Kevin J Mcneish Popular Books

Kevin J Mcneish Biography & Facts

Sir James Henry Peter McNeish (23 October 1931 – 11 November 2016) was a New Zealand novelist, playwright and biographer. Biography McNeish attended Auckland Grammar School and graduated from Auckland University College with a degree in languages. He travelled the world as a young man, working as a deckhand on a Norwegian freighter in 1958, and recording folk music in 21 countries. He worked in the Theatre Workshop in London with Joan Littlewood, and was influenced by her spirit of socially-committed drama. He worked as a freelance programme and documentary maker for the BBC Radio's Features Department in the 1960s. He also wrote for The Guardian and The Observer. He spent three years in Sicily with Danilo Dolci, the non-violent anti-Mafia reformer, and wrote Fire under the Ashes (1965, London: Hodder and Stoughton) a biographical account of Dolci's life which is remarkable for its objectivity and clarity. He wrote some 25 books. McNeish's writing has been the subject of critical acclaim both at home and abroad. Besides New Zealand, his books are set in Sicily, London, Israel and New Caledonia. He was described as "prolific" by the Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature. His book Lovelock was nominated for the 1986 Booker Prize. In 1999, McNeish was awarded the prestigious National Library of New Zealand Research Fellowship, allowing him to research the lives and friendships of five prominent New Zealanders who attended Oxford University in the 1930s—four of them Rhodes Scholars: James Bertram, Geoffrey Cox, Dan Davin, Ian Milner and John Mulgan. This multi-biography was published under the title The Dance of the Peacocks: New Zealanders in exile in the time of Hitler and Mao Tse Tung (2003). In the same vein, The Sixth Man (2007) is a biography of another gifted New Zealander, Paddy Costello, who studied at Cambridge University during the same period and whose subsequent career in the Foreign Office was marred by controversy. In 2010, McNeish was honoured with the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in Non-Fiction. His intention was to donate part of his prize towards a travel scholarship—'a hardship scheme'—for young writers. It was said about McNeish that among New Zealand novelists, he was the 'wild card'. In an interview with Philip Matthews in 2010 (Weekend, 26 June 2010), he said: "I've always been an outsider, and I'm quite comfortable with that. To retain your critical sense in a small society like New Zealand, you have to stand apart". In the 2011 New Year Honours, McNeish was appointed as Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature. McNeish lived in Wellington, New Zealand, with his wife Helen, Lady McNeish. He has one son Mark and one daughter, Kathryn. He died on 11 November 2016, aged 85, several days after submitting his final manuscript, Breaking Ranks, to HarperCollins for publication in April 2017. Awards Recipient of the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship, France, 1973 Writer in Residence, Berlin Kuenstler Program, 1983 National Library of New Zealand Research Fellow, 1999 Berlin Writers' Residency 2009 funded by Creative New Zealand, the national agency for the development of the arts in New Zealand. Recipient of the 2010 Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in non-fiction. Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, 31 December 2010 New Year Honours. President of Honour of the New Zealand Society of Authors, 2012–2013 Major works Novels Mackenzie (1970) The Mackenzie Affair (1972) The Glass Zoo (1976) Joy (1982) Lovelock (1986; enlarged edition, 2009) Penelope's Island (1990) My Name Is Paradiso (1995) Mr Halliday & the Circus Master (1996) The Crime of Huey Dunstan (2010) Non-Fiction Tavern in the Town (1957; revised and enlarged, 1984) Fire Under the Ashes: A Life of Danilo Dolci (1965) Larks in a Paradise (with Marti Friedlander) (1974) As for the Godwits (1977) Art of the Pacific (with Brian Brake) (1980) Belonging: Conversations in Israel (1980) Walking on my Feet: A Life of A.R.D. Fairburn (with Helen McNeish) (1983) Ahnungslos in Berlin: A Berlin Diary (1985) The Man from Nowhere & Other Prose (1991) The Mask of Sanity: The Bain Murders (1997) An Albatross Too Many (1998) Dance of the Peacocks: New Zealanders in exile in the time of Hitler and Mao Tse-tung (Vintage Books, 2003), ISBN 1-86941-564-7 The Sixth Man: the extraordinary life of Paddy Costello (2007) Touchstones – Memories of people and place (2012) Seelenbinder: the Olympian who defied Hitler (2016) Plays The Mouse Man (1975) Eighteen Ninety-Five (1975) The Rocking Cave (1973) Thursday Bloody Thursday (1998) Articles, reviews and essays Anthology Not so far from Godwit Bay, In From a Room of their Own, A Celebration of the Katherine Mansfield Fellowship, Auckland, Whitcoulls, (1993) Articles A visit to Denis Glover, Quote Unquote (30 Dec 1995) 17–19 Ambush aftermath in New Caledonia, The Press (1991) 18 Did Ulysses just sail round Sicily? The Dominion (1991) 8 Mulgan's War, The Listener (April 1994) 38 Paper exodus sends our literary heritage abroad, The Dominion Sunday Times (1990) 9–20 Paper exodus sends our literary heritage abroad, Archifacts (April 1991) 77–91 Patric's Day (Obit of Patric Carey) The Listener (September 2006) Biography Walking on my feet: A. R. D. Fairburn : a kind of biography. Auckland, Collins 1983, New Outlook Dec 1983/Jan 1984 Dec/Jan (1983) 37 Interview The Greek Experience: a conversation with David Kennedy, Art New Zealand 36 (1985) 50–53 Letter Murder in Bainville: an open letter to Graeme Lay, Quote Unquote 25 July (1995) 16–17 Non-Fiction A war of nerves, The Listener 118.2486 (1987) 16–19 Breaking the silence, The Listener 146.2850 (1994) 20–25 Case closed : how and why David Bain killed his family, The Listener (1997) 18 Lovelock's dream mile, The Listener 145.2839 (1994) 24–25 Tavern in the Town. Wellington: Reed, 1957 The Ends of Empire : Part 1, The Listener 115.2448 (1987) 11–15 The Ends of Empire : Part 2, The Listener 115.2449 (1987) 10–13 The Grand Old Hotels of Thermal-land, Meanjin Quarterly 47 May (1985) 144–148 The Man From Nowhere & Other Prose. Auckland: Godwit, 1991 North and South Dec (1991) 119–123 Walking on My Feet : A. R. D. Fairburn, 1904–1957 : a Kind of Biography. Auckland: Collins, 1983 Who will guard the peace? The Listener ang2057 124.2571 (1989) 12–15 Landfall 37 June (1983) 218–220 New Outlook Autumn (1983) 35 Lovelock' Auckland, Godwit, 1994 New Zealand Runner 49 April (1987) 16 Mackenzie: a Novel Auckland: Godwit, 1995 Affairs 91 Mar (1971). Quote Unquote 22 April (1995) 30–31 Mr Halliday and the Circus Master. Auckland: David Ling Publishing, 1996 Quote Unquote 41 Nov (1996) 30 North and South 128 Nov (1996) 140–142 New Zealand Books 7.1 Mar (1997) 10–11 My Name is Paradiso, Auckland: David Ling Publishing, 1995. Quote Unquote 24 June (1995) 26 Metro 169 July (1995) 117–119 Landfall 190 Spring (1995) 360–362 .... Discover the Kevin J Mcneish popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Kevin J Mcneish books.