Mr Ponsonby

Mr Ponsonby
Author(s)	Ian Middleton
Cover artist	Murray Grimsdale
Country	New Zealand
Language	English
Publisher	Lyndon
Publication date	1989
Media type	Print (Paperback)
Pages	160 pp
ISBN	0-86470-028-8
OCLC Number	21096645

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.

Reviews

• Richards, Ian. New Zealand Listener 126 (2608), p. 126; 5 March 1990.
• McLean, Gavin. Otago Daily Times p.28; 14 June 1989.
• King, Michael. Metro 9(96):184-186; June 1989.
• Reynolds, Ted. New Zealand Herald 2:6; 25 February 1989.

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 (London: Routledge) 40 (9): p.1714. doi:10.1080/0042098032000106564. 
2. ^ The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature, edited by Roger Robinson and Nelson Wattie (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998)