Xmas Giveaway, Day 5: Item 10

Item 10 in the Christmas Giveaway is a book, or rather, a manuscript printed in a book, namely that of award-winning The Piano by Jane Campion. You know, the 1995 film set in New Zealand, starring Holly Hunter, Sam Neill, Harvey Keitel and Anna Paquin.

I picked this up from a charity shop earlier this year, which has inspired me to re-watch the movie (haven't got around to it yet, though). The manuscript does offer a bit of insight and motivation behind the characters. Here's the back:

'These characters don't have a twentieth-century sensibility about sex. They have nothing to prepare themselves for its strength and power.'

Jane Campion began writing The Piano in 1984, even before the making of her first feature film Sweetie (1989) and long before her direction of the celebrated An Angel at My Table (1990). Although living and working in Sydney, Campion found that her imagination was drawn back to the colonial past of her birth country, New Zealand.

Inventing three fictional nineteenth-century forebears, Ada, Stewart and Baines, Campion set them into a highly charged love triangle. She wanted to explore the way that erotic impulses and the unpredictable emotions that can arise through their enactment might hav ebeen experienced in another century, another landscape.

Written with a poetic and emotional power rare in film scripts, The Piano can be read as a literary work in its own right. Together with Campion's notes and contributions from the cast and crew, the book offers a valuable insight into the making of one of the most stunning films of our times.

It also features interviews, or at least some questions and answers, with the main cast and crew at the back, which is an interesting read. There's also plenty of pictures from the film, and the Maori dialogue also comes with transations.

Giveaway closes at some point during 27 December 2011. Winner will be chosen at random and contacted and with a bit of luck, has responded with some form of contact details so I can send it when the post office opens again on the 28th.

Remember, I need to be able to contact you and get your postal address if you win, so if you're not on Facebook, Etsy, Twitter or any other way of getting in touch, it will be hard to let you know you've won, and so on, so in order to be in with a chance of winning, add some kind of contact details and answer the following qualifying question: Ada was obsessed with her piano. What's your favourite musical instrument?

This giveaway is open worldwide.

Good luck! Santa's bag is opening again tomorrow at 3 pm, UK time.