In 2017, Alex Casey took her mum to see Sensing Murder star Sue Nicholson at conference space at the back of a motel lodge in West Auckland. It was as hilariously awful as she expected, but also extremely sad. "Every second person in the room had been crying, the feeling of both desperation and relief palpable as Sue babbled her way through various vague messages," Casey wrote. "For most people, it seemed like this was enough." Here Spinoff editor Toby Manhire introduces Alex Casey, who reads that post, one of the many that appears in The Spinoff Book alongside dozens of other entertaining, edifying and just plain eccentric pieces of writing, with the best of The Spinoff's first five years and a host of new material, as well as sumptuous new illustrations by Toby Morris. The Spinoff Book, published by Penguin Random House New Zealand, is available everywhere books are sold. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices