Affable author draws the crowds

Press, 25 November 1982, Page 36

Affable author draws the crowds

By

JOHN BROOKS

Fast out of the starting gates and gobbling up the track — that is the current performance of “Graham Mourie: Captain” in the rugby literary stakes. Only two weeks after the publication date about 35,000 copies of the book have either been sold or bespoken, which makes it New Zealand’s third most successful rugby volume. “Colin Meads: All Black” sold close to 60,000 copies, and “Men in Black” moved into second place with 47,000. But the Mourie book has done remarkably well already, and from the reception the> now retired All Black captain received yesterday in the Christchurch section of his whistle stop tour the sales impetus is likely to be maintained. From a public relations point of view, Mourie is hard to fault. Despite yesterday’s hot, strength-sapping weather and frantic schedule encompassing bookshops in the central city and suburban malls, the footballer turned author dealt with queues of buyers in a very personal manner.

Each small boy, gazing in awe at the great man, was drawn into a brief conversation, and the fly-leaf of each book contained a message of good will. Mourie’s affability and dry sense of humour turned a chore into a pleasurable experience.

“Would you autograph this copy for my husband — its our wedding anniversary,” said a woman at Northlands Shopping Centre. “What’s his name?” asked Mourie.

“Don,” she replied. “Not Don Juan,” he quipped.

"No — not now,” she responded, with a smile. Watching from the sidelines, Mr John Blackwell, of Moa Publications, the book’s publisher, said the response to Mourie’s autographing sessions bad been “absolutely phenomenal.” Christchurch represented the half-way point in a barnstorming sale tour of the country, which has already taken in Mourie’s home district, Taranaki, as well as Auckland, Waikato, Wellington, Invercargill and Dunedin. Today he will be in Hastings, tomorrow, Palmerston North, and by the time the tour winds down Mourie might well be the Hemingway of the rugby world.

The initial print of 25,000 copies, with an additional 2500 for the British market, had had to be supplemented by a further release of 8000, most of which was prebooked. Mourie said he had been encouraged by the comments of people he had encountered around the country during his signing sessions. “He finds it easy compared with rugby,” said Mr Blackwell, ever so quietly.