Dimensions
153 x 234 x 23mm
Billy T James was a larger than life comedian who gave us some of our best belly laughs. An accomplished singer and musician, he created enduring characters and his trademark Maori laugh and poking of the borax at the oh so delicate state of race relations in New Zealand stood him head and shoulders above other performers of his era.
Like John Clarke's Fred Dagg, Billy T's characters were Kiwi through and through and we loved him for it. When he died, following a heart transplant in his early forties, the nation was shocked - first by his premature death, and then by one of the first highly publicised body-snatching incidents involving a mixed marriage. His Pakeha wife and his iwi fought tooth and nail over funeral arrangements, ending in the taking by force of his body from her home in Auckland to a marare in Ngaruawahia. The sight of iwi and family battling in the media and reports of his body being transported in a van made sickening headlines.
His widow, Lynne James, has kept her silence until now, and has cooperated with author Matt Elliot as he tells the story of the man behind the cheeky grin and the infectious laugh. The shy, self-doubting man the public never saw, the death threats and the exploitation of his generous nature, that placed intolerable strain on the man who only wanted to make us laugh.Perceptive, funny and endearing.
