Biography

I was born in Invercargill, New Zealand on the 13th February 1946.

My father's family were from Dunedin of English/Irish descent and my mother's family were mainly from the North Island from a Scots/Maori background. My tribal affiliations are Ngati Mahuta (Tainui) and Ngati Pukeko

Until I was about three years old my parents and I lived with my grandmother at 121 Ettrick Street, Invercargill - a little house with a big rhododendron in front. I started school when we shifted to Kingston on Lake Wakatipu. We lived there until I was 8. Kingston was a tiny collection of houses at the end of the railway line from Invercargill. Passengers continued their journey to Queenstown by New Zealand Railway Steamboat, 'The Earnslaw'.

At the sole-charge school in Kingston there were only 11 pupils and I was the only one in my class, (see Kingston Remembered). Some days I got a ride to school on the back of a huge horse with two other kids. We had to climb the school gate to get onto its back. I had a dog called Smudge and a cat called Calla Callutsa, which was given to us by some Greek neighbours when they shifted to Wellington.

My younger brother Russell was born in 1950 while we lived in Kingston.

In 1955, living back in Invercargill I joined the public library and discovered the joys of a free library system. 'The Hobbit' introduced itself to me through an extract in a school journal when I was 9. I have read it several times since then and still find it a source of inspiration.

At the age of 18 I enrolled at the Canterbury University School of Fine Arts in Christchurch to study painting. I was fortunate to be a student when Russell Clark, a well known illustrator, and Rudi Gopas, a very influential painter, both taught there. I graduated in 1967 with honours in painting and spent the following year at the Christchurch Secondary Teachers' College.

I taught Art at secondary level for 30 years. 20 of those years were spent at Linwood High School in Christchurch and then 10 at Christ's College. I now write and illustrate children’s books fulltime.

Books, stories and pictures have provided a life-long fascination for me. Children's picture books in particular, with their intertwined rhythms of pictures and words combining to tell a story in an often deceptively simple way, have always interested me.

My first picture book, 'Mrs McGinty and the Bizarre Plant' was published in 1981 by Oxford University Press.

I love gardening and growing things. My wife and I have times when we talk and read about nothing else. On other occasions however we avoid the garden for months on end.

More regularly, I enjoy reading, eating and watching movies. And of course I read as much fiction as I can.

My wife, Vivien and I have three daughters; Cressida our oldest lives in Blenheim. She and her husband Tim have a daughter of their own called Zoe Hinepau Lucy. Our second daughter, Charlotte, lives in Christchurch and Alexandra our youngest, lives in Wellington where she works in the movies.

We have no pets now that the local cats have eaten the last of our goldfish.

Travel

I have traveled throughout New Zealand many times and have visited many countries overseas - England, France, Italy, Germany, Australia, Greece, Holland, South Africa, China, U.S.A., Canada, and Malaysia. I have been to Japan 5 times. My first visit there was as a student in 1968.

In 1990 my youngest daughter and I took part in a cultural exchange on the island of Sakhalin in the Soviet Far East.

In 1992 I went to Beijing and Shanghai at the invitation of UNESCO to give lectures and run workshops on Children's Literature.

In 1996 I lectured in drawing and picture book design at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, USA.

In 1997 I once again worked for UNESCO. This time it was in Indonesia.

In 1998 I again visited China as a guest of the China – New Zealand Friendship Society.

In recent years my wife and I have attended Art Deco Congresses in the USA and South Africa.

Directions In My Work

As I’ve got older I have become more and more interested in sifting through the memories of my own childhood in search of useful material for stories and ideas for pictures.

The ballet libretto for “Terrible Tom”, commissioned by the Royal New Zealand Ballet in 1985, is loosely based on incidents from my early years in Invercargill.

In “Katarina” I explored the family stories and verbal histories that I was told by my mother about her Aunt Kate who had shifted down south from the Waikato in the 1860s.

In the future I would like to produce more work of a bi-cultural nature.

New Zealand children should know and feel comfortable with Maoritanga. Besides creating a better understanding of Maori/Pakeha values, a knowledge of Taha-Maori would provide a richer and more stimulating country in which to live.

Interviews

Awards