Art And Life

For biographer Joanne Drayton, chronicling the life and times of iconic Kiwi cooking duo Hudson and Halls reflected, in many ways, her own journey to finding love and acceptance

- Nicky Pellegrino

Courage and love, and how often one is needed for the other to survive, that is what has been on Joanne Drayton’s mind a lot recently.

Joanne is a biographer, best known for being the author of bestselling The Search for Anne Perry, about the infamous Parker-Hulme murder case. Her most recent book has taken her into equally fascinating territory, chronicling the life and times of celebrity cooking duo Hudson & Halls.

Anyone who watched television during the 70s or 80s will remember Peter Hudson and David Halls with their hit shows. Recently a theatre production about them has introduced the pair to a younger audience. Flamboyant and funny, they brought New Zealanders a fancier style of food we hadn’t encountered before. But arguably the most interesting thing about them wasn’t their recipes for sweet avocado pie or frosted cheese mould. It was the fact they were a gay couple, appearing together on national television, at a time when it was still illegal to be homosexual.

During her teen years in Christchurch, Joanne watched the show along with much of the rest of the country. “I’m sure I did register they were gay,” she says. “But also in the back of my mind I wondered if maybe they just lived together or were flatting. Since they didn’t confirm or deny it, people had to suspend their judgement. For me, it was an unknown.”

There was a far more significant unknown in Joanne’s life at the time. Gradually she was becoming aware she wasn’t quite the same as other girls her age. There was something indefinably different about her.

“I wanted to be what everyone else was. So I don’t think I constructed it as being gay. And, if I did, then the idea rushed through my mind fleetingly and I’d think, ‘No, that can’t be right’, because it was too scary, too big a thing and I didn’t want to dwell on it.”