This extraordinary Southlander is remembered as a scholar, writer, soldier, historian, editor, critic and publisher. Roads from Home (1949) is his best known and most widely appreciated novel in his own country.
Education
His early education was in Gore, where his father was a labourer and then guard on the railway, before the family moved back to Invercargill. He excelled academically and was the top Southland student in the Public Service Examination in 1928 and top in Southland in Matriculation in 1929 with distinction in English, French and Latin. He was both Captain and Dux of the the school.
He won a scholarship to attend Sacred Heart College in Auckland in 1930, and from here won a University National Scholarship to attend University of Otago in 1931, studying English, French and Latin. In 1935 Davin won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University and graduated with first-class honours in 1939.
Career
War intervened in Davin's career, and he was a platoon commander in the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force in Crete in World War II. He also served on Freyberg's intelligence staff in North Africa and as a corps commander at Cassino. He was awarded a military MBE.
After the war Davin's rise through the ranks of Oxford University Press culminated in the role of Academic Publisher, a position he held for over 30 years. During this time he supported the careers of young New Zealand writers and New Zealand writing and his hospitality was renowned. Among his friends of the time were writers Dylan Thomas, Louis MacNiece and Joyce Cary.
He retired in 1972.
His works of fiction are:
Cliffs of Fall (1945)
For the Rest of Our Lives (1947)
The Gorse Blooms Pale (1947, short stories)
Roads from Home (1949)
The Sullen Bell (1956)
No Remittance (1959)
Not Here, Not Now (1970)
Brides of Price (1972)
Breathing Spaces (1975, short stories)
He also wrote collections of short stories and non-fiction books, including:
Crete (1953) The Official New Zealand War History
Closing Times, his literary memoirs (1975, Oxford University Press)
Connections
His friendship with fellow Southlander, Winnie Gonley, started in Davin's early days at Otago University and they married when he finished at Oxford. Gonley was a fine scholar, a talented poet, and short story writer.
