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VINCENT O’SULLIVAN was born in Auckland in 1937 and now lives in Wellington, where he teaches English at Victoria University. No New Zealand writer has been more versatile. As well as his poetry, he has produced acclaimed novels, plays, short stories and literary criticism. With Margaret Scott, he has edited five volumes of Katherine Mansfield’s letters. He is currently working on a biography of New Zealand novelist John Mulgan, to be published later this year.
O’Sullivan comments: ‘So many poems and stories are about being tossed out of the garden (usually Eden) that I was interested in one where people actually wanted to leave. And instead of it being a good place to be (the beginning of all) it was rather a grim place, a place where things ended. Perhaps the son and the father might be taken in different ways, but I didn’t want them to be at odds as they are in the Eden story, but close and trusting before and after they pass the gates. A dead myth is good to leave behind; and winter of course is where so many myths die – at least for a while.’
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