Jane Mander
Rae McGregor
The book
Jane Mander grew up in the kauri milling settlements of the north and her desire to depict life in those places produced a classic novel, The Story of a New Zealand River.
Mander uses this and her other five novels to work through ideas about male/female relationships. The dilemmas of Alice, her daugher Asia and lover David Bruce continue to echo in our culture, although they shocked contemporary critics: 'Miss Mander's chief fault is her obsession with sex; a little more reticence would do her no harm.' – Alan Mulgan
Who was Jane Mander? Why did she write The Story of a New Zealand River? Many people know the book, but few know anything of the writer. Rae McGregor has drawn a rich absorbing portrair of Mander – from her early years in the north, to Sydney socialist, New York intellectual, London writer, and home again as Auckland critic and literary personality.
The author
RAE McGREGOR
Publication details
Paperback, 216 pp, ISBN 1 877 13337 X, $34.95
1998
Out of print