'Once Upon a Harbour': Fiona Farrell and David Elliot celebrate a joyful collaboration

By Ōtepoti He Puna Auaha | Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature | Posted: Wednesday Oct 28, 2026

The Ōtepoti City of Literature team was proud to collaborate recently with our colleagues at Dunedin Public Libraries to celebrate the creative partnership behind Once Upon a Harbour, a beautifully illustrated collection of humorous stories by highly acclaimed Ōtepoti writer Fiona Farrell and illustrator David Elliot, published by Allen & Unwin.

Inspired by Otago Harbour, this picture book for all ages is a celebration of imagination, humour, and the landscapes of home and brought a large, warm crowd to Dunedin City Library.

Welcoming guests, City of Literature Director Nicky Page spoke of the book’s importance to the city’s literary community and the generosity both creators show in sharing their time and expertise with emerging writers and illustrators. Nicky also reflected on the joy that had accompanied the pair's collaboration over the past two years, and that hearing them say they'd never laughed so much as when working together was particularly telling. A book made with laughter is sure to bring joy to its readers too.

David presented slides of his drawings, explaining that the book was really about his home and fascination with the places he loves around the harbour, from Back Beach at Port Chalmers and Aramoana to Long Beach and the hills beyond. His drawings began with observations of familiar landscapes, the people and creatures that might inhabit them, and the stories that emerged when he looked at the world a little differently. A rat leaping from a rubbish bin at Back Beach inspired a gang of mischievous characters, with the black-backed gulls across the water their natural rivals. An empty cottage at Deborah Bay seemed to need a seal in slippers and smoking a pipe, a story told by the late Ian Church about Piggy Bill’s pigs conjured up wild ‘sea pigs’ roaming the dunes, and the pine trees on Mount Cargill’s slopes always looked as if they were racing each other uphill. He joked about the challenge of illustrating a poet’s lines and credited Fiona with bringing humour and universal ideas to his darker sketches. Without her, he felt the book would never have happened.

Fiona spoke about the creative freedom of working with a visual artist for the first time, a welcome change after two demanding years writing The Deck, a novel about climate change and civilisational collapse. A morning touring the lower harbour with David helped her to see familiar places as somewhere almost anything might happen. Inspired by the comic recitations of her Ōamaru childhood, Norman Lindsay’s animal stories, and the patter songs of Gilbert and Sullivan, she chose six of David’s character drawings and wrote six stories in verse, each with its own rhythm. She described the process as ‘like putting together an LP, not a single’.

The audience enjoyed readings of three poems. In 'A Saga in Six Slices', featuring the Shady Bay Scuttlers, a battle between rats and gulls over a pie ends with a gentle nod to Gallipoli, as the combatants choose to swim, picnic, and have tea rather than storm the cliffs. 'The Party' imagines pine trees breaking free from their orderly rows to stride across hillsides and dance beneath a stormy moon. In 'The Unreliable History of Sea Monsters', Craig, a big blue vegetarian sea monster with a passion for designing evening frocks, loses confidence when he learns people no longer believe in sea monsters. With the help of his bossy friend Shirley, he finds a new purpose rescuing ships in distress and keeping global trade moving through ‘sustainable pure monster power’.

Publisher Jenny Hellen of Allen & Unwin then officially launched the book. Having worked with David on children’s books over the past 25 years, she described it as the culmination to date of his life’s work, and praised Fiona’s clever, funny, and rhythmic poetry, calling her a ‘genius writer’. She said books like this answer talk of a reading crisis.

Guests then gathered to share a hot beverage, enjoy some kai, buy copies of the book, and chat with the authors at the signing table.

For Ōtepoti City of Literature, it was an added pleasure to celebrate a publication so closely connected with the landscapes, stories, and creativity of our city. As Fiona and David reflected, creating the book had been a joy, and they hope readers of all ages will discover something of their own homes in its celebration of place and imagination.

Watch the full event here: Once Upon a Harbour Book Launch

Purchase your copy here: Once Upon a Harbour by Fiona Farrell, illustrated by David Elliot (Allen & Unwin Aotearoa New Zealand, 2026)

Find the book and over 3,000 others in the City of Literature collection at Dunedin Public Libraries