Reflections on a rich variety

Chance is a Fine Thing by Philip Temple. Photo / Supplied

In his introduction - subtitled "a memoir by writer, mountaineer, campaigner, explorer and historian Philip Temple" - he suggests that "memoir is personal and selective, aiming to render in eloquent focus a story drawn from the writer's relationships and experiences".

I think that is probably a fair definition. It is interesting to observe that there is much publishing of memoir in New Zealand and very little publishing of autobiography. There is no doubt that autobiography, by its very nature, requires much more time and effort because of the research required and the longer time needed for its compilation.

Temple has enjoyed a varied and interesting life in a number of fields, as suggested by the subtitle. And even if he is unknown to the reader this will not stop the book from being a fascinating read. He starts with his decision at the age of 18 to leave Britain and emigrate, on his own, to New Zealand. He then recounts his childhood years in both Yorkshire and London (he was born in Bradford, Yorkshire). I liked his account of his reading when he was 10 - "I began reading properly: all the Swallows and Amazons books, one after the other, and I wrote a letter to Arthur Ransome asking if "The Lake" was really Lake Windermere. He sent me back a postcard that was really annoying because he did not actually say.

I started reading Biggles books too, and when they opened a new library at Notting Hill, I was the very first person in the door so I could grab three brand new Biggles books. I was late for school but was let off when they saw my bag bulging with books."

By the time he was at secondary school it was clear that literature, music and arts were the subjects in which he was most interested. He left school at 17 and started working for a technical publication firm in Westminster before deciding he needed to escape his mother and so his attention turned to possible emigration destinations. His first choice was Canada but when he saw the long lines at the Canadian immigration office he looked elsewhere. Having decided it would be too hot in Australia, he finally settled on New Zealand -

Ed Hillary had climbed Everest in the coronation year and his mother always said the best lamb and butter came from there. After a lot of reading, including the New Zealand Weekly News and Landfall, the decision was made. In the waiting room at the NZ High Commission he found a range of magazines including technical journals similar to those he worked on at Westminster, so he wrote to several and within a month was offered a job in Wellington.

The book then deals with his arrival in New Zealand as a "hapless young immigrant" coping with the strange language and social practices, and later with his introduction to climbing and mountaineering, which was to become a major part of his life and about which he wrote in many of his more than 30 books.

Temple is a writer of significant diversity having published fiction, history and biography, travel and adventure, nature and environment, and photographic as well as children's books. Over the years he has received many awards, mentioned in the memoir. These include the Katherine Mansfield Award, the Burns Fellowship, the National Library Research Fellowship, and the Creative New Zealand Berlin Residency.

In 2003 he was honoured as an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to literature. He is remarkably candid throughout this book about his personal life, both in terms of his relationship with his parents, his marriage and its failure, his children and grandchildren, and subsequent relationships both here and in Germany.

The memoir is dedicated to novelist Diane Brown, his partner since 2000. Liberally illustrated with black and white photographs, the book will be read with great interest by many, especially those in the world of literature.

Chance is a Fine Thing
By Philip Temple (Vintage $36.99)

* Graham Beattie is an Auckland book blogger: www.beattiesbookblog.blogspot.com