Writers’ award launched

Press, 23 August 1984, Page 15

Writers’ award launched

PA Auckland The Frank Sargeson Trust has launched a campaign to raise $150,000 for a New Zealand writer’s fellowship. The target figure was needed to create a haven for writers, to support them while they worked, the trust said. About 100 writers, publishers, and friends of the late Frank Sargeson met in Epsom’s elaborately furnished historic house, Highwic, to eat oysters, drink wine, and hear the guest speakers, the Gover-nor-General, Sir David Beattie, and the trust’s chairman, Ms Christine Cole-Catley. The grandeur was too

much for some of Sargeson’s friends, who said the gathering was “very unFrank” and “pretentious.” Among the anecdotes in Sir David’s speech he compared the way two households had used a cheap Army shed. Sir David’s family had used it to store garden tools while Sargeson had used it as a writing haven. This prompted a comment that the meeting was a little out of character for the author it was celebrating. One writer, Carl Stead, said, “Frank was probably laughing at us wherever he was, although not necessarily disapprovingly.”