Bill Manhire was born in Invercargill in 1946. His father was a publican and his Scottish mother was a science graduate who had been a high school teacher before moving to New Zealand. The ease with which Manhire shifts tonal registers in his poetry and fiction possibly derives from his familiarity, at an early age, with both an educated Edinburgh voice and bar-room Kiwi banter. In his 2003 memoir

he recalls with wry affection his childhood years in a succession of Southland and Otago hotels, first at Invercargill, then Wallacetown, Mossburn, Clinton and Dunedin. He also touches, more ruefully, on his sometimes strained relationship with his father, who drank increasingly, developed cirrhosis of the liver and died of a cerebral haemorrhage when Manhire was in his…

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Citation: Sharp, Iain. "Bill Manhire". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 June 2016 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2913, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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