Graham Billing
Graham John Billing was a New Zealand novelist, journalist and poet. He was born in Dunedin, and educated at the Otago Boys' High School and the University of Otago where his father was professor of economics.
He was a newspaper and radio journalist from 1958 to 1977. He had spent four years working on ships, which is reflected in the novel The Slipway. He was information officer for the New Zealand Antarctic Research Programme from 1962 to 1964, reflected in his first novel Forbush and the Penguins. He was awarded the Robert Burns Fellowship in Dunedin in 1973. The poems in Changing Countries were written after two years teaching in Australia from 1974 to 1975.
An autobiographical element in The Slipway is his struggle with alcoholism. He also wrote three radio plays and the text for three non-fiction works South: Man and Nature in Antarctica, New Zealand: The Sunlit Land and The New Zealanders.Published works
Novels
- Forbush and the Penguins
- The Alpha Trip
- Statues
- The Slipway
- The Primal Therapy of Tom Purslane
- The Chambered Nautilus
- The Lifeboat
- The Blue Lion: An Historical Love Story
Poetry
- Changing Countries
Non-fiction
- South: Man and Nature in Antarctica: A New Zealand View
- New Zealand: The Sunlit Land
- The New Zealanders
