Mr Ponsonby

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Mr Ponsonby

Mr Ponsonby cover
Author Ian Middleton
Cover artist Murray Grimsdale
Country New Zealand
Language English
Publisher Lyndon
Publication date 1989
Media type Print (Paperback)
Pages 160
ISBN 0-86470-028-8

Mr Ponsonby is the fourth novel from noted New Zealand author Ian Middleton, and is described as "his eulogy to a gentrifying Ponsonby"[1]. He had an intimate connection with Ponsonby (a suburb in Auckland, New Zealand), where the book is set, beginning in 1942 and returning to live there in later life. It is the story of a man driven by greed, willing to destroy the character and nature of a lively, spririted community for the sake of a dollar. Mr Ponsonby "vividly recreates the atmosphere and characters of an Auckland suburb threatened by reconstruction"[2] and the clash between the proponents of progress, development and gentrification and the inhabitants of an established community with its own unique character.

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[edit] References

  1. ^ Latham, Alan (01 August 2003). "Urbanity, Lifestyle and Making Sense of the New Urban Cultural Economy: Notes from Auckland, New Zealand". Urban Studies 40 (9): p.1714. London: Routledge. doi:10.1080/0042098032000106564. 
  2. ^ The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature, edited by Roger Robinson and Nelson Wattie (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998)