A Respectable Veneer author tackles secrets, lies and the ‘killer of everything beautiful’

Fascination with the splendour of a bygone Palmerston North is behind a new novel on social expectations and family secrets in the 1950s.

Rachel Doré is careful with her words when describing the architecture that dominates the central city. She settles on “unfortunate”.

When the author, writing coach and former journalist first visited Palmerston North in the 1990s, she fell in love with George St, intrigued by the signs of former grandeur. She couldn’t help but delve into it.

“I remember seeing one photograph in a magazine, of these elderly women, it looked like in the Thirties, standing looking at a half demolished mansion … that was being demolished to make way for the city’s progress.

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“I think oh no, imagine that, and then I find out the place used to be lined with beautiful houses and beautiful commercial buildings.”

For her first published novel, A Respectable Veneer, Doré chose 1954, from an often idealised period of post-war optimism and national pride, for the backdrop of her story about a woman seeking a fresh start in Palmerston North after fleeing Auckland with her 10-year-old daughter.

“Sydney Holland​ was the prime minister. When he came in, for the third National Government, he promised prosperity and progress. And that interested me. So that’s where the damage began.

“Prosperity and progress, the killer of everything beautiful.”

A key location in the story is Arcadia House on David St. The one photograph she could find of it was from its demolition in the 1960s.

Doré, “a recovering Aucklander” who now lives in rural Manawatū, said her book was a celebration of a city’s heyday that many had forgotten, or possibly avoided.

When speaking to older residents when researching the era, Dare said many were proud of Palmerston North being a straight-laced, upright, quiet town, spared “shenanigans”.

But there had been a vibrant nightlife in the city, with live entertainment, theatre, opera, and international acts.

“So many things went on. I couldn’t believe it when I found out. This place was jumping.”

Though Doré researched local history heavily she said only a small percentage made its way into the book; enough to give it a grounding without getting in the way of the story.

Moral codes and social prejudices of the day are a dominant theme, where unmarried or divorced women are ostracised, and families guard their shames at all costs. The protagonist must get by on a “repertoire of lies”.

“I can remember people like my grandfather,” she said. “He would be talking away storytelling, then suddenly a light would go off in his eyes, he’d suck in his cheeks, and clamp his jaw shut.

“And you knew, he was holding back something, and he wasn’t going to let it pass. Because family secrets must be kept.”

A Respectful Veneer is available in book stores from March 9. Doré will be speaking at a launch function and reading at 5.30pm on March 22 at Palmerston North City Library.