Pink Magazine (extract)
Spring/Summer 2006

Life Recipe
Helen Brown tours New Zealand and proves you can have your cake and eat it too
By Tony Hope

Having been a regular reader and big fan of her writing, I felt quite special as I headed to my interview with Helen Brown. It wasn’t quite the unknown territory of a first date; after all, her writings draw heavily from her current and past daily experiences. Much of whom she is and how she feels appears regularly in print in her columns. Helen herself confesses : “I don’t see there’s much point in trying to hide things from other people.”

That night I attend the Hamilton show. Helen had underestimated her abilities to perform on stage. In the intimate theatre setting she skillfully captured each one of us. Her relaxed but practiced story-telling style easily painted pictures that delighted the full house. From her subtle interplay with her pianist, Terry Crayford, to the delicate body language used to reinforce each moment in time we visit with her back in Taranaki, Helen cooks this cake to perfection.

This well-crafted story is overtly entertaining, but in following Helen back through carefully chosen moments in her past, joining her in exploring the personalities of those people who most influenced her life, laughing and crying with her as we hear how fate teased and tested her resolve, it also worked to remind us to take a moment to reflect. In sharing her personal journey, albeit through the guise of a banana cake recipe, Helen achieves her goal, helping us all refocus and perhaps realign our life’s daily priorities.

I had planned to catch up with Helen after the show, as in Auckland, the Hamilton crowd wanted another slice of her after the show. I come away from her performance a little peeved actually. After all, I had started the day believe that I was going to have a “special moment” with someone I had admired for a long time. Just me and Helen Brown – chatting – cool! Well so much for that moment! She had just shared her entire life with total honesty to a full house and her performance had delivered a powerful message to so many that I knew my interview was no longer so “special”. It was still pretty cool though!