pm, Tuesday 21 April 2026
Niall Williams’ novels
View books by Niall Williams in our collection
More about Niall
More WORD Christchurch events in May
Karen Hao (USA) Empire of AI
Monday 11 May 6pm
RF Kuang (USA): From Yellowface to Katabasis
Thursday 21 May 7pm
Louise Erdrich (USA): Land, Legacy, and the Python's Kiss
Tuesday 26 May 6pm
The WORD Christchurch Festival is on from 1 to 6 September 2026.
- Visit the WORD Christchurch website
- Explore our previous coverage of WORD Christchurch festival and events
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