Philip Temple – 1980

After receiving a Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship in 1979, Philip Temple accepted the Burns Fellowship for 1980. A strong writer of non-fiction, novels, and books for children, he tackled something very different that year – a saga about a kea (Strongbeak) and the environmental changes of the Southern Alps. Beak of the Moon (1981) was exceedingly successful, and has recently been reprinted. However, every writer has his bête noire. In 1980, Temple spent hours researching and writing 'Tikimana I', which to him was 'New Zealand's answer to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings'. This work remains unfinished, perhaps unfinishable.

Philip Temple, 'Tikimana I: Brave Light of the Stars'. Notebook. 1980. Private Collection.