Anxious Autumn: A Covid-19 Lockdown Diary – Chris Maclean

Description

Author: Chris Maclean
Publisher: Whitcombe Press (2020)
ISBN: 9780473530686

In brief

A sharp-eyed, introspective, and sometimes wryly humorous account of one of the most surreal moments in recent Aotearoa history — the Covid-19 lockdown of March 2020. Anxious Autumn is both a personal diary and a national mirror, capturing the strange rhythms, fears, and small joys of life in a world abruptly slowed.

About the book

On 25 March 2020, New Zealand went into its first full lockdown to combat the spread of COVID-19. For five intense, surreal weeks, households across the motu hunkered down in their bubbles, navigating everything from empty supermarket shelves to daily 1pm briefings and a collective rediscovery of home baking.

For author and historian Chris Maclean, this period of national pause was a time of reflection, observation, and unease. His diary entries, written from a home perched between uncertainty and a particularly glorious autumn, chronicle not just the national moment, but the deeply human one — marked by frustration, bird song, empty roads, the weight of silence, and a realisation that “normal” was gone.

With an understated voice and a knack for quiet insight, Maclean captures the texture of lockdown with warmth and clarity. His words are often companioned by dry wit — and a deep attentiveness to the things that truly matter when everything else is stripped away.

This isn’t a pandemic polemic — it’s a time capsule. A document of how it felt, day by day, when Aotearoa stood still.

Reviewer praise

“An unflinching and tender record of a unique moment in NZ history.” — NZ Listener

“Maclean’s diary entries are intimate, familiar, and often moving — a genuine primary document of our time.” — Dr. Jock Phillips

“Simple yet deeply resonant — Maclean has written what many of us felt but never put into words.” — Otago Daily Times

“A beautiful fusion of the domestic and the historical. Maclean’s historian’s eye meets the rhythms of real life.” — Lydia Wevers

“Funny, local, reflective — this book made me cry and smile on the same page.” — Goodreads reviewer

“One of the few Covid books that actually earns its place on the shelf.” — North & South

“The best documentation of lockdown I’ve read from Aotearoa.” — Simon Wilson, NZ Herald