A Controversial Life: Ian Milner and New Zealand Contemporary Letters

Abstract

These memoirs are absorbing for the light they throw on the development of one who was from birth immersed in what must be accepted as a singular intellectual experience. They are also an attempt to recreate, partly from uncompleted drafts, a life story about which controversy persists.

This book has an unusual publishing history. The text was only completed as far as the end of the author's university days in New Zealand and Vincent O'Sullivan explains that from that point hew as confronted by drafts in widely different states of completion. In many respects, this is frustrating for the reader seeking motivation for the career moves and personal experiences that shaped Milner's life. Vincent O'Sullivan has been scrupulous in marshalling the available text to serve the intentions of the author and, while we are often left unsatisfied, we have the best arrangement of Milner's recollections we are ever likely to get.