Running Writing Robinson

Edited by David Carnegie, Paul Millar, David Norton & Harry Ricketts
Victoria University Press - $40

This book is a gift to and a celebration of Roger Robinson by his academic colleagues at VUW and by his wide circle of close friends and admirers from the worlds of elite distance running, sports journalism, creative writing and many others.

If you have not heard of him when you pick it up, you will come to know him for the extraordinary man of many worlds that he is, above all, as befits a champion runner and a professor of English, the worlds of running and writing. It is made up of memoirs, tributes, poems, running essays and literary essays, and will, we hope, please anyone who shares Roger’s love of running, writing and fascinating people.

Edited by colleagues in the School of English, Film, Theatre, and Media Studies the volume has over fifty contributors, ranging from Lorraine Moller and Roger’s own son Jim among the runners, Tim Chamberlain and Lynn McConnell among the journalists, Fiona Kidman, Brian Turner, Witi Ihimaera and Joy Cowley among the creative writers, Patrick Evans and Lawrence Jones among the academics, and Mike Hill, Phillip Mann, and Jeremy Commons among former colleagues at VUW.

I have long held great admiration for Roger Robinson, for both his running and writing, and have spent several happy hours browsing through this most interesting book which has increased my knowledge of and admiration for this remarkable author, academic and athlete.

I thought Brian Turner summed up Roger best with these words in his essay - "Whenever I think of Roger, I think of someone lithe of body and mind, someone, when on form, agile, resolute and fast".