A Sort of Conscience: The Wakefields

by Philip Temple

At once notorious and visionary, Edward Gibbon Wakefield and his brothers played a key but controversial role in the early British settlement of New Zealand, Australia and Canada. Once famed as New Zealand's 'Founding Fathers', they have since become the arch-villains of all post-colonial scenarios of the past. Philip Temple, deciding that neither myth made good historical sense, saw that, astonishingly, there was no adequate biography of the family most responsible for the establishment of the Wellington, Nelson and Canterbury settlements.
In stitching together a net of letters and documents, Temple has produced the most comprehensive account yet of the Wakefield family's role in colonial development and self-government across the old Commonwealth. He follows not only the brothers' careers but also establishes the role of the Wakefield women and gives detailed accounts of Edward Gibbon Wakefield's first elopement and his later abduction of Ellen Turner. Temple explores Edward Gibbon's tortuous career through colonial politics from the 1830s to the 1850s and shows how he and his brothers and son strongly influenced, for good and bad, the founding of new nations. This engaging narrative, written in a strong and evocative literary style, relates a story of courage and vision, cupidity and stupidity, high risk and adventure, success against the odds and, ultimately, terrible tragedy.

520 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Philip Temple is a multi prize-winning New Zealand author of fiction, non-fiction and children's books. His latest book is the adventure novel 'The Mantis' which explores why people risk all to be the first to reach the summit of an unclimbed mountain. Another new novel is due mid-year. He is also currently researching for a major biography of NZ author Maurice Shadbolt.

Philip was born in Yorkshire and educated in London but emigrated to New Zealand at the age of 18, becoming an explorer, mountaineer and outdoor educator. With Heinrich Harrer, of 'Seven Years in Tibet' fame, he made the first ascent of the Carstensz Pyramide in West Papua, one of the seven summits of the seven continents, and later sailed to sub-Antarctic Heard Island with the legendary H.W. ‘Bill’ Tilman to make the first ascent of Big Ben.

Philip's first books reflected this adventurous career and 'The World At Their Feet' won a Wattie Award in 1970. After a period as features editor for the New Zealand Listener, he became a full time professional author in 1972. Since that time he has published about 40 books of all kinds and countless articles and reviews.

In the fiction field, his nine novels include the best-selling 'Beak of the Moon', an anthropomorphic exploration of the mountain world seen through the eyes of the mountain parrot, kea. This, and its successor 'Dark of the Moon', are rated as unique in New Zealand literature. In more recent times, his Berlin-based novels 'To Each His Own' and' I Am Always With You' controversially tackle issues around German guilt and historical experience.

Philip’s non-fiction range is wide, from books about exploration and the outdoors to New Zealand history and electoral reform (MMP). His book about the Wakefield family and the early British settlement of New Zealand, 'A Sort of Conscience', was NZ Biography of the Year in 2003, and won the Ernest Scott History Prize from the University of Melbourne. Philip’s award-winning children’s books, in collaboration with wildlife artist Chris Gaskin, are unique to the genre.

Over the years, Philip has been awarded several fellowships, including the Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship (1979), the Robert Burns Fellowship (1980), the 1996 NZ National Library Fellowship, a Berliner Künstlerprogramm stipendium in 1987 and the 2003 Creative New Zealand Berlin Writers Residency. In 2005, he was invested as an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for Services to Literature and given a Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement. Following examination of his work, Philip was granted the higher degree of Doctor of Literature (LittD) by the University of Otago in 2007.

Philip Temple lives in Dunedin with his wife, poet and novelist, Diane Brown.

Reviews

[Jana Keir · Rating 5 out of 5]

A biography of the Wakefield family, the founders of the New Zealand Company. The author delves into each of their lives without it being overly dry - he somehow manages to go between the main men of the family effortlessly, telling engaging stories about each of them and the context around why they did what they did. I didn't expect it to be that interesting, but it was.

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and thorough history of the Wakefield clan that coalesces a massive volume of letters and extant publications into an engaging and even-handed historical account of New Zealand's founding family.