Haere ra Barbara Anderson

We are very sad to pass on the news that Victoria University Press novelist Barbara Anderson has died peacefully in Auckland on Sunday morning after a short illness.

One of literature’s greatest late starters, Barbara enrolled in Bill Manhire’s undergraduate creative writing course at the age of 57, published her first book at 63, and went on to publish eight novels, two collections of stories, a Collected Stories and an autobiography.

Publisher Fergus Barrowman says she will be remembered for her outlook on New Zealand life.

"No one else has captured the social texture of New Zealand with the same vivacity and wit as Barbara," Mr Barrowman says. "One of the great things about her was that she could be comic and highly entertaining while never losing sight of the serious undercurrents in her fiction."

From Morning Report: 

Here are some of our favourite pieces about Barbara online:

The wonderful profile by Nigel Cox on Stephen Stratford's Quote Unqoute.


This lovely Arts Foundation Icon video.


An excellent interview with Damien Wilkins in Sport 36.

Barbara as Cubist on Over the Net.

Twitter was full of memories for Barbara on Sunday:

"her novels, with their combination of vitality, gaiety and gravity, are unique in our literature" - Elizabeth Knox

"I'm picturing Neil in the caravan typing one of Barbara's manuscripts, an ear on the cricket." - Fergus Barowman

"Barbara Anderson is one of my writing heroes. Her work is courageous and surprising and masterly and always hit me in the heart." - Pip Adam

"'Portrait of the Artist's Wife': one of my all time top NZ novels. Thank you, Barbara. Haere ra." - Kate Duignan

Indeed. Haere ra Barbara.