After the Fireworks: A Life of David Ballantyne - Softcover

Reid, Bryan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1869403274 ISBN 13: 9781869403270

Publisher: Auckland University Press, 2004

Synopsis

After the Fireworks is the biography of a New Zealand journalist and novelist who believed he 'never really made it' and whose fiction has been too quickly forgotten (he died in 1986). He stands with Ronald Hugh Morrieson as one of the first local novelists to escape from the narrow limits of critical realism and provincial inadequacy. This is a very readable account of his life by a friend who knew him well and it is also a picture of the worlds of journalism and literary endeavour in the postwar period. It shows his brilliant early start with ""The Cunninghams"", his friendship with Sargeson, the mystery of his interrupted career and the surprise of his sudden late flowering. This sensitive workmanlike book will help to reawaken wider interest in this important writer: his two novels ""The Cunninghams"" and ""Sydney Bridge Upside Down"" are already seen as classics and his two last novels are of considerable interest.

About this title

About the Author

Bryan Reid is a retired New Zealand journalist now living in Australia who writes fluently and with compassion. He worked with David Ballantyne on newspapers in Auckland and Wellington and was his friend for many years.

Edition details

• Publisher: Auckland University Press
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1869403274
• ISBN 13: 9781869403270
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224