Hudson & Halls: The food of love is more than just a love story, though a
love story it certainly is. It is a tale of two television chefs who helped
change the bedrock bad attitudes of a nation in the 1970s and 80s to that
unspoken thing – homosexuality. Peter Hudson and David Halls became reluctant
role models for a `don't ask, don't tell' generation of gay men and women who
lived by omission. They were also captains of a culinary revolution that saw the
overthrow of Aunty Daisy and Betty Crocker and the beginnings of Pacific-rich,
Asian-styled international cuisine. Their drinking, bitching and bickering on
screen, their spontaneous unchoreographed movements across the stage that left
cameras and startled production staff exposed broke taboos and melted
formalities. They captivated an unlikely bunch of viewers, from middle-aged
matrons to bush-shirted blokes. Hudson and Halls were pioneers of celebrity
television as we know it today: the naughty, not-quite-normal boys next door who
rocketed to stardom on untrained talent and a dream. When Peter Hudson became
seriously ill with prostate cancer, David Halls was inconsolable. What remained
unchanged through it all was their abiding love for each other. In this
riveting, fast-paced and meticulously researched book, New York Times
bestselling author Joanne Drayton celebrates the legacy of the unforgettable
Hudson and Halls.
Author Biography
Joanne Drayton is author of New York Times bestseller The Search for Anne Perry
(2014), which was a finalist in the New Zealand Book Awards 2013, the subject of
a 60 Minutes documentary, and a cover story in the New Zealand Listener. Her
critically acclaimed Ngaio Marsh: Her life in crime (2008) was a Christmas pick
in the UK's Independent newspaper in 2009. Joanne has written three other
groundbreaking biographies. In 2007 she was awarded a National Library
Fellowship, and in 2017 she received a prestigious Logan Nonfiction Fellowship
at the Carey Institute in Upstate New York. She lives in Auckland, New Zealand,
with her partner and three cats.