Author(s): Chris Brickell (Editor); Vanessa Manhire (Editor); Nonnita Rees (Editor)

Literature | Aotearoa New Zealand Non-Fiction | LGBTQI+

‘Sometimes I wonder why I have been forced to spend my creative life grappling with words & the logic & rationality they demand … I wish I could find a way of reaching directly into another’s heart. Words are my only tool. Sometimes I think perhaps I have not worked hard enough. I am still alive. There is time.’ – Robert Lord, diary entry, 31 October

Robert Lord (1945- 1992) is an important figure in the history of literature and theatre in Aotearoa New Zealand. Co-founder of Playmarket and author of Well Hung, Bert and Maisy and Joyful and Triumphant, Robert Lord wrote incisive and often satiric radio and stage plays, experimenting with traditional theatre forms and incorporating queer characters at a time when almost nobody else did. His diaries, which record his life from 1974, when he first moved to New York, until his death in Dunedin in 1992, capture the highs and lows of his writing practice, the theatre world and his social life.

Revealing the dramatic contrast between life as a gay man in 1970s and 80s New York - a world of sex, drugs and socialising - and provincial New Zealand, with its respectable living rooms, fields of carrots and the occasional homoerotic demonstration of sheep shearing, his diary entries tell of torn loyalties and reveal the intense creative momentum Lord forged from his dislocated, outsider status.

‘Lord’s character comes across vividly in entries that are in turns witty, wry, maudlin and insightful.’ – Alison Walls, Artistic Director, The Court Theatre ‘Robert was one of my favourite people and a wonderful man.’ – Sir Sam Neill ‘Lord’s compelling and intimate diaries chart the unpredictability of a playwriting career, revealing the exhilaration of recognition and the crushing disappointment of rewrites and rejections. The diaries provide an honest, funny and astute record of Lord’s life in 1980s New York City and his eventual apprehensive return to Aotearoa. Finally, and heartbreakingly, they reveal a man alone coming to terms with his mortality while simultaneously attaining acknowledgment in his homeland as a theatre, film and television writer.’ – Associate Professor Hilary Halba, School of Performing Arts, University of Otago