Author(s): Martyn Sanderson

New Zealand Non-fiction

Art & Poetry

Born in Westport, Martyn read English at Oxford, taught briefly, studied for the priesthood, dropped out, came home and helped found Downstage Theatre.
Martyn first appeared on the literary scene with eleven poems in the NZ Poetry Yearbook 1964.
Ten years later, Wai-Te-Ata Press published his poetic sequence Willie the Rich.
Besides poetry, he has written many film and TV scripts. His adaptation of Albert WendtâÃÂÃÂs Flying Fox in a Freedom Tree, which he also directed, won the script award at the Tokyo International Film Festival.
To a wider audience Martyn is known for acting roles such as General Cameron in the TV series 'The Governor'; the vicar in 'Utu' who lost his head; Robert Louis Stevenson in 'Tusitala and the House of Spirits'; the Gatekeeper of Bree in 'The Fellowship of the Ring'.
Oh, and the bemused angler in that popular Instant Kiwi
commercial when the bungy jumper leaps down to catch a trout.
Martyn was Massey University Writer in Residence 1999âÃÂÃÂ2000, and in 2005 was made an ONZM for services to literature and theatre.