Before he began writing in the 1980s, Taylor worked as a primary school principal and served as mayor of Ohakune from 1981 to 1988, before moving to Raurimu. Taylor"s last book was published in 2010, the memoir Telling Tales: A Life in Writing. His funeral was held on 8 October 2015, three days before he was to turn 77.
He won the Choysa Bursary in 1986, and turned his attention to writing full time that year. Over the course of his career, Taylor won the Esther Glen Award (1991), an American Institute of Management Children"s Book Award (1995), a Margaret Mahy Medal (1999), and was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award (2000). He was named an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2004 Birthday Honours, and died in 2015 at Taumarunui.
