New Zealand's most accomplished comic novelist, R. H. Morrieson lived out the constraints, contradictions, and exuberant excesses of the mid-century provincial society that he recreates in his four novels. Described by Maurice Shadbolt as “a bulky man with large enthusiasms”, Morrieson spent his days in genteel domesticity and his nights drinking, gambling, and jazzing in the dance halls and pubs around Hawera, on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island.
James Ronald Hugh Morrieson was born on 29 January 1922, the only child of Eunice Hyacinth (nee Johnson) and Hugh Francis Morrieson, both music teachers. When Morrieson was six his father died, and he lived with his doting and indulgent mother until her death in 1968. After stints of work at the Patea freezing works
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Citation: Lawn, Jennifer. "Ronald Hugh Morrieson". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 September 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3207, accessed 22 November 2024.]
