Background

Maurice Francis Richard Shadbolt was born on the 4th of June, 1932 in Auckland, New Zealand.

Education

As a child, Maurice Shadbolt studied at Te Kuiti High School. After that, he attended Avondale College and Auckland University College.

Maurice Shadbolt was capped an Honorary Doctor of Literature by the University of Auckland in 1997.

Career

Maurice Francis Richard Shadbolt began his career as a journalist for various New Zealand publications in 1952-1954. He worked for a time for the Taranaki Daily News and as a director and scriptwriter of documentaries for the New Zealand National Film Unit from 1954 to 1957.

In 1957 Maurice Francis decided to become a full-time writer. He spent some peripatetic years traveling to such places as Australia, Russia, Bulgaria, and China, before moving to England, where he published his short-story collection "The New Zealanders" in 1959.

Moving back to his homeland, Shadbolt continued to write fiction while supplementing his income with nonfiction works, such as the co-written "New Zealand: Gift of the Sea" in 1963. With his first novel "Among the Cinders" that was written in 1965, Shadbolt began to build a reputation as an author of historical fiction that combined descriptions of stunning New Zealand scenery with a mix of reality and mythology.

Among his most notable books are "The Lovelock Version" that was published in 1980, and the trilogy of novels about the wars between natives and British colonizers, including "Season of the Jew" in 1987, "Monday's Warriors" in 1990, and "House of Strife" in 1993.

Toward the end of his life, Maurice Francis Richard Shadbolt completed three autobiographical works "One of Ben's: A New Zealand Medley" in 1993, "Dove on the Waters" in 1996, and "From the Edge of the Sky" in 1999.

Achievements

• Shadbolt is undoubtedly one of New Zealand's best known literary figures. During his career, he received numerous awards, among them are Hubert Church Prose Award, two Katherine Mansfield Awards, National Association of Independent Schools Award, Freda Buckland Award, Pacific Area Travel Association Award, three James Wattie Awards, New Zealand Book Award
  
  Maurice Francis Richard Shadbolt received the New Zealand Scholarship in Letters in 1959, 1970 and in 1982. In 1963, he earned a University of Otago Robert Burns fellowship. Maurice Shadbolt was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, for services to literature in 1989.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Voices of Gallipoli

    (Based on diary entries of New Zealand soldiers sent to fi...)

    1988
  • The Lovelock Version

    (A colorful and imaginative saga of pioneering New Zealand...)

    1980
  • Monday's Warriors

    (Based on fact, this tells of Kimball Bent, a Yankee who b...)

    1990
  • House of Strife

    (This is the third book in Shadbolt's "Maori Trilogy", and...)

    1993
  • The New Zealanders 1959
  • New Zealand: Gift of the Sea 1963
  • Among the Cinders 1965
  • Season of the Jew 1987
  • One of Ben's: A New Zealand Medley 1993
  • Dove on the Waters 1996
  • Danger Zone 1975
  • From the Edge of the Sky 1999
  • This Summer's Dolphin 1969
  • Isles of the South Pacific 1968
  • Reader's Digest Guide to New Zealand 1988

Connections

Maurice Francis Richard Shadbolt was married four times. His first marriage was with Gillian Eve Muriel Heming. They were married for 15 years and had four children together, Sean, Brendan, and twins Tui and Daniel. In 1971 he married Barbara Magner. They had a daughter, Brigid. He also was married to Bridget Armstrong and Elspeth Sandys, but both marriages ended in divorce.

ex-wife:

Gillian Eve Muriel Heming

Gillian Eve Muriel Heming was an Australian journalist, author, and lecturer in journalism at Wellington Polytechnic 1970s-1980s.

Son:

Sean Shadbolt

Son:

Brendan Shadbolt

Daughter:

Tui Shadbolt

Son:

Daniel Shadbolt

ex-wife:

Barbara Magner

Barbara was a pioneer of broadcasting in New Zealand. In her 20s Magner joined the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation and worked on radio stations in Dunedin and Invercargill. After the NZBC opened a television station in Dunedin in 1962, she did four nights a week as a continuity announcer, then moved to Auckland to host an evening radio show on 1ZB.

Magner’s fame likely reached its high point when she joined the crew of reporters on the Auckland edition of five nights a week magazine show Town and Around in the 1960s. In the 70s, Magner read the news on TV One’s Tonight at Nine and reported for Arts Review. In 1977 she began working as an education officer for the Health Department.

Daughter:

Brigid Shadbolt

ex-wife:

Bridget Armstrong

Bridget Armstrong was born on the 15th of March, 1937 in Dunedin, New Zealand. She is an actress, known for BBC Play of the Month, Compact and BBC Sunday-Night Play.

Armstrong attended Otago University. At 18, Armstrong joined national touring company the New Zealand Players, founded by Richard Campion. Her first show with the company was Salad Days. She stayed with the Players for two years, recreating characters from Anne Frank to Elizabeth I. In 1959 she acted in a BBC adaptation of Bruce Mason’s The Pohutukawa Tree. Armstrong swiftly found success on stage and screen, exercising her comedic and dramatic muscles in TV roles including The Benny Hill Show, Crossroads, and Gloss style soap Compact. Later she appeared in Eric Idle's Monty Python followup Rutland Weekend Television, the same year (1975) that a role in a BBC version of the play The School for Scandal. Armstrong was also part of the dinner party ensemble in a well-reviewed 1979 movie of Roger Hall’s Middle Age Spread.

ex-wife:

Elspeth Sandys

Elspeth Somerville Sandys is a New Zealand author. She was born in Timaru, New Zealand and educated at Otago and Auckland Universities. She has been a full-time writer for the last 35 years. In that time, she has published nine novels, two collections of short stories and two memoirs. Her fiction focuses on relationships: personal, social and political. Elspeth has written extensively for the BBC and RNZ, both original plays and adaptations, as well as a number of film and television scripts. Her stage plays have been performed in England and New Zealand. She has worked as a creative writing teacher, editor for Oxford University Press, and ghostwritten several non-fiction works including, A State of Blood and The Survival of Jan Little.

Among her writings are “Catch a Falling Star” in 1978, “The Burning Dawn” in 1981, “Love and War” in 1982 and others. Her most recent work “Obsession” came out in 2017”. Elspeth has received many awards and fellowships in recognition of her work, and in 2006 was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature.