Ivan Bootham

Ivan Bootham is a New Zealand novelist, short story writer, poet and composer.

Life and literary works

Ivan Bootham was born in England in 1939, and migrated to New Zealand as a teenager, working in a variety of jobs in provincial centres. His early novels and short stories attracted favourable reviews, and in 1973 he was awarded a New Zealand Literary Fund Writing Bursary.

Ivan Bootham's most recent works include three novellas published as "Quince.Noon - the Trilogy" (2001); a short story collection "The Book of Cheerful Despair" (2002); and a novel "The Doctor Jesus Sanatorium" (2003). A theme in much of his fiction is that of the artist struggling to come to terms with the gap between his creative aspirations and his achievements. Bootham has been praised as a highly original comic writer. His tone ranges from the ironic to the acerbic, his constantly self-questioning characters often relishing wordplay and verbal invention. He has also had art criticism and cartoons published.

Ivan Bootham lives in Wellington and is married with twin daughters. He is the son of the painter Joe Bootham.

Musical composition

An accomplished pianist and former keen trumpet player, Ivan Bootham began composing in his early teens. His best-known work to date is the opera "The Death of Venus", based on his radio play of that name, which premiered in Wellington in 2002. The story is based on an historical incident in 1806, in which the brig Venus was seized at Port Dalrymple (Tasmania) by its first mate Kelly, aided by convicts, and sailed to the Bay of Islands in New Zealand. Two of the female convicts on board are believed to have been the first white women to live in New Zealand.

In 2002, Bootham completed his second opera "Pictures", based on the short story of that name by New Zealand writer Katherine Mansfield.

His most recent major composition is the mass "Missa Creator Spiritus" (2006).

Among his compositions are: "Three Musics" (1965) for French horn, strings and harp; "Sonata Movement" (1969) for piano; "Winter Garden" (1988) for wind quintet; "A String of Clichés" (1996) for French horn and piano; "Zuweilen" (2000), six short pieces for piano;" Three Lejjoon Poems" (2000), a short song cycle to poems by Niel Wright; "Little Blue Peep" (2002) for harmonica and piano; "A Wild Garden of Doggerel" (2003), settings of nonsense poems by the composer for unaccompanied choir; Play "On A Debussy Motif" (2004) for piano; "Spinning Jenny" (2005) for piano duet, and a song cycle "For One Who Went Away" (2004).

References and external links

Ivan Bootham's recent fiction and poetry is published in New Zealand by RiverStone Books, PO Box 10037, Wellington, New Zealand [http://www.riverstonebooks.netfirms.com] .

For information on his earlier works, see "Ivan Bootham: A Descriptive Bibliography" by F. W. Neilsen Wright (second edition 1999). Published by Cultural and Political Booklets, PO Box 6637, Te Aro, New Zealand.

For information on his music, including discussion of his two operas, see "Ivan Bootham: An Introduction to His Music" [http://www.geocities.com/ivanbootham/]