Review Yvonne Rust: Maverick Spirit by Shari Pickering

Yvonne Rust: Maverick Spirit by Theresa Sjoquist reviewed by Shari Pickering, Life Coach and Co-Owner of On the Edge Gallery in Whangarei, NZ – published in May-June News of On the Edge Gallery & Design.

At the beginning I thought I was reading a book about Yvonne Rust.  By the end I knew I had read a book about the power of following one’s daimon (or passion).

Although I am an avid reader, biographies are not usually my topic of choice.  In the past I have found them to be dry, sometimes boring and often with ‘information overload’.

But Theresa has managed to write this book in the same manner as the person who she is writing about…forthright, honest, plain English, almost raw.  She has not only captured Yvonne Rust but she has done it in a way that will appeal to our ‘Kiwi’ persona.  For those of you who are younger than I, the stories of the way of life in those early years may seem almost surreal.  For me, it was an aching reminder of how life used to be…sometimes easy, sometimes tough but always about people.

As I read the pieces of Yvonne’s own writing, I felt almost uncomfortable – as if I was rifling through someone’s most private & precious thoughts.  When she was sad, I felt sad. When she laughed, I laughed.

This is a book that you will be able to read and re-read finding new treasures each time.  It is a book that will inspire you to be everything you can be, to never give up, to stay focussed.  And that is a fitting tribute to Yvonne Rust as she touched the lives of so many.

Yvonne Rust, QSM grew up during the Depression years in the Far North.  She taught art in schools when it had only just been introduced into the general curriculum, was at the forefront of the pottery movement in the 1950s and was relentless in her expression of New Zealand’s unique spirit.