Barbara Ker-Mann
Barbara Mann was born in Fairlie, Canterbury, New Zealand in 1933. Her father’s career was such that the family moved to a new city every three years or so. At three years of age, Barbara contracted infantile paralysis. Aged 10, she learnt the violin and became an outstanding violinist, winning a gold medal in LTCL, and gaining FTCL and a MMus. degree in music education as taught by Shinichi Suzuki with whom she studied in Japan as International Fellow of the American Association of University Women. The Rev. John Mann, Barbara’s father, was a superb artist who taught Barbara to paint. In adulthood Barbara graduated from Teacher’s College in art, music and English.
Do you try more to be original, or to deliver to readers what they want?
Entirely original. My first novel — Death of a Sparrow — was written in the 1980s and it predicted global warming. It was published in 1991 with Quentin Wilton Press.
What is it about your chosen genre that you love?
I didn’t ask myself to write this book. It happened because I felt very concerned about sea level rise around the world and particularly New Zealand. And I just went on writing. It just wrote itself.
If you had to do something differently as a child or teenager to become a better writer as an adult, what would you do?
More reading.
How did publishing your first book change your writing process?
It didn’t. I’m entirely an individualist. Publication isn’t easy.
How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?
One or two. Five are published. But I might have to just let them go.