WJ Moloney
W J Moloney has a MA in War Studies and worked in related industries for more than a decade. He is the author of Invincible, an historical novel that took more than five years to research and write. It came about after a friend told him about the extraordinary story of Son White, the WWI veteran who captained the 1924 Invicibles All Black rugby team. W J’s first book, The Battle of Messines Road, was published in 2015 and is based on his grandfather’s WWI diaries. WJ lives in Nelson with his wife, three sons and Jake the dog and he is manager of the Nelson College First IV.
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2023 festival session
Invincible
W J Moloney in conversation with Tessa Nicholson
W J Moloney discusses Invincible, a novel based on the incredible story of one man’s journey through a world war and onto worldwide sporting glory. The novel follows Son White, a Southland man who went to WWI with his horse Ben and returned a mentally scarred man who found redemption on the rugby field. After joining a local club in 1919 he managed to be selected for the All Blacks by 1921 and captained the team that was famously undefeated on their 1924 tour of the British Isles and France. W J discusses his five years of research of the book and reflects on his family’s experience of the intergenerational effects that the Great War had on families.