Deborah Coddington took the 10-day trial version of retirement and found that aimlessly rearranging the furniture wasn’t for her.
So at 70, with a life that’s revolved around words, the award-winning journalist, author and former Act MP decided she needed a new challenge for her creative spirit.
Deborah’s recently set up a small niche publishing company called Ugly Hill Press – named for the country road she grew up on in Hawke’s Bay – in a move that’s more about coming full circle than it is starting a new chapter.
After selling The Martinborough Bookshop (the first to open in the historical Wairarapa town), she has returned to publishing after working in the industry in the 1980s, and now wants to produce books about New Zealand landscapes, people and places where they work.
Peering from her laptop on a Zoom call with the Deborah is makeup-free, wearing round black spectacles and hands clasped
