In accepting his award, James McNeish said, “Like Michael Holroyd, I would often be described at literary functions as ‘an award-winning writer’, then hurry home afterwards to see which award I had won only to find the cupboard bare. I came to realise it was one of those phrases concocted by well-meaning journalists and otherswho had obviously not read my books and were at a loss what to say.”
Coming in his 80th year, the Prime Minister’s award is McNeish’s first – and only – literary prize. None of his works, including a landmark first novel Mackenzie (1970), his best-selling multiple biography Dance of the Peacocks, or his non-fiction novel Lovelock, nominated in London for the 1986 Booker Prize, has ever been considered for a literary award in New Zealand.
McNeish’s most recent work is a novel, The Crime of Huey Dunstan, which was published by Random House New Zealand in June 2010.A recent article in the NZ Listener by Denis Welch says “McNeish eludes definition and is unique among New Zealand writers.” Welch calls him “the cross-over man”, forever invading the borderlands between fiction and reality, fact and fantasy. The Crime of Huey Dunstan is a case in point. The book is a courtroom drama about a forgotten case of murder and recovered memory; it has been taken – incorrectly – as a comment on recent law changes in New Zealand, although it is first and foremost a novel. Bernard Brown, from Auckland University’s Faculty of Law, described The Crime of Huey Dunstan as ‘Essential reading for those perturbed by New Zealand’s kneejerk response to the Weatherston trial – of abolishing the defence of provocation – and for those who still question the adversarial method of trial.’
James McNeish is a novelist, playwright, journalist, broadcaster and biographer. He is the author of more than 20 books and plays, and the most recent recipient of the Creative New Zealand Berlin Writers’ Residency.
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