Blog Archives
A public intellectual An abridged version of Vincent O’Sullivan’s eulogy for historian and poet W H (Bill) Oliver at Old St Paul’s, Wellington, 18 September 2015 In the 1960s, so much that was important to New Zealand intellectual life happened…
The world a stage Gregory O’Brien recalls the life and work of artist and writer Campbell Smith (1925-2015) The last time I saw Campbell Smith was in June a year ago. Friends from around the country had gathered at Hamilton’s…
Nearly three years ago, I went to the funeral of Hugh Llewellyn Price who died after many months of living with cancer. And “living with” is the operative phrase here, as even during his last years, he was still having…
Isa Moynihan (1925-2013) Writer and reviewer Isa Moynihan of Christchurch died in June at the age of 88. Her work was published in New Zealand and overseas anthologies, but deserved greater recognition than it received. It was characterised by ironic…
Margaret Mahy 1936-2012 The three most intelligent people I’ve known: Margaret Mahy, Ted Rye, Maurice Duggan, all storytellers, all dead. In them, the torrents of intellect and imagination came together like the staff of Hermes with its twining snakes Knowledge…
Christine Cole Catley 1922-2011 Dame Christine Cole Catley, who died in August aged 88, was indisputably one of New Zealand publishing’s most widely admired and loved personalities. She came to publishing via editing work with AH & AW Reed, setting…
Yvonne du Fresne 1929-2011 Yvonne du Fresne was one of New Zealand’s finest writers of literary fiction, her work exploring the experiences of this country’s European migrant communities. Born in Takaka in 1929, du Fresne was a second-generation New Zealander…
Judith Binney (1940-2011) Judith Binney dedicated her books to those from whom she herself had learnt: in 1995, Sir Monita Delamere and Sir Keith Sinclair; in 2009, Tuhoe’s great 19th-century leaders, “who chose to walk the long paths to peace”,…
Harvey McQueen 1934-2010 Harvey McQueen, who died in Wellington on December 25, was a poet, anthologist, reviewer, memoirist, educational journalist and author, past president of PEN (now New Zealand Society of Authors (PEN NZ Inc)), and literary gardener – a…
J C Sturm (1927-2009) In 1927 a daughter was born at Opunake in Taranaki to a young Maori couple named Mary and Jack Papuni. They named their baby Te Kare, but the little girl would never know her mother, who…